Monday Mug Shot

Tim Hortons Donuts

Yes, this is a travel coffee mug, but it’s still a mug! I collect mostly glass and ceramic mugs, but I do have a few more commuter mugs than I need to have. This one has a special memory attached to it.

In 1995, Mom and I went to the NPSL All-Star Game in Buffalo, New York. As Detroit Rockers season ticket holders, we just couldn’t NOT go when the all-star game was so close! From Detroit there are two ways to get to Buffalo. You can drive across Ohio and Pennsylvania and up into New York or you can drive through Canada. The Canada option is about an hour quicker and, at least in 1995, the customs agents didn’t think it odd at all when they asked, “where are you headed in Canada?” if you said, “I’m just going through to New York.’

The All Star Game was on Sunday Afternoon, so we’d be headed home right after the game. Leaving Saturday morning meant we’d have a day to play! Since we were driving through Canada to Buffalo anyway, we decided to take advantage of the February off-season prices, and stayed a pretty nice hotel in Niagara Falls, with a great view of both the Canadian and American falls from our room. That view was even better when we had a window seat for dinner at their top level restaurant!

It was above freezing, though still chilly as we wandered around the parks near the falls. We took pictures of each other at a falls overlook where we already had pictures of Mom with Dad and me as a little, I mean like 3 years old, little, girl with each of my grandparents. It was just a “warm and squishy” thing to do!

We returned to that upstairs restaurant for brunch on Sunday morning before we headed back into The States for the game. The soccer game was, as all all-star games are, a neat exhibition of the stars from the sport and as competitive as pride allows, which is usually quite competitive! In the end, the Rockers’ division lost the game, but it was still fun to watch and a fun trip!

We left the Aud in Buffalo, headed for home as planned. It had been a busy weekend and we were dragging butt for the ride. When we realized that finding someplace to get a quick dinner on a Sunday night was becoming more difficult the later it got, Mom saw a sign for Tim Hortons soup. She suggested stopping at the next service centre on the 401 that had a Tim’s.

When we got to Tim Hortons we were tired and it had begun to get colder too! We got soup, donuts and coffee and sat down. It was the first time either of us had tried their soup. It was good! In 1995, we still didn’t have many Tim Hortons near home and it was one of Mom’s favorite donut shops! On the way out, she saw the commuter mug and said “I MUST have one!” What Mom wanted, she either bought or saved for, but she got.

Mom really didn’t take coffee to go a lot. She worked in a home office 20 minutes away. There was fresh coffee all the time! Still, if she took her coffee with her somewhere, it was in the Tim’s cup and heaven help anyone else who “borrowed” it! It’s been 5 1/2 years since we lost Mom and now the cup is mine. Sometimes, I still feel a little bit like a rebel when I use it! But the truth is, even though it’s a little worn for it’s 14 year’s of coffee transport service, it still puts the pictures of that weekend with Mom in my mind like they were just taken. And it still makes me smile!