15 June: Just before landing in Boston, we saw these funny clouds - we thought they looked like hundreds of cauliflower florets sticking out...

Our connecting flight to Toronto was cancelled at the last minute, so we ended up staying overnight in Boston and catching the first flight (at 6:30AM!)
16 June: Arrived in town safely. After a brief shopping spree in the morning, we grabbed a cab to the trendy Drake Hotel cafe to meet Adair. On the way along the arty (but not pretencious arty) Queen Street West, we spotted a couple of houses, their front decorated with dirty old bicycle frames and wheels. And here at the Drake, they have an installation with (ok, much cleaner looking) bike frames too - so bikes are obviously the "in" thing in Toronto...
Adair turned up with some prezzies for us... (Now, we're under a strict instruction not to put any photo of her online - but I hope this much is acceptable...)

(Clockwise from L): a tin of cashew nuts coated in maple sugar (heavenly!), British Columbian "Lucid Dream Tea" (for remembering your dreams!!), a mystery item, a Drake Hotel shortbread biscuit in Canadian flag design (bought at the cafe counter), Akiko's Prossecco...

The mystery item contained a bag full of arty tin badges, with Toronto subway station names on them. Usako decided to wear the Canadian flag sticky tape on her bag when we opened the package.
After a couple of drinks and exchanging news and gossips, we grabbed another cab to our mutual video artist friend Lorna's place. She's prepared a spread of snacks (and a bottle of Cava) for us to enjoy in her peaceful back garden, over more news and gossips.

UsaKousa loved this selection of fruit & chilli chocolate truffles!!

Lorna's cat sleeping under the trees... awww :-)

Lorna has a beautiful house, and a big collection of local art - this littel hot dog guy was hanging in her kitchen.

And her sitting in front of the house with UsaKousa, as we say good-bye and wait for our cab.
In the evening, we hit Nami in Adelaide Street, one block away from our hotel, for some sashimi, tempura, sushi, Asahi Super Dry and Sauvignon Blanc. The portions are as big here in Canada as in the USA - you can see these prawns are nearly as long as the chopsticks, and we got... 6? of those, as well as big slices of vegetables (and watercress for Akiko!!)

To Part 2