Adventures in Canada

Holly and I made our way across the border into Canada yesterday afternoon. We got interrogated at the border and it went something like this:

Border Patrol Guy: Where are you going?
Me: London
BPG: What are you doing there?
Me: Going to a concert.
BPG: What concert?
Me: (laughing) New Kids On the Block.
BPG: Oh no (in strong Canadian accent).
As we’re cleared to the enter the country, BPG tells us to say hi to Joey! Hysterical. 

We had dinner at our hotel with a few drinks, then walked the few blocks to the John Labatt Centre. The venue is tiny compared to the Palace and even smaller than Joe Louis Arena! Our seats were in the first half of the floor and just a few seats in from the center aisle.

Holly and I before the show (This is the only picture we took. I wanted to enjoy the experience this time without obsessively taking pictures. Mission accomplished!)

After a few more drinks, we were ready for some screaming and dancing when the New Kids took the stage. The strange thing about this show compared to Detroit in October is that there were many children in attendance. I’m not kidding, a lot of people brought their kids with them. Hopefully their parents didn’t have to explain the behavior of the crazy Americans. 

Anyway, they opened with some of the old favorites mixed in with some of the new songs just like last time. They changed things up a bit so we didn’t see the exact same show. When they left the main stage to do their set on the small stage, we left our row and headed back. In Detroit, that stage was in the middle of seats. In London, there was space all around it. We worked our way up and ended up basically 6 people back, meaning there were 5 people in front of us that were closer to the stage. It was SO much fun. We screamed our heads off.

The guys went back to the main stage after that for Jordan and Joe’s solo songs. Jordan did the same ones as last time, but Joe did something different. Rather than sing one of his own songs, he did “I Remember When” with a photo collage of old school New Kids playing behind him. They finished out the show with an encore of “Step by Step” and “Hangin’ Tough”. 

After the show, rather than walking right back to the hotel we walked over to where their buses were parked. There were some people there already around a barricade blocking off the parking lot. We only had a row of people in front of us. After awhile, Jordan came out and ran by slapping hands. And then Danny. We didn’t get any love, but it was still fun. Jon, Joe and Donnie all waved on the way to their buses.

And then we trekked back to the hotel. The trip was so much fun and I am so glad we were able to go. To finish out this post, here are some things we learned in Canada:

• Border patrol loves Joey.
• Americans go way more crazy at concerts than Canadians. Holly and I were dancing up a storm while the people around us just seemed to stand there most of the time. 
• It’s easy to spend currency that seems like play money and is called looney and tooney.
• Canadian accents can be so strong it sounds like English is their second language.
• Canadians really do so “eh” quite a bit. And out and about never cease to amuse me when they sound like oot and aboot. 
• Tim Hortons is tasty (I know they have them in the US and there is one very close to my house, but I’d never eaten there).