So, yeah … the boyfriend (David loves it when I call him that) and I traveled to Toronto over New Year’s.

There was a lot of pre-trip craziness with work that had me in a near meltdown. It seems like vacations are always a pain in the ass in that respect. There always seems to be some last minute rush job that has you throwing things around your office, hyperventilating, and crying out of frustration. Yay.

We did eventually make it down to Atlanta for the overnight stay before catching out flight the next morning.

The hotel we stayed in was insanely swank.

Friday morning we were at the airport at 6:00 am for our 9:00 am flight. I hate flying, so there was liquid courage flowing in the Delta lounge and on the airplane before take off. It’s fun to be buzzed at 8 o’clock in the morning.

The flight was (thankfully) uneventful. Yay!

Upon arrival, we Uber-ed over to Andrew & Kathleen’s place and hung out for a bit. Andrew is David’s best friend from high school. We walked around the neighborhood and saw Casa Loma. the Baldwin Steps, and the Artscape Wychwood Barns.

Casa Loma (obviously) …

Reading history at the Baldwin Steps …

We also hit up the ATM for some Canadian currency. The bills are made of some sort of plastic and have clear, see-through sections running through them. Definitely a switch from boring old US dollars.

After a tasty dinner of Pizza Pizza, it was off to our hotel (which was nowhere near as swank as the one in Atlanta) where, much to David’s chagrin, I crashed early. Old Fart Mode was in full effect.

Saturday, we kicked around in the morning and ended up at the Bata Shoe Museum. A&K had told us it was a cool museum. David and I were skeptical, but we had time to kill before meeting Andrew for lunch. For the record, you should totally check out the shoe museum. It’s really interesting and fun!

Then we met Andrew for a super tasty lunch at KINKA IZAKAYA on Bloor St. We had Sake and ate with our shoes off. Super fun!

After lunch, we met up with Kathleen and went up to Yorkdale to go to the Lego store, catch a movie, and get dinner. I don’t know that I have even seen a mall that big with that many people in it.

On the way back to the hotel, David and I stopped into Storm Crow Manor which claims to be the nerdiest bar in Canada. It is indeed pretty nerdy. I had Butterbeer and we rolled a 20-sided die for random shots. Pretty damn nerdy.

We also stopped in a Woody’s to check out Toronto’s landmark gay bar. Pretty cool place and somewhat nerdy that night too. They were showing Alien and Blade Runner on the televisions. We were bummed to find out we missed watching the Best Ass Contest by one day.

Back at the hotel …

Sunday, we woke up to some snow. Yay!

We beat it over to the Royal Ontario Museum and had a fun time checking out the special exhibition on spiders plus all their regular exhibits on natural history and ancient art.

SPIDERS!!!!

And DINOSAURS!!!

We had planned to go to the Art Galllery of Ontario as well this day. I was pretty museum-ed out by the time we got done at the ROM. We had lunch wherein I tried poutine for the first time. It’s pretty damn amazing. We then went on a record store quest (more on this in another post). As a bonus, we came across a cool bookstore and video game store. We also made a quick through Eaton Centre. Yep. It’s another ridiculously huge mall with way too many people crammed in it. Afterwards, we went to Andrew and Kathleen’s to hang out with one of their friends. It was relaxed evening (with way too much gin) after a pretty hectic day.

On New Year’s Eve (Monday), I went and toured Casa Loma while David and Andrew ventured into Chinatown for lunch and a return visit to the video game store we had come across the day before.

Casa Loma was pretty sweet. I love grand old mansions. It would have been better had there not been 5,000 kids running around due to their holiday Nutcracker presentation that was still going on. One of the things I had not realized was just how many movies have been filmed there.

Here is Downtown Toronto as seen from Casa Loma’s Norman Tower.

After the tour, it was back to Andrew and Kathleen’s for a low-key New Year’s Eve with takeout Thai and junk food. It was this night that I tried All Dressed chips and fell in love with them. Canada really does rock! I really dug the Canadian New Year’s Eve celebration that was on the CBC. It’s much nicer than that overdone Time Square insanity. Nice thing too is that the TTC (Toronto’s mass transit system) was free from 7 pm until 7 am. So, we got a free ride back to the hotel.

New Year’s Day is apparently a bit of a crap shoot in Canada with lots of places being closed for the holiday.

While foraging for coffee that morning, I ran across some gay Pepsi at Loblaws. We were staying in the gayborhood after all.

I also discovered that Ketchup chips are a thing. Weird (and gross).

The main tourist destinations were open for sure and we decided to take in the Art Gallery of Ontario. Along with the permanent exhibition, we saw the fascinating (and depressing) Anthropocene exhibit along with the Mickalene Thomas excellent solo show.

Anthropocene …

One of Mickelene Thomas‘ pieces …

Here’s Downtown Toronto as seen from the back of the AGO.

We grabbed a delicious fried rice and dumpling lunch in Chinatown. The wind was particularly cold this day, so we beat it back to the hotel before meeting A&K for dinner near Yonge-Dundas Square.

