One Friday afternoon in early August 2004, I was killing some time at work, poking around the Canadian-American Transit Service (CATS) website to see how much it would cost for Kelly and me to go over to Toronto on the newly inaugurated Fast Ferry from Rochester.

I think we had plans to spend the whole weekend with Kelly's brother Michael and (his now wife) Megan, but somehow in the process of pricing out tickets, I bought two for Saturday at about noon, returning to Rochester in the late afternoon on Sunday.

We spent that Friday night at Megan's townhouse near St. John Fisher College and had silly arguments about politics.

At that time in my life, I had spent three of the past four months overseas, making roughly double my normal income in places where people usually made about 1/8 of what the average American made. I was developing an Ugly American swagger about me. That summer, I felt smart, young, rich, and adventurous. I had also just bought a kick-ass motorcycle, which made me feel like The Master of All I See.




Of course, I've come back to reality since then, but that night, Megan and I got into a heated political discussion where I remember taking several dumb political positions I didn't even believe in then. THe 30-pack of Miller Light Michael and I consumed helped with that.



I can still feel the beer hangover and regret when I see that photo. I loved that Alaska shirt from Old Navy. It may be my favorite T-shirt of all time.

The last I knew, the now long defunct Fast Ferry is still sitting right where it is in this photo, can anyone confirm this?

The whole experience of the Fast Ferry was ridiculous because everyone involved, passengers and crew, knew it was all a sham deep down, but we just wanted to believe it could be possible, even if just for a summer.

The US Coast Guard patrol with loaded M-16s at the ready made us all feel really important and special as we left the brand new 17 million dollar (now presumably vacant) port.



The day was amazing. The temperature was about 75 degrees with almost no humidity, which meant that the visibility was unlimited.

We saw the skylines of Rochester, Toronto, Niagara Falls, and Buffalo all at the same time, from 40 feet off the surface of Lake Ontario.





We stayed at the Westin Harbour Castle, which offered perfect views of the ferry's comings and goings.



I think we ate at Ruth's Chris Steakhouse and had the third best meal we've ever had. The number 1 and 2 best meals were at Ruth's Chris in Toronto 2002 and at Ruth's Chris in Minneapolis in 2006 respectively.

There was a really loud table near us, and when the loudest members left one time to go to the bathroom, a lady from another table went over and said to the responsible-looking one " You and your friends are far too loud for a place of this atmosphere."

She was totally right and saying what we all were thinking.

He replied, "I'm sorry, but they're my American friends" and shrugged as if to say, 'such is life.'

Kelly in the City.



Other stuff.



Canada is all about the copper roofs. So am I.

After our overnight, we went back to the Canadian ferry terminal, which was prudently just a couple of mobile office trailers on a pier. Amazing to think that Canadians are more business savvy than Americans. Apparently they know how to do things like cost benefit analysis and business case studies. We should learn from them.

But the ferry was So Cool!



Going 55 miles an hour over he water is an unreal experience in something so big. I'm sorry for the Rochester and New York State tax payers who are still paying for this turd of an idea, but man was it fun while it lasted. Thanks for the cheap trip to Toronto, Bill Johnson!. I think it was $55 each round trip. More than worth it. Once.