The alphabet Soup Challenge is to encourage daily posting. You use every letter of the alphabet in random order to inspire ideas for your blog. You can read more here. Yesterday, I cheated a little bit using X for Xitement. It’s all just fun!

My exuberance yesterday was for one of my all time favourite singers, Carole King. I saw the play of her life, “Beautiful, The Carole King Musical”. It was playing on Broadway until this month when it moved to Toronto. It was just an hour train ride away. My sister, Janet and I had been planning to see it as a birthday present to ourselves/each other for more than a year. The show and music were fantastic and everything I had hoped they would be.

The entire day was perfect. We each took the train into the city along Lake Ontario. Janet lives and hour west and I live an hour east. We met at Union station and walked downtown. It was a glorious summer day. The weather was sunny and breezy, perfect for walking. The restaurant we chose has a huge balcony overlooking downtown Toronto. We both enjoyed our lunch then walked across the street to the theatre.

 I love going to The Ed Mirvish Theatre, not only because it’s beautiful but it’s a trip down memory lane for me. When I was in college I worked there as a “Candy Girl” when it was the Imperial Six movie theatre. Seeing the marble floors and sweeping staircase brought back a flood of happy memories of working in the Consession booth and seeing free movies. Having six different shows to choose from in one venue was a very modern concept in 1977. 

After the show we walked back to the train station and both caught the waiting trains. I picked up one of my favourite dinners on the way home and my husband, Greg and I ate out on the back deck enjoying the rest of a perfect day. I couldn’t have asked for a better birthday present.