This morning started off rather pleasantly CPTV strikes again. At 8am on showcase TV they were showing KFTLC and after that was an episode of Street Legal with CP as Grant Simon. He plays a bad guy in this, he also shows off his legs and muscular arms. He looked so good.

We had to change rooms in the inn, they made a mistake with our reservations. So we had to wait for our new room to be made up and we had to lug our luggage up three flights of stairs. And here I thought that I had actually had some LUCK being on the first floor. I should have known better. 

We made plans to meet up with Lynne, a fan of KFTLC and Forever Knight who lives in Toronto. We also made arrangements to meet Alicia, one of our friends from Toronto. We picked up Alicia then headed for Lynne's home and picked her up. Lynne graciously played tour guide, she has done these tours many times in the past. We drove to Mississauga, stopping at the Blaisdell's house, we left the car and snapped several shots of this home. There were many huge homes in this area, this was a very affluent area. 

We stopped at St. Peter's Church, the site where exteriors were shot for the episode, The Sacred Chalice of I Ching. We snapped some pictures there, then we headed over to the Fu Studios. We took a walk around the building. There was no one there. We saw the loading bays, one was used for the episode, Initiation. One of the doors was covered with break-away glass, it was used in the scene where Tan gets kicked by Caine and he comes flying out through the glass.

Alicia, Laura and I continued to walk around the building, when we came around the other side we discovered that Lynne and Maria were going through the trash looking for some 'GOODIES'. They found some "La Femme Nikita" scripts. That show was recently cancelled, so there was still some stuff laying around in the garbage. Too bad I didn't take a picture of these two rummaging around in the bins! It was fun, but it was NOT a Nikita script that i found. When I had time to really look at it, it turned out to be for a rather unknown Canadian show called "The Famous Jett Jackson". Just my luck!

We went back to Toronto and stopped at the BCE place, it was used in Sing Wah and Quake. We had parked and somehow we got separated when we stopped to use the bathroom in the building. Lynne, Maria and I went one way and Alicia and Laura went another. Lynne, Maria and I ended up sitting outside the BCE place waiting for those two to show up. We were a little concerned as the sun was setting and we still had some FK sites we wanted to see. One of the things we were going to take pictures of in there ended up not looking like in either Fu or Forever Knight, it had been used in a movie just the other day. They had changed it.

They finally found us and we piled into the car and continued our journey. We saw the fu precinct, which is a city owned office. The fountain used in the ep Prism, we snapped a photo of that. We saw the jewelry store that Peter goes into in the episode "May I Ride with You." And don't forget, we went shopping for more film in a store that the local girls described as complicated, I think they were actually worried we'd get lost in Honest Ed's. 

Alicia had decided to go home, so she left our little group.

We found Nick's loft, it was recognizable by the big water tower that was behind the building. Hmm, looked more like it was on top of the buildning to me. We found the precinct, which happens to be the public library, Schanke's house and then stopped at the FK studios. What most people don't know is that the building is right next to the railroad. Whenever a train came through it shook the building so badly that while they were trying to film episodes it would look like an earthquake was happening. Maria had shown me a blooper reel from FK and I could see how badly the actors would be shaking. It was so funny to see.

We ended the day with Lynne joining us for dinner. We went to a Chinese restaurant. She mentioned that she is an extra and I asked her what fu episodes she might have been in. She is an Extra in "Return of the Shadow Assassin." She is in the comedy club where Caine goes to see the author, Everett Cooper.

We took Lynne home. Two interesting notes about this day, we discovered that Laura, who was driving, does not like to make left turns AND we passed a blood bank on the way home to our Inn. Maria is into vampires and I asked her if she wanted dinner. HAHA!

We watched a bit of TV, Laura read some fan fic and then we went to bed.

Today we met up with another friend from Toronto. Kara, Maria and I had met her at fu fest two years ago. She met us at our Inn and we walked over to the ROM (Royal Ontario Museum) Parts of "Sunday in the Museum with George" were shot there. We went through the bat cave, Peter ran through there when he was chasing George. Other parts of the ep were filmed at the Ontario Science museum, which we did not visit. We found out very interesting facts about bats and Maria met up with her relatives, the vampire bats.

There were many exhibits, Maria took a picture of me at one of the dinosaur exhibits. We stopped in many of the rooms, there was Roman and Egyptian exhibits. There were suits of armor, swords, crossbows and guns. We ate lunch at the museum cafeteria then we visited the gift shop then we went back to the inn to pick up the car. Don't forget the hunt for Tourmaline in the museum gift shops.

We headed to Taylor Creek Park which was on the other side of town. The bridge that was used at the end of the ep "Rite of Passage" was located in this park. The locations site page was not very specific about just where this bridge could be found in the park, only that this is where it was. Maria and Laura decided to sit down on one of the benches while Kara and I strolled down the path to find this bridge. It was not an easy mission. It turned out there were quite a few bridges in the park. Kara and I could see that these bridges were just not the right ones that was used in the ep cause of the width. I started to get tired so we walked back to join Maria and Laura. We were about to give up, we went into the car and started to leave when Laura spotted a bridge that was at the side of the road at the entranceway to the park. I got out and Maria followed me to take a closer look and sure enough it WAS the bridge that was used. We didn't notice it when we arrived. We had thought it would have been hard for the film crew to lug all the equipment into the park and this bridge was right there! This saga should be titled 'the Search for the Bridge of Taylor Creek Park'. Maria and I took pics of this bridge. After all that work we deserved to have something to remember this adventure by.

