Monday, August 9, 2010

Summer Vacation

It's always good to come home right?  Two weeks away and your ready....especially ready for some San Diego. This summer we vacationed in Toronto, Ontario, Canada....a beautiful region from which my wife hails.  To be honest she's from well north of Toronto, but I promise, you've never heard of it!
When we travel, don't we all tend to critique our area of expertise?  In the restaurant business?...you can't go anywhere without sizing up the joint....real estate?... housing prices.....media?.. the local news... and so on..... for me it is of course the traffic. And man does Toronto have traffic!  One major route in and out of a city with a population over 3 million, not counting the toll road which like everything else is way overpriced.  Case of beer for $30 anyone? 5 bucks for a gallon of gas and don't get me started on the extra you can pay for ethanol infused gasoline to "do your part for global warming." Don't even think about idling your car in the lot...it takes just seconds for someone to scold you. But wait, I wanted to talk about traffic.  The critique on their misguided political correctness will have to wait.  But it does dovetail.  With all their fervor to save the planet they refused to build freeways...that major freeway in and out of Toronto has just three lanes, a few spots with four but not for long.  Compare that with the 22 or so lanes we have at the 5/805 merge and you can see why I was so darn happy to get home!  Our volume numbers are similar too, the merge carries about 270,000 vehicles a day.  Toronto's Queen Elizabeth Way or QEW hosts an average of 240,000.  More lanes, less gridlock, less pollution.....not so complicated.  Sure they have trains and buses and carpools...however, just like here in good old SoCal.....people like their freedom.  But we haven't yet been brainwashed by the ivory tower crowd to believe we can do our part to save the planet by putting up with less while paying more.  Give me more lanes and cheap beer!  God bless the USA, and welcome home.