Spirits Untapped

I love it when you can turn a simple chore into something more.

A few weeks ago, Liz agreed to pick up a good friend near midnight at Pearson airport in Toronto. Since I work in Toronto, we thought it might be more fun for Liz and I to meet just a little bit west of Toronto shortly after work and do some exploring for a few hours before picking up her friend.

And that’s just one way that a simple chore or favour for a friend can turn into something fun.

We rendezvoused in Mississauga, having determined a few key locations we wanted to visit in the Streetsville area. And, as often happens in our touring, we found an additional spot to check out.

The night brought us first to The Franklin House, which is allegedly haunted by a young woman by the name of Jessie. We had a great time and enjoyed the rib special and a couple of beers while chatting with a wonderfully personable waitress who had been working there for thirty years. She shared many great stories about the ghostly legends surrounding the building, and we got a quick tour of the upstairs area which is where most of the supernatural activity has occurred. (I won’t get into the details of that here, as I’ll be saving those for a full future post about The Franklin House – so stay tuned).

The Franklin House had a busy patio and main floor of people that night and was bustling in an interesting way for a Tuesday night. But we were most uplifted by the spirited and enthusiastic friendliness of the people who worked there. And, even though the beer selection there isn’t as broad as we would prefer (yes, we can be real beer snobs sometimes – so what can be a decent selection for most people might be something we see as “the usual” due to our quest to always be seeking out new beers to try), it’s definitely a place we’ll be returning to because of the ambiance, the delicious food and the great staff.

We next walked up the street to Cuchulainn’s Irish Pub (another haunted location we wanted to check out) where we enjoyed another beer and fun conversation, including hearing some eerie tales from our waitress about the time she knew she wasn’t alone in the basement when she was down there changing kegs, even though the rest of the staff were all upstairs.

This pub had a decent selection of the Irish beer classics as well as a couple on tap from some smaller Canadian breweries. And though it started off relatively quiet, it was Open Mic night and the host for the evening, Zaddy, was a talented musician. Despite the fun entertainment offering, we needed to move on and get ourselves closer to the airport.

The last stop that we made before heading up to the airport was Tracks Brewpub in Brampton. We didn’t visit there as part of our ghostly investigations; this one was more for the investigation of one of our favourite kinds of spirit: the real live people who hang out there. It was a quiet, mid-week night when we entered, but even though it was quiet you could certainly felt the spirit of a group of regulars hanging out at the bar and chatting with the bartender and with one another.

We tried a couple of their own unique and refreshing beers, their Tracks Light Lager and an Old Mill Dark Lager. Then we realized it was time to move along to the airport.

Again, it was a simple evening where we needed to be at a particular spot at a particular time and so we added on a mini little MLA (Mark & Liz Adventure) to turn the evening into something even more memorable.