Notes on Toronto:

1. Along a main thoroughfare, the sound of ambulances and police cars rang through the air at one point while my friend and I were walking to lunch. A storefront right along the busy, noisy street, "The Toronto Pain and Headache Clinic." Perhaps not quite the right location.

2. We took a ferry out to Ward's Island, where Babe Ruth hit his first professional home run. It's a couple of miles off the mainland, in Lake Ontario. While we were waiting for the ferry, we had about a half hour to kill and milled around in the lobby of the Sheraton hotel right on the waterfront. I noticed their calendar of events and thought it would be fun to see what was going on at the National Convention of Urologists. I thought maybe there'd be some fun giveaways, like stress balls... shaped like... stress balls? Anyway, I tried to look like I wasn't crashing their convention, but the exhibitors were basically done for the day and packing up, and no such luck. All I got were a couple of brochures for procedures I hope no one I know ever need, and a Hershey's Kiss.

3. The ferry ride was nice, even though it's a little chilly this weekend, and then we walked down the boardwalk on the island, past some charming cottages, and onto a set of swings near a farm filled with geese. Then we made our way back to the dock, and it turned out they were filming a newscast on the island, for a channel called Global. Susan, Jim, the weather guy, and the sports guy, were standing on the shore, the lake and the city skyline behind them, and they went through their script a few times until they got it right. They did a bunch of takes where they fake-laughed at the same joke about how Susan got to pilot the ferry. Never saw a local newscast taped before, so it was kind of neat. Big crew. Makeup people, guys holding screens to deflect light, etc.