Travelling, part deux

OK, I'm back from my road trip to K-W. Here's a quick synopsis:

Friday: Spent some time in the Dana Porter arts library working on an upcoming Sunday school lesson about the life of William Carey. I realized after I'd left that while I was looking for something else, I accidentally left their antique copy of Life of William Carey, Shoemaker and Missionary by George Smith on top of the Life magazines on the periodicals floor. Oops. I'll put it back next time I'm in town.

Went from there on Part Two of my nostalgia tour of UW's campus. This was my first chance to get a look at the new(er) Village 3 in the residence area. Nothing remarkable to look at, except apparently it's air-conditioned and in demand. Went from there along the "Bible Path" to St. Jerome's University, where I checked whether a large Bible I had borrowed and then "lost" (i.e. the library lost it after I returned it) had been recovered. It had. From there to Conrad Grebel University College to check on a few books I had researched and might want to add to my collection.

From campus I walked uptown to buy a wedding card. Uptown Waterloo appears to be dying; the Waterloo Town Square shopping centre boasts "Over 65 Stores" - half empty. Shops along King St. seem to be faring much better. I dropped in at The Carpenter Shop to browse, but it seems to be turning into a Fluffy Christian Trinket Store, rather than the purveyor of serious Christian literature where I built up much of my library. (Fortunately, K-W still has an excellent resource for meaty Christian books in Mitchell Family Books.

That evening I tried to get in touch with an online friend with whom I had made tentative arrangements to have a cup of coffee. Unfortunately she apparently was not home to answer the phone, so I idled for the remainder of the night.

Saturday: The Wedding. Held in the morning at Lincoln Road Chapel, in an interesting building that used to be a local YMCA; the sanctuary is obvously a former swimming pool. (Interestingly, now that the church owns the building, they rent part of the facility back to the Y.). After a short break over noonhour, the reception was held, again in the church. Are potluck receptions a Brethren thing? The two Brethren weddings I have attended both had potluck lunches, rather than catered receptions. No matter, the spread was excellent, and arguably better than any catered reception I have attended. I provided a cucumber and onion salad consisting of two English cukes (halved and sliced), a medium Vidalia onion (coarsely diced), a small tub of plain yogurt, and a tablespoon of dill weed. Simple, but tasty. Between the wedding and the reception, I spent our spare time with many friends who had also travelled from Ottawa.

I spent Saturday evening with my travelling companion and some of his friends in the campus pro-life club, discussing (amongst other things) the recent national election, the current state of pro-life apologetics, and the reluctance of certain campus Christian groups to get involved in pro-life work.

Sunday: We left Waterloo early to visit my friend's aunt in Toronto and have breakfast. My friend is Filipino, and neither his aunt nor uncle, having only recently arrived in Canada, speaks English well. Fortunately, we both speak food, as she treated us not only to breakfast, but lunch. We then spent the afternoon at church - though a Filipino Baptist assembly, thankfully the lengthy service was conducted in English rather than Tagalog - followed by yet more Filipino food. The small congregation was exceedingly warm and friendly. I would visit them again if I have the opportunity.

Roadside Attraction Watch:After church we picked up one more friend who had stayed overnight in Toronto rather than Waterloo, and made our way back to Ottawa. En route we made a stop at a notable Roadside Attraction: the Big Apple Theme Park in Colborne. The Big Apple is the world's biggest apple statue, a three-storey fibreglass Macintosh apple with an observation deck on top. The attraction stands next to a huge pie bakery and restaurant. I had a slice of their traditional apple pie, which was quite tasty.