Toronto - Day 2

On Monday morning Carrie and I greeted all the ladies from our Shrine Center in addition to several others from other temples in our hospitality suite for eye openers prior to the Ladie's Luncheon. They left around 10:30 to attend and our photographer gathered them all in the hotel lobby for a beautiful photo.

I then entertained some visiting guests from other temples and took a long walk around downtown for several hours.

Our elected Temple Imperial Representatives (Chief Rabban, Assistant Rabban, High Priest and Prophet and Oriental Guide)attended the opening of the Imperial Council Session and made Moslem proud by their participation in the voting on several key items.

The highlight of their meetings is that the newly elected Imperial Outer Guard is none other then the current Chairman of the Board of Governors of the Erie Shriners Hospital for Children, as well as a very good friend of Moslem. We are all proud of that the Imperial delegation elected a future leader that will make a positive impact on Shrinedome. It was indeed a good day for the Shrine.

At around 4:00 P.M. our talented Highlanders arrived in town and began their day with some camel's milk and had a good time.

We had to leave to walk towards the harbor, in order to arrive at our Dinner Cruise Ship. Along with 65 other Nobles/Ladies form Moslem, we shared the ship with contignencies from Bahia Shriners (Orlando), Sahib Shriners (Sarasota), Melha Shriners (Springfield, MA), Sphinx Shriners and Pyramid Shriners (Connecticut). We had a lovely 3 hour cruise with dinner. I believe that we were the lucky ones in the dowtown area, because the power went out throughout downtown for about 3 hours, the same time we were on the cruise. The cool breeze off the lake was incredible and the majority of us gathered on the top deck to watch the very scenic view of the Toronto Skyline. Our photographer was in his elements taking photos at every direction. I was asked, with the other Potentates on board to steer the ship (don't worry it was for about 20 seconds until I had my photo taken at the helm).

Afterwards, we went to congratulate our newly elected Imperial Outer Guard, who had the biggest smile I have ever seen on someone. All his friends and family gathered at their hotel for celebration. We only stayed a little while and headed back to our hotel.

What a surprise to see 8-9 Highlanders awaiting to perform for our contingency. We headed down to the lobby at 11:30 P.M. and they performed for about 20 minutes, in which time the gathered crown increased from our party to about 100 people who were very happy. One spectator, a lovely lady from Scotland, was caught up in the moment and performed some traditional Scottish dance. It was great, especially their great rendition of "The Victors".

I tried to hang with the Highlanders and our staff for a little while, but was so tired I hit the hay around 2:30 A.M.


Day 3 Preview: The Imperial Parade staging begins at 11 A.M. We will have the honor of her majesty's presence when she will drive pass to a 21 gun salute at noon. It has been interesting to see her majesty's motorcade traveling throughout town. I believe this is her final day prior to leaving for New York City.