Convocation Day

Once again we were up before 6am to head downtown Toronto for Zach’s convocation ceremony at the nostalgic University of Toronto Convocation Hall.

Hoping not to wake the Dias family, I quietly tiptoed downstairs to the front door and outside to fetch my shoes and belt from the trailer. Success, I didn’t wake the family puppy, Maple a Golden Retriever Doodle. As soon as I opened the front door, Maple barked! She’s very cute and always wanting to jump up and say hi. Way to go Mal! You were successful in waking the whole household. When I returned, Chris was up and made me a coffee. Zach had a quick bit of granola cereal with milk – he’s a pro at pouring milk from bags now – and we were out the door on our way to Bronte station.

Parking at the Go Train stations is free. This is a novel idea that BC should consider. If you incent people to park and ride, perhaps there will be fewer cars on the roads? We Boarded the 718am train – an express that only stopped at the Oakville station and then went non-stop to Union Station. Zach told us he’d only slept 3 hours the night prior but as you can see he looks pretty alert in the photo below. Connie and I felt like it was 430am, which of course it was back home.

From Union, we took the Subway to St George and then a short walk in the rain to pick up Zach’s regalia. He met up with a couple of his friends, Kieran and Noah, so Connie and I walked toward Convocation Hall thinking we’d stop at Starbucks for a coffee and a bite to eat (not me as I’m trying out this intermitent fasting thing). When we reached Con Hall at 830am, there was already a long lineup, so we decided to get our place in line. Since we were 90 minutes ahead of time, we got great seats but poor Connie had nothing to eat. Way to go Mal!

A jazz quartet entertained us while we waited. Nick Donovan, who Zach went to New York with a couple of years ago, was playing drums. We read the program cover to cover and before long the graduates entered the building, followed by the honor troop (Chancellor, President, etc). The entire ceremony wrapped up within an hour and we stepped outside to find the rain had stopped and a bit of sunshine. This was particularly appreciated as we were able to take photos on the grass across the roadway from Con Hall.

After taking some photos, we attended a luncheon with all the Music Program graduates and family/friends, then left Zach to hang out with his friends before meeting up with him mid afternoon to head back to Oakville.

We arrived at the Dias home to find Margaret (Chris’s Mom) had prepared dinner for the whole gang of us. Brian (Michelle’s Dad) also popped by to say goodbye. This family is pretty special. Zach is going to miss them.

After partially packing up the trailer – it’s raining hard tonight – we visited with Chris and Michelle, Zach played Mario Cart with the kids, and we said our goodbyes and goodnights, as once again we move on tomorrow.

On to the next leg of our journey and adventure…Ottawa.