After the park we headed to the police museum, Maria wanted to see that so we dropped her off. There was one stop I HAD to make. We went over to Spadina and Caine's kwoon. Half of the store is Atlantic Textiles the other is a gift shop. Kara and I stopped in there and browsed. I had been looking for Jade Buddha, but I couldn't find it in the gift shop. I did have that red one I had bought earlier in another shop.'

I was so excited to be in the Kwoon, I picked up some postcards, a jade piece, a Chinese Zodiac coin with my sign the tiger on it and a fold-up fan. When I finished paying the lady I said to her "Do you know where I can find Caine?" she looked at me like I was crazy and she asked me "You mean a walking cane?" I had to try to explain to her about fu and how this was the kwoon. A customer who was behind me knew what I was doing and said "It's fiction" I didn't care I can say I went to Chinatown and asked for Caine. Damn, damn, damn! She ASKED and I wasn't there to witness it!

We tried to find the Ancient's house again, we had two locations listed and I took a picture of both of them. If there's been ANY location that's been eluding us this trip, it's been the Ancient's house. I'm glad they finally snagged it.

We went back to pick up Maria and went to eat dinner. We ate at a place called "Amarillo grill on Front St. The food is very good and the service is exceptional. They told us exactly when the food would be ready. I can definitely recommend their Margaritas, superb!

We took Kara to the bus station, she took the bus home and we drove back to the Inn.

This was the last day in Canada. We packed our bags and loaded the car. We stopped at a local coffee bar and had a quick bite before we headed back to the states. I think none of us wanted to leave, especially not me, cause I couldn't even find my way out of town. Every time I tried to make a left to get down to the Gardiner expressway, there was a sign telling me I couldn't. So, we did one last, involuntary, tour around the city before we got on the expressway. 

We did have a bit of trouble getting over the border. First we got stuck in traffic, we had to wait over an hour to get to the crossing. Then a guard was suspicious of a bunch of plastic shopping bags we had in the back seat. Well we couldn't fit anything into the trunk. We explained to him that it was just souvenirs and books. He finally let us cross. We made a stop on the other side, Maria and I needed to use the bathroom very badly. I felt like I wanted to shake that border guard when he started asking what we had in the plastic bags. Don't MEN understand that three girls can't possibly get all their stuff into ONE little trunk?

Then we headed back home. We arrived in NJ at 9pm and we stopped at Pizza Hut and ate dinner. Then we went to Laura's and took the luggage out of the car and transferred it to my car and we said our goodbyes and Maria and I headed back to my place. We lugged our luggage into my living room and we plopped down for a while before heading for bed.

Maria's flight home wasn't until the following Tues. So we were able to spend more time together. I, unfortunately, couldn't get more time off from work. I had to go back on Fri. I felt bad leaving Maria by herself. Don't worry, it felt so good to be able to just relax after those hectic thirteen days. She offered to cook for me. Making some of her fave dishes. She is a great cook. (Thank you, dear) 

On Sat, my next day off, we headed to Fort Wadsworth, which is an old fort located on Staten Island by the Verrazano bridge (A bridge that made me feel right at home, it looks a lot like a bridge in my home town, just a lot bigger). We took a tour of the place. When we were inside the magazine (the place where gun powder was stored) we were told it was haunted by a ghost, named George Walker. It was very dark in there, here was no light. The tour guides had flashlights. I said hello to George. He was being very quiet. Who's ever heard of a SHY gost before, hehe?

They had a cannon that they shot off periodically. We took pics of the bridge too. Then on the way back to my house we stopped at the Gateway National Seashore. We took a walk along the beach. Then went back to my home.

We watched Forever Knight eps, and fu eps.

On Tues we checked with Air France about her flight. It turned out that her flight was delayed, the plane was late coming in from France. Instead of 7:50 she was due to take off at 9:40. We drove out to JFK and arrived at 6:30, I dropped Maria off at the departure area so she could check in and I went to find a place to park. We met up at the Air France counter it was then that we found out her flight had been delayed again. Now she was talking off at 10:40. 

We found a place to eat dinner. We sat by the windows and we could see the planes taking off. I have to say I kind of felt a little sad that she was leaving, saying goodbye isn't easy. We walked around the terminal and then Maria wanted to check out the shops that were on the other side of the gate entrance. So we hugged and I said goodbye to my sister from the internet.

It really wasn't goodbye, we talk all the time on the internet. I never imagined three years ago that when I came online I would make such wonderful friends. I feel so lucky. I agree, it was not goodbye, we will see each other again, online or in real life.

I can't wait to get together again. This was a wonderful trip that I will never forget. Oh yeah, a memorable trip. Thank you Linda, Laura, Kara, Alicia and Lynne for making it so.

After what felt like many many many hours I was home again. My parents picked me up at the airport, amazed that my plane was actually AHEAD of time. YES, after that hideous delay in NY I had still managed to RUN to my connecting flight. First time ever I've heard my name called out over the speakers in the terminal: "Last call passenger Wiberg, passenger Wiberg!" I was mighty glad I made it, next flight from Paris to Göteborg was not until SIX hours later.