Thanks to my buddy chexfan for allowing me to steal the title! Immitation is the most sincere form of flattery.

Friday, July 26.

I never actually went to bed Thursday night, so I logged off of chat about 4am, and finished packing and drove up to the airport. Parked at my favorite offsite place, and took their shuttle, which dropped me off right in front of the US Airways Elite checkin in Terminal C. There was no one in line, so I walked right up to an agent and checked in all the way to Toronto. I asked if the flight was oversold, and she said no, so I got my boarding passes and cleared security without any hassles. By this time it was only 5:30, so I decided to try and get on the 6am flight to PIT. (I was booked on the 7am.) When I got to gate B11, I remembered that this was a 767, so I not only got onto the empty flight, I burned an upgrade coupon to sit in the Envoy cabin.

US421 PHL-PIT First Class
I was one of two revenue passengers in first class on this early flight, one of about 30 overall. I sat down in my Envoy seat and was offered my choice of pre-departure beverages. We promptly took off, and the FA came around for drink orders and passed around the snack basket. By that time, it was time to land in PIT, where we taxied almost back to Harrisburg and parked in the B terminal.

I deplaned and walked over to the end of the A terminal where the Express flights leave from. I asked the agent if the flight was oversold (it had been showing all 0's for a week), but she said no. I booted up my laptop and fired up my cell phone and soon was connected to the internet at a speedy 19200bps. I checked, and sure enough, the flight was now Y4 M4 B4. Go figure. I played around online for an hour or so online before they called my flight. I filled out my customs card and a gate-check tag for my rollaboard in the gate area before boarding. We boarded the ERJ for the short hop up to YYZ.

US5762 PIT-YYZ Single Class
I had pre-booked the exit row aisle on the 2-side. The whole row was empty but at the last second a gentleman and his wife boarded. I slid over to the window so that they could sit "next" to each other. We had a really great FA on this flight. He was very enthusiastic, turning his safety lecture into a comedy routine, with all the favorites: choose which kid you love more, smoking is allowed on the wings, etc. The flight was filled with lots of kids headed to World Youth Day, so they got a huge kick out of it, and he got a round of applause. Once up in the air, he started a drink service, but by the time he got to row 5 or 6, we got the "20 minutes left"
ding from the cockpit, so he finished with lightning speed. He even had time for a pretzel service before we landed. We arrived at YYZ about 10 minutes early and had a quick taxi to terminal 3.

We all deplaned and grabbed our carryons for the long trek to customs, up and down escalators, and across terminal 3. When we finally got there, every line was packed 50 people deep. The lines, which were full of kids, moved slowly, since few of them had the proper documents ready. Once I finally got up to the counter, I was stamped into the country without even a second glance. I bought a bottle of water to change my C$20 from last trip into smaller coins for bus fare,and made my way to post 30 for the TTC "rocket" shuttle. Rocket my ..., it took 45 minutes to arrive. Boarded the bus, which was VERY crowded, and sat down for the 25 minute ride to Kipling, where I picked up the subway to downtown. Transferred at Spadina to the other line, and got off at Osgoode, where it was a 1-block walk to the Sheraton Centre Toronto. I walked into the lobby, and was directed towards the SPG/Club Floor check-in. This is a separate room off the the left of the main check-in, staffed by two friendly agents. I was checked in quickly, and upgraded to club room corner room as a SPG Gold. The agent explained all the benefits of club level (club lounge hours, hors d'oeuvres, breakfast, free pool access, and such) and sent me on my way. The room was adequate, not huge, but fine for my needs. I unloaded my bags and called flyerwife to see what she and Sean were up to. They were at the Hockey Hall of Fame, so I decided to take a nap until they arrived for lunch. I set up the DataValet high-speed internet ($10CDN/day) and checked email and IM for a bit, then dozed off until they called me to meet in 10 minutes downstairs. I ambled downstairs to greet flyerwife, B747-437B, kluau88, and Darren & Mary. We walked downstairs to the PATH and the closest food court, where Sean and I had gyros, and various other people had asian food and McDonalds. We talked for a bit, and then I went upstairs for some more sleep and arranged to meet before dinner. I couldn't sleep, so I walked through the PATH to the Eaton Centre Mall, but it was mobbed with kids, so i quickly left, and hit 2 or 3 Starbucks in search of a mug for a friend. I got back to the hotel just in time for hors d'oeuvres in the club lounge. I had a few plates of munchies (vegetables, cheese and crackers, and various hot items) and was getting ready to exit when kluau88 shows up. I had a few more plates of food with him, and we got on FT chat for a few minutes from the club lounge computer. As we're getting ready to leave, Darren & Mary show up and we have a drink with them before we all go down to meet Lauri and Sean to head to dinner. We grabbed a few cabs since it was raining, and made our way through traffic and closed streets towards the Old Spaghetti Factory. We arrived and were greeted by SanDiego1K, Guy Betsy, and Shareholder who were in the bar area. We were quickly seated, and the rest of the group joined us for a lovely and very inexpensive dinner. Since I ate quite a few snacks and filled up on the delicious sourdough bread, I barely touched my vegetable lasagna and had most of it wrapped up. After dinner, a few of us headed over to Hy's Steakhouse for cigars and drinks. Catman had a Montecristo and Black Russians, while Sean and I had a delicious Godiva white chocolate cordial. We parted ways when they kicked us out at midnight, and the Westin group headed south while the Sheraton group headed north. We arrived at the Sheraton to see people milling around and a host of fire trucks and ambulances, but everything was ok, and we were let right back in. I wanted to grab a nightcap, but the bar was packed, so I just went upstairs and watched TV for a bit before turning in.