LUCKY ME

Know this. If you happen to be with Jeffrey Elliott at ANY kind of function where there's something to be won, he or someone he's with is going to win it. Last June when My sister Mary from California was visiting me in Chicago, Jeffrey and I took her to the Windy City Idol finale. Call me a player if you like, but I knew just how to play this one. Just before dropping our door prize stubs into the big white box, I turned to my sister and said "OK, so if I win I'll take you, and if you win you take me".

That night Mary won a trip for 2 to Toronto/Niagara...

It took almost a year [and a pending expiration date!] to get there, but last week Mary and I went on our maiden trip to Canada. The morning after we arrived we wandered our way down to the Proud FM radio station to meet with morning show hosts Deb Pearce and Adam Lawrence, who let us sit in on the last half hour of their show. They were super sweet and gave Mary and I some great tips on where to eat and have a couple of cocktails... Hair of The Dog was delicious guys, thanks! Deb, see you in Chicago in June!

We did some very "touristy" things but didn't push ourselves too hard. The Royal Ontario Museum is an absolute must, the harbour front was gorgeous, and you haven't challenged your capacity for vertigo until you've gone to the top of the CN Tower, which is the worlds tallest building. The thing I happened to notice at every turn in Toronto was the sight of people holding hands. Seriously, I never saw anything like it. Both straight and gay, the sightings became so frequent that Mary and I came up with the code "white truck" for them, and turned it into a little game. If Toronto is the world's "first city of hand holding", then it's my kind of town!

For the last 2 days of our trip, we journeyed from Toronto to Niagara on The Lake, which is about 1/2 an hour from Niagara Falls. I'm not sure what I was expecting to see, but beautifully manicured Niagara on The Lake was brimming with the charm of another place and time, and Niagara Falls was kinda like the Wisconsin Dells. Meets Vegas...so we played the quarter slots for a hot minute, and I won cab fare back to the hotel. When in Rome, right?

It's interesting that in our entire lives, my sister and I had never taken a vacation together.

Mary was in high school when I was born, so by the time I was old enough to wander, she was busy raising a family. While I may have played my cards right that night last summer, being able to share this adventure with her trumps the actual winnings.

Lucky me.