As a matter of fact, it was a happy St Patrick's Day

The family and I headed out today, going out and about for a day of something cheap, interesting educational and edifying. We did fairly well.


We got on the subway and headed downtown. We stopped off at St Patrick's, conveniently located by a subway station which, by some amazing coincidence, is also called S. Patrick. We stopped and prayed some prayers for the intentions of the Pope, and headed off. We went down the median of University Avenue, and were stopping to take photographs of the monuments that dot the median when we discovered a problem. We had meant to photograph everything in sight, but were unable to, as the cameras- both of them- were out of power.


We continued on, walking past city hall, watched the skaters at Nathan Philip's Square, most of whom were wearing t-shirts for the warm weather, and moved on. We went to St James Anglican Cathedral to listen to the free afternoon organ recital. They have one every Tuesday, but I usually can't make due to work, so today would be my only chance for a while. Plus, the idea of a bunch of Irish in green heading into an Anglican Cathedral on St Patrick's Day was an ideal that perversely appealed to us. As we walked in through the gift shop younger waved at the attendant and called out "Happy St Patrick's Day!" The recital was delightful, at least for me. Elder fell asleep, Younger played with the hymnal and Puff had to leave. Something in the cathedral was driving her allergies wild.


We left and headed back to city hall for lunch, which consisted of various food picked up off street vendors. The family said they wanted to "walk around" so I took them literally and lead them over to the labyrinth near the Eaton's center. By the labyrinth is an old Anglican church dedicated to the Holy Trinity. To people my age, it is most famous as the place where the Cowboy Junkies recorded the Trinity Session album.


From there we just gadded about the town, going, in Younger and Elder's phrase, someplace "we've never been before." We popped into the old city hall, because it was there and we had never been inside. We only got in the front door, as it is now courthouse and therefore guarded. We headed to the school elder will be attending next year (Where does the time go?) and popped in to pray at another church, this time St Basil's (fifth Catholic church built in Toronto and second oldest still standing. It's inside is actually a miniature of the oldest one still standing- the Cathedral) and from there we wandered around Queen's Park, checking out the statues of significant dead people. I resolved to return one day with the kids' cameras fully recharged, and will take enough pictures to bore my readers for months. By then we were tired from all the walking, and turned towards home.

Along the way we laughed, told jokes, told stories about the past. I carried younger on my shoulders and listened to elder complain that I no longer carry her. Puff laughed when things were funny and looked stern when the children didn't behave as well as they might. It was, as I said, a good day.