We looked for hotel accommodation in the downtown area to be as close as possible to the university residence our granddaughter would be living in during her first academic year at University of Toronto. Our additional goal was to find a venue that would accept the presence of pets. And the one we came across was indeed no more than a brisk 20-minute walk from the residence, evidently one of the newest hotels in the downtown area, smack in the middle of Chinatown, a stroll to Kensington Market, the Art Gallery of Ontario (opposite directions) and just what we were looking for.

Interior, Green Beanery

We perused its amenities online, mostly to find where we'd be parking while there. We packed what we thought would be needed for a few days' stay, and rose earlier than usual on Sunday morning with no appetite for breakfast, save for Riley who always has an appetite for any meal, the more and the more often, the better.

The drive was uneventful enough, under overcast skies that occasionally opened up to a shower and several times serious rain events, but nothing spectacular. Once on the 401 the amount of traffic in the opposite lane was unendingly full; in our lane, en route to Toronto, not so much, a phenomenon we attributed to the Labour Day long weekend when people were streaming out of Toronto and environs to take advantage of a three-day holiday, and the end of summer vacation opportunities for many.

We stopped briefly at a rest stop, to give Riley a break, not from the monotony, since that doesn't seem to bother him at his age, but so he could walk about on some grass briefly and well, do what he needed to. Although we too needed to stretch our legs, we still didn't feel like having anything ourselves to break the night fast, so resumed our drive sans breakfast. When we arrived at the outlying areas of the city it presented itself as a landscape of towering high rises, the Darlington nuclear plant, endless construction cranes, hotels, condominiums, all reaching toward the cloud-grey sky.

Traffic on the benighted Don Valley Parkway was atrocious; backed-up, packed, confusing and infuriating, but quintessentially 'big city'. We made our way to Bloor Street and tracked along past the viaduct and onward until we reached Bathurst Street, where we parked and crossed the street to get to the Green Beanery from which my husband had ordered twenty pounds of raw, organic, free-trade coffee online a few days earlier. It was being stored for pick-up by us at that location.

On our way there we viewed an endless line-up of high-priced boutique and luxury-goods shops. The streets were packed with people of all ages, with an emphasis on youth, style and entitlement. University students tended to walk in groups of girls, or mixed-gender, and many were on bicycles, weaving through the bumper-to-bumper traffic. They all looked confident, self-assured, youthfully bursting with life and opportunities, a treat for the eyes.

That done, we drove to Spadina Avenue, to our Lucky 8 hotel destination. Toronto, despite our long absence of at least fifteen years, looked familiar enough; we knew all the landmarks, and should, since we grew up there. We weren't thrilled at the aspect of the Royal Ontario Museum, its once-charming oriental courtyard covered over with a series of glazing representing glass pyramids. But then, we saw quite a few architectural changes, some of which seemed amusingly whimsical, (Art Gallery of Ontario case in point) others obsessively 'post-modern' in styles that left us unimpressed.

We drove down Grange Avenue to the parking for the hotel, and eventually made our way through a labyrinth of parking 'floors' to reach the one designated for the hotel. And it was then that I discovered, though my husband might have been aware, that the parking represented three levels underground, and there were several layers over that of shopping concourses, above which was located the hotel itself; from the atrium of the hotel you could look down on a crowded, busy, colourful landscape of tiered shops. Interesting during the day, spooky at night.