Toronto Trip 2024

 We celebrated Mother's Day by giving J three days away from the kids again this year. I crossed the border with them (proudly bearing their own brand new passports for the first time across international lines) after a morning of church and then sitting through an RPO concert, and we went adventuring again in Canada. 

This is the third time that I've taken the boys across the border by myself, and we've had a great trip each time. (This was the first time that Canadian customs gave me any trouble about not having J along--"be sure to bring a note from the other parent next time.")

We stayed a little north of downtown off of Yonge, and our (very thin-walled) hotel had a balcony

Dinner out the first night. All Felix wanted to eat the whole time we were there were hot dogs, but he did say that if burgers tasted like ones that we had here that he would be interested in them more regularly.

Breakfast for the boys in the hotel lobby after we avoided paying for the gourmet ($49) hot breakfast buffet that Owen started helping himself to while my back was turned.

"I found a pet!" (He has a rubber dragon puppet on his hand.)

They played in this park across from the hotel each morning after walking out to places where I could find a real cup of coffee.

James was super distressed by the garbage in the pool. And by the fact that I wouldn't let him pick it up. Or bring it home to add to his seltzer can collection.

Picture for Mom. This trip was in many ways about building traveling muscles for James' London trip this summer. He says that he thinks it helped.

Shawarma for lunch, which we couldn't finish. Owen was pretty morose through this meal, and then admitted how much all of the homelessness he was seeing bothered him. He packed up our (substantial) leftovers in a carryout box and gave them to a homeless man a few blocks away. Felix would have preferred a hot dog.

Looking for the subway, found something more fun.

James watching the trains switching at Union Station on our way to a Blue Jays game. 

Tried to do a panorama picture and boys were too excited to get into the stadium to hold still for a second attempt.

Maybe the highlight of the trip for these guys. Because we were among the first few hundred fans in the stadium we all got free jerseys. We ended up sitting in the upper deck for over an hour before the game started.

Pretty nice view for a game. We passed the hour by doing a crossword on my phone, which was the highlight of my trip. 
"Complete the popular Beyonce lyrics: "...Cause if you liked it then you should have put a____", 8 letters. Owen: "Marriage"
"Bury one's____ in the sand" Felix: "Brother"
"When I Was Your ____," song by Bruno Mars, 3 letters, starts with M. James: "Mom?"

Blue Jays won, 9-3. Several double plays, several homeruns. It was a great game.

Finally!

Riding very crowded trains to get back to the hotel.

Eating pizza on the balcony and reading Asterix to finish out the day. (Which was Victoria Day!)

Back out on the balcony again first thing the next morning and eager to go swimming.

We have the same photo from 2019. Can't find a way to upload it. Felix looks very young and is howling because I'm making him hold still for a photo.

Felix and Big George pose in front of Monkey Sushi

Found out after we'd picked up the sushi and walked 4 blocks that they only gave us chopsticks. Managed to cadge a few spoons from a coffee shop but they pretty much made the sushi and rice bit work exclusively with the chopsticks. Not bad for first-timers.

Back in the States, their first time at Old Fort Niagara

"This must have been where the soldiers put their TV!"

Shortly before meeting the reenactor to watch him load and fire his musket. (Or, as Felix called it, his "muskrat.")

In the bakery. "I'm Mom!"

And that was it! We stopped for ice cream at Circle R on the way out of Kuckville, but then we were Irondequoit-bound.

Lascaux

 I read an interesting book about the cave paintings at Lascaux last week by the French art historian Jean-Jacques Lefrere. I've always been curious about those paintings, especially after reading the first chapter of Chesterton's "Orthodoxy" in college. Whatever we know about cavemen, despite all of our caricatures of and speculation about them, is as simple and as profound as this: in the beginning, human beings had the impulse to make art.

Lefrere was puzzled by the technical aspects of the cave art--namely, that it didn't have a right to be as good or as consistent as it apparently is. (There are cave drawings separated by over 17,000 years and hundreds of miles that are remarkably similar.)

It was a great book in which he slowly laid out what we know about the paintings:

They are all in profile. They are all of animals, and there is never any vegetation or other landscape elements. The horns, antlers, legs, and bodies are remarkably well painted, without any apparent hesitation or correction. A number of paintings are started, but unfinished. The paintings all appear in locations in the caves that are far, far away from any natural light. The paintings are on unusually textured and irregular surfaces, very rarely on a blank/flat space. The paintings vary wildly in size (some are enormous, some very small) but all have a harmony of style and proportion.

Lefrere speculated that the paintings were done not by freehand or from practiced technique, but by placing a carved statue of an animal before a clay lamp (hence reindeer, bison, and horses rather than rabbits, frogs, or snakes) and by painting in the projected shadow on the illuminated wall.

The boys and I decided to give it a test. We checked out a book about the discovery of the caves from the library, then set about building a fire last week to make ourselves enough charcoal. Not having any berries or madder on hand, we colored the charcoal with food coloring, and then blocked off all of the light coming in through the basement windows. 

At first we tried to light a paraffin lamp, but it was stinky and hot. A flashlight worked fine for a light source. (Except when an older brother thoughtlessly bumped the chair it was up against. Hence the unfinished reindeer.)

Owen's favorite part of getting the charcoal

Felix, who blistered his hand after putting it on the chimneia

Projecting the shadow. We had a cow, a horse, and a leopard

Cave-child

Finished work