To Canada

 

The great view from the Toronto Islands Park

 

My wife became a U.S. citizen last summer in a ceremony in Fargo. Americans don't realize how privileged they are to hold a passport that gets them into almost any country. Getting to Canada with her Philippines passport would have meant a time consuming application and a sizable fee. People from large numbers of countries in the world are essentially "locked out" of rich countries like the U.S. and Canada. That is why people get in rickety boats or walk across deserts to get here, because there is no other way.

The trip started with uploading our Covid vaccination, passports, and travel plans to an online site called ArriveCan the day before. The three-hour drive from Williston to Regina goes from the rolling hills of Western North Dakota to flat lake bottom like prairie reminiscent of the Red River Valley where I grew up. 

The transition takes place around Weyburn, Saskatchewan, the only town of any size along the route. Weyburn is famous for being the former home of Tommy Douglas, former premier of Saskatchewan, and father of the Canadian health care system. What started as a provincial system spread to the rest of Canada to create a system that though not without problems, most Canadians wouldn't trade for ours. An hour north of the North Dakota border, you can visit a statue of Tommy in Weyburn installed by his grandson, actor Kiefer Sutherland. 

Regina is a city with a population of 230,000 that sits atop one of the most empty areas of the U.S. To find a comparably sized city, one must drive to Fargo, Sioux Falls in the east, or as far as Salt Lake and Spokane in the west. 

We stayed one night and got a feel for a city that we will visit again for its diversity of food options, filipino stores and restaurants and a variety of things to do because of its size. 

Our other reason for visiting was to fly to Toronto for a four day trip. I had been watching flight prices and comparing local flights from Williston and nearby airports to the same flights out of Regina. Most flights were cheaper from Regina than from local airports, and regional flights are expensive. I once served on a national committee that had members from across the country and even Hawaii. Even the flight from Hawaii to the mainland was cheaper than mine from North Dakota. I questioned and still question the ethics of gratuitous flights in the age of climate change, but this is the only flight we have taken since 2019. The lack of sustainable travel options like high speed trains is a problem that needs to be solved for the future.

As the spring rolled on, our trip to the Philippines was washed out by across-the-board flight inflation and the still looming specter of Covid across Asia. I found a trip on discount carrier Flair Airlines for less than 300 dollars U.S. for two tickets to Toronto. It would be a good, short getaway and a good test of flying in Canada for a later time. 

Regina airport has the feel of the smaller airports of North Dakota and is built on a human scale. Flair is one of those carriers that almost comically charge extra for a seat and everything else. We brought one carry-on for two of us, and smaller under-seat bags, which was more than enough for the trip.

Public spaces like the Go train and Subway were still mandatory masking. The un- politicized approach to masks in Canada was refreshing.

We arrived in Toronto after a three hour flight, and I made my first travel mistake. When planning on the Internet, cross-referencing information, sites, and maps, it is hard to get a feel for the "lay of the land" until one is actually on the ground. My bias and love of taking urban train transit over other forms sometimes gets in the way of what is most practical. An Uber ride to our hotel would have been more efficient than taking the Pearson to Union express train downtown and struggling to navigate the massive hub of Union Station with its subways, commuter trains, and cross country lines. Of course, it wouldn't have been as fun for a transit geek like me. We jumped on the double-decker Go train that heads north to distant suburbs, with its first stop being our exit at Downsview Park, which sits next to the Montecassino Hotel. Getting off the train it was only a short walk to our hotel through the park's greenery. 

The hotel is one of those vast conference hotels that have seen their heyday and are now relegated to providing low cost rooms (If you think 110 dollars is low cost). The place was massive and had the feel of being relatively empty. Instead of the front desk being on the ground floor, you must go to the second floor to arrive at the desk situated in a bizarre windowless room. Throughout our stay, a distant sound like a man getting punched in the stomach was reminiscent of the scene in Kafka's The Trial and the whole place had the feel of The Shining.

I wish we had more time to eat at more great places in this second most diverse city in the world with 250 ethnic groups.

 

The location of a hotel near a train line is a strategy I have used several times when visiting large cities. Staying in the center is often cost-prohibitive, but a city with good subway and train connections allows staying further out along a convenient train line thirty minutes away from the center. A two-minute walk from the hotel connected us to the Go commuter train and the city subway system. 

 The district of Toronto where we stayed was North York, a multicultural borough of almost a million people just north of downtown. The hotel and area was quiet, with a Walmart a half mile away and many restaurants nearby. We would stay there again. 

We walked across the street the next morning and jumped on the subway. It was the most bizarre subway station I had ever been in because its sprawling area was devoid of people at prime commuting hours except for one lone man. We rode the train downtown and spent the day exploring the environs of the CN Tower and Toronto Islands and getting a feel for the city. Downtown Toronto has the feel of Chicago with its dominating waterfront and forest of skyscrapers but lacks the beautiful walkable waterfront spaces like Millennium Park.

Staying at Downsview Park allowed us convenient subway access.

 

Tired, we rode the Go commuter train back and relaxed in the hotel. Just a week after finishing the school year, we were feeling the release that comes a day or two into a vacation away from home when tension leaves the body and exhaustion comes to the surface. I walked down the road to grab the curiously named Boston Pizza, a tasty chain that plays off the idea that a restaurant named after a faraway city denotes something good. Being a fan of local spins on pizza, it was decent if not exceptional.

We didn't accomplish as much as we would have liked with the exhaustion surfacing from our bodies after a year of teaching. Still, sometimes the luxury of lazing around a hotel room is excellent therapy, especially after being cooped up for two years during the times of Covid caution.

 

The next day, we took an Uber to a neighborhood with a few interesting stores and Chinatown, where we ate at a great little hole in the wall place. 

Overall, my best meal was a falafel, hummus, and tabbouleh at a small stand in the labyrinth of tunnels that undergirds the whole of central Toronto. Just the tunnels would be worth an exploratory day if there were enough time.

We only had three days and three nights because the trip was so short. I tried to play around with different options, but no matter how I worked it, the price for the trip went up to double just by adding a day. I somehow got a lucky booking at a time before flights went through the roof, and the exchange rate with the Canadian dollar was outstanding.

Later on the third day, we met with a friend of Gina's from the Philippines who worked in Toronto. The great thing about filipinos is that they know or have relatives in most major cities of the world. We took an Uber to a Chinese place and then explored more of the city, even stopping at a friend's restaurant called Mommie Raquel's Gourmet House to have some halo halo.

The following day, we called a cab because, for some reason, our Uber and Lyft apps wouldn't work to get us to the airport by 3 a.m. so that we could make a 6 a.m. flight. A good quick trip and a good experience. We will revisit Regina and fly from there. Canada will be our go to option for flying again.

 

 

View of CN Tower from our hotel room window.