I drove to Toronto for the annual general meeting of Save Ontario Shipwrecks, a marine heritage organization I’m a member of. The meeting was held at The Arts and Letters Club in downtown Toronto. The club has been around for almost 100 years and has had many prominent artists and authors over the course of the years, including the Group of Seven. But I digress…

There were no major surprises at the AGM, which is always a good thing. There were a couple of vacancies on the Board due to some people stepping down. I was one of the people elected to fill a vacancy.

After the meeting, we had a most unique tour of what is probably Canada’s only living museum in a private residence. William Jamieson is an antique tribal art collector and dealer. He has a simply amazing collection of items in his home, which he is happy to show and talk about. Among the things we saw were a late 18th century Naskapi coat made out of tanned caribou skin, a genuine vampire slayer kit complete with garlic and a silver tipped stake, and even the odd shrunken head or two. We also saw part of the collection from the Niagara Falls Museum, which was Canada’s oldest museum started in 1827. (The rest of the collection is in storage since it simply won’t fit!)

Afterwards, he took us around the corner to Innocenti, an Italian restaurant at the corner of King Street West and Portland. Dining alfresco, we enjoyed a great meal before calling it an evening.