Canada - Day Two

"This has to be the best breakfast ever served at a Holiday Inn" - Mr. Davis

After a WONDERFUL breakfast at our hotel - endless pastries, fruits, cheeses, eggs, bacon, sausage, etc. - we boarded our bus pleasantly stuffed. We made our way to the famed Casa Lorma, the historic estate of Sir Henry Mill Pellatt, a prominent Canadian financier, industrialist, and military man. The impressive structure, started in 1911, is patterned after Medieval castles, and is now an impressive and beautiful historic site. A wedding was actually taking place as we left ( we offered to sing for some more sending money, but no luck!). One "highlight" included AJ losing a tooth when he bit into a maple candy...we'll see if the tooth fairy leaves behind money in American or Canadian currency tonight!

We then made our way to the Queen's Quay (pronounced "Key") - a nice collection of shops, restaurants, and the like in an impressive structure along the water. Around 1:30, we boarded the Kajama ("Kay-yah-mah"), a 164-foot three-masted gaff-rigged schooner. Before departing, the boys serenaded a young lady celebrating her birthday! Several of the boys were recruited to help raise and lower the sails - a very impressive feat! We had a wonderful cruise of the Toronto harbor, taking in views of an island aiport, the Ontario center, and plenty of birds. After we returned to shore, we made our way to the Hard Rock Cafe for dinner, where we were also able to watch the Indian Culture Film Festival Awards taking place outside our window in Canada's version of New York's Times Square. An impressive celebration!

We then made our way to our first concert at Our Lady of Sorrows Catholic Church. It was a BEAUTIFUL room with vibrant acoustics, and the boys sang superbly. We were all impressed with Mark's accompaniment (he didn't know he was coming on this trip five days ago!), as he did an awesome job. This was a great first concert, capped by several folks in the audience singing along when the boys sang "Un Canadien Errant" for an encore.

Exhausted, we all headed back for a good and well-deserved night's sleep (after some donuts generously provided by the host church)!