Here we are being even more touristy.

After dinner, at the suggestion of A&K, we nipped into Eaton Centre for some Sweet Jesus. Holy Crap. This place has the BEST ICE CREAM EVER! I loved it so much I stole some spoons.

We said our goodbyes to A&K and beat it back to Woody’s for some final gayness before leaving the city. After Woody’s we ended up in the Church St. Garage because we saw some queens performing inside. We had a drink there, I tipped the performing queen and got a kiss … and then it was back to the hotel to finish packing for the return trip the next day.

Everything was packed up and ready to go, so why not take another hotel bed selfie?

The next day, I was not nervous at the airport. Yeah. See how casual David is? Ugh.

The flight back was a bit bumpy but we landed okay and survived the 3-1/2+ hour drive back home in the rain.

Now Bowser is home, the work week is underway … and I am already ready to go on vacation again. Though I doubt David is up for another round of my travel craziness quite so soon. 😛

And thanks to David for letting me use a lot of his photos. I was very lazy about taking pictures on this trip. Probably because I had gloves on the whole time.

Last week was a bit insane with Christmas, a work trip to Tennessee and then vacation to Toronto for New Years! I am a bit tuckered out this morning but will be back with some details once I get my work stuff caught up.

At this point, I suppose we should just move to Gatlinburg. 😛

We end up with 9-1/2″ – 10″. Yay!

Guess who went drinking moonshine again this past weekend …

So what do you do when you have a paid day off? Why … go back to Gatlingburg, of course!

We hit up Sugarlands, Doc Collier, and Ole Smoky for some moonshine tasting.

I particularly love the people on the other side of the counter from us at Ole Smoky. That kid looks like he sure wants a sip of that sweet, sweet ‘shine.

I sure do like the Purple Rain that Sugarlands makes at their cocktail bar.

We finally did the Rugged Ropes Adventure Course at Gatlin’s. It was a ton of fun.

And what trip to Gatlinburg is complete without getting the crap scared out of you at the Mysterious Mansion? We love this place!

This past weekend, the Hunt clan came up from Florida and we hit up Baconfest over in Asheville at Highland Brewing. We had not been to this event since 2015. There was lots of good bacon and pork inspired treats and, of course, tasty Highland brews. I *might* have had a little too much to drink. A & I loved the camo Huddle House koozies that came in our swag bags. We also snagged Krispy Creme hats at the dessert area. Who doesn’t want to be stylin’ with Krispy Kreme (and bacon and beer)? Such a fun day with awesome people!!!

In other news … the Boyfriend and I went for a  Tourist Trap Weekend in everyone’s favorites place(s) … Pigeon Forge and Gatlinburg, TN. I have never been a huge fan of Pigeon Forge as it’s just a big tacky strip of touristy shops and activities. But, I have always had a soft spot for Gatlinburg (no less tacky or touristy but somehow more charming).

We took off Friday after work and drove through the Great Smoky Mountains National Park to get there. The Tennessee side is still recovering from the Chimney Tops II Fire that ravaged the park (and ultimately the Gatlinburg/Pigeon Forge area) last November.

Some of the things we did while in Gatlinburg:
– Breakfast at the Log Cabin Pancake House
– Moonshine at Sugarlands Distilling Company
– Ripley’s Aquarium of the Smokies
– Moonshine at Doc Collier Moonshine
– Food and Drinks at Smoky Mountain Brewery
– Ripley’s Believe It or Not! Odditorium
– Rode the Skylift
– Toured Ripley’s Haunted Adventure
– Survived Gatlinburg’s Mysterious Mansion
– Window Shopped

Some things we did in Pigeon Forge:
– Saw an Alligator at a Tacky Gift Shop
– Ate at The Old Mill Restaurant
– Moonshine at Old Forge Distillery
– Drove Around to See the Sights
– Dipped in the Hotel Hot Tub and Pool

Then it was back to North Carolina via a Deliverance-style backwoods Tennessee trip courtesy of the GPS.

******
As you can probably guess by the activities list, we did end up spending too much money on moonshine. I ended up with Coffee and Oatmeal Cookie moonshine from Old Forge AND Root Beer Float moonshine from Doc Collier’s. We did window shop in Ole Smoky but somehow managed to not do any tasting or purchasing. Such will power!

We can report that Gatlinburg’s Mysterious Mansion was more fun than Ripley’s Haunted Adventure (at least we thought so). It’s more maze-like with rooms that you have to figure out how to get out of while people are running around scaring the crap out of you. It’s super fun!

Here we are before getting the pants scared off of us in the Mysterious Mansion.

AND … we stumbled into Gamer’s Link, a really sweet board and card game store in Gatlinburg. They have a great selection of games and I would recommend checking them out if you visit the area.

I was just tipsy enough after our moonshine tasting at Doc Collier’s that I pulled the trigger on Arkham Horror. It’s a massive (and expensive) cooperative game based on the writings of H.P. Lovecraft.


I can’t wait to get some friends over and try this beast out!

Yeah. I kinda love this place.