Toronto Pan Am Games

Hi Blog! On Saturday, July 11, 2015, we took the GO bus from Hamilton to Toronto to spend the day with our son, Matt. When we stopped in Toronto on Thursday on our way to Hamilton, the City of Toronto was busy preparing for the Pan Am Games. The opening ceremonies were scheduled for Friday. However, we walked right into a full dress rehearsal as we passed the CN Tower. Here the workmen were busy preparing for the flame!

We couldn’t believe our luck. We would actually be in Toronto during the Pan Am Games! We thought it would be fun to try and attend some of the event. When Matt was in college, he played rugby for William & Mary. We learned from the local newspaper that the Rugby Sevens Tournament would be held Saturday and Sunday. Neither of us had ever seen a rugby sevens match. We thought this would make a great outing with Matt. After a quick text to Matt, he agreed, and we had tickets in Section 105. The seating in the section was first come, but we arrived early enough to score some pretty good seats. Here the teams are lining up for a kickoff.

We were a little disappointed that the stadium was so empty. We had just been watching the Women’s World Cup Soccer and all of the stadiums across Canada were filled for those games. Perhaps since Saturday was preliminary pool matches, folks decided to attend other events instead. Their loss was our gain. We watched some great rugby. We also had a pretty good view of the scoreboard. Unfortunately, this photo was taken just as the image was changing.

It took us about four years to learn all the ins and outs of rugby fifteens. Matt only had four hours to school us on Rugby Sevens. By the third match, I think we were getting the hang of it. Well, sort of, at least the number and frequency of the questions came down.  Here is Matt with his two students.

At first, we didn’t understand how they could play so many matches back to back. They started with three women’s matches followed by four men’s, then three more women’s and four more men’s. The actual play isn’t that much different from regular rugby. It is just so much faster because there are not as many players on the pitch. The halves are only 7 minutes each. Seriously, you can’t even get a beer at halftime. Luckily, they deliver. We didn't want to miss the zorbing race!

Kathy was definitely here to cheer!

After a great day of rugby, we walked to a local Japanese Restaurant and had some really good sushi. Before we knew it, our time with Matt was at an end. On Sunday morning, we got up and walked to the train station. We passed the CN Tower to see the Pan Am flame burning bright.

There were lots of tourists stopping to take their selfies with the flame and tower. This nice Italian lady and her daughter offered to take our picture. There is a flame coming out of the multicolored sculpture which is actually in front of CN Tower.