pan am games 2015

After some quality time with my sister and brother in law in Wisconsin, we returned to Canada for a couple of days before heading back to Dublin.  When we landed in Toronto, I think we would have gladly caught a plane to Dublin right then and there.

In immigration, they asked me if I had a letter from LBJ since I had the kids but no wife.  Fortunately,  I did indeed have such a letter.  Unfortunately, I didn't know the name of her solicitor, and LBJ forgot to change it from X before printing it and giving it to the solicitor to sign.  The immigration looked at the letter, then at me, and decided that no one would be dumb enough to make up that story and try to kidnap the kids.  So we were back in Canada.  We took the subway to the hotel, dropped the bags, and got a bite to eat.  The girls watched the Pan Am games on TV (diving), so they were happy.

The next day we went to the Pan Am games after a post-breakfast swim at the hotel pool.  The events nearby were sold out or not of interest to the girls (team speed skating sold out; beach volleyball not interesting to the girls) for that day, but they still had tickets for gymnastics the next day.  It was men's (not ideal for the girls), but it was the medal round for the all-round individual competition (good - medals!).  So we had a plan for the next day.

Honey I shrunk the kids!

We enjoyed the fan zone at the Pan Am games, but the kids' zone was only ok - the one at the Montreal jazz festival was definitely better.  But they did have free frozen yogurt on a stick, so we had plenty of that.  It was warm by Toronto standards, around 80.  But the girls said they were "roasting" so we headed back into town and went to the movies - Minions.  Apparently they have already forgotten how to handle heat despite being born in Kentucky.

We topped off the day with a soak in the rooftop hot-tub.  It was pretty nice - good view of the city.

We had a nice time at the gymnastics, even if it wasn't beach volleyball.  The girls got a little bored at times, but there were 4 events going on at any one time (rings, floor exercises, etc.), so boredom was minimized.  The girls were excited that an American won (for my sake, apparently, since they tell me that they are Irish!)

Enthralled by the action at the Pan Am Games

Beginning of the medal ceremony

We popped back to the hotel for a quick dinner nearby (burritos) and to pick our bags.

The trip back was a little tough because we spent nearly 2 hours - 730pm to 930pm in line to go through security.   The poor girls were wrecked (nowhere for them to sit).  Once through, they promptly fell asleep in the waiting area, and I had to wake them to board the plane (at which point poor ORBJ had an accident, so we ran to the bathroom for a change of clothes before being the last people to board the plane).  The girls slept almost the entire flight and we were thrilled to see LBJ when she got home from work.

A tribute to Mama

Another tribute to Mama