The Crowne Plaza Hotel
After our wonderful visit to Niagra falls our next stop was Toronto and finding our hotel.  When we arrived we ran into cubers in the lobby, and as we marched to our room (308) to unpack we ran into Lars Petrus and his wife.  She was extatic over Peters Homsar shirt.  Yes us Homestarrunner fans arent afraid to show our patriotism, and the same goes for us cubers!  After we all unpacked and relaxed for a bit, Peter came out of the bathroom with a funny grin: "Hey guys!  Check out our bathroom!" 
um.. yeah..  Peter was very happy at how he re- decorated the bathroom by spreading out every towel over the counter tops and well.. pretty much everywhere.  Perhaps it was the lack of sleep.  Perhaps it was the excitement.  Perhaps it was the blue hair... Peter turns around,"So guys what do you think?" 
  "Um... yeah... Pete you need counseling..." 
After we were done dying of laughter we mosied down to the lobby to see if we can meet any familiar cubers.
The lobby was empty for the most part so we all split up and went exploring, I returned to the lobby after awhile and well...  I found this guy.  An "OH MY GOD!" screamed in my head for I was in the pressence of the mighty RON from speedcubing.com!
I had Ron examine my cube, and well everyone was suprised at how well it turned for being a walmart/hessport cube.  It was little loose for most people but not too loose where pieces were popping.  Ron gave me some pointers and we chatted for bit and then we decided to go and meet more fellow cubers.
I found Peter talking to Ton and Patrick.  It was great to meet the amazing puzzle builder Ton and Patrick Hess from Hessport.  Very cool.  Pete and I were excited to meet all these people, but were getting tired of standing so we went over to table and got into deep conversations with Rafiel and "Domain of the Cube" Mark Londridge.  Mark shared with us tales of old-school cubing and what competitions were like back in the eighties.  Man if I was only born a decade earlier...
Sorry Mark for the choppage.
While the four off us were chill, someone brought over a timing pad, and so we were the first ones to try out the timing pads that were used for the competition.  Later more cubers showed up.  Here are some very fast cubers ( <----- ).  After hanging out in the lobby for a couple hours we were all moved to a private banquet room to try and keep the ruckous down to low a roar in the lobby.  Here I got to meet even more cubers and it was great finally having a 3D conversation for people we have been emailing with for over a year now.
What a great first day of our exciting trip to Canada.  Its amazing what all can happen in 24 hours, from the long car ride, to crossing the border, to Niagra Falls, and finally a nightful of cubing and chatting with fellow cubers for the first time.  WOW....
THE CHAMPIONSHIP BEGINS!!!
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