FRIDAY, MAY 18, 2007
I woke up a little after 5 AM to get ready to leave.  I asked my wife if she wanted to come and she did, so we made it a little bit of a vacation.  Jaclyn picked me up around 5:30 and we went to the store for drinks and breakfast.  After I finally remembered everything I needed (I even forgot my passport), we were finally on our way to Toronto at about 6:15 AM.

Jaclyn drove the first few hours while I caught up on some sleep, but she was too tired by around 9 AM, so we switched.  I drove the rest of the way while she took pictures of anything she enjoyed on our way.  We stopped for gas in upstate New York and grabbed some McDonald's to hold us over until we go to the hotel.  We reached the Canadian border around noon.  Jaclyn was very excited because it was the first time she had left the country.  After another two or so hours, including 30 minutes of looking for the hotel, we reached our destination:  The Crowne Plaza Toronto Don Valley hotel.

Mrs. Burton and I checked into the hotel and it was very nice.  She loved the king sized bed and the balcony.  I took advantage of the high speed internet access.  When Craig Bouchard arrived, he called me and the four of us (his father included) went down the road for some food.  Afterwards, we returned the hotel for some cubing.  Craig and I mostly just did some team blindfolded until we saw Dave Campbell's group arrive.  Craig and I helped them carry their stuff into the hotel and returned to team blindfold for a few more hours.  After he left, Jaclyn and I went to bed so that we could wake up early for breakfast.

SATURDAY, MAY 19, 2007
Jack and I went to McDonald's for breakfast before the competition.  We then went to the Science Center for registration.  We got some very nice gift bags that included food and water, a DIY 3x3x3 kit, stickers for the 3x3, 4x4, and 5x5, a Rubik's pen, and a few other things.  I met up with some other cubers and did some practice solves on the Magics before the competition began.

In the Magic, I got third place.  I had a few good solves, but also a 1.90 and 1.91, so my average was only 1.49 seconds.  Rhodri Mativo took first and Craig took second, both with averages just over 1.4 seconds.  I took second in the Master Magic with a 3.40 average, but Craig beat me out by .15 seconds.

In the 2x2x2, I had both extremely fast and extremely slow solves.  My fastest time was 4.47 seconds, but my slowest was 28 seconds.  On two solves, I managed to do the my corner 3-cycle wrong, resulting in a completely scrambled cube.  Even still, I took second place with a 11.25 second average, 2.5 seconds behind Craig.

Next, I competed in the 3x3x3 first round.  I did pretty well, with an average of 21.03 seconds, placing me 5th out of 57.  Jaclyn placed 39th with an average of 57.86 seconds and a personal best of 40.28 seconds.  I then spent a chunk of the morning scrambling and judging to help maintain the schedule as much as possbile.

In the 3x3x3 blindfolded round, I was the first to finish a solve and as a result got a pretty nice ovation.  I was interviewed after my solve (which was 4:54) by the Toronto Sun and apparently I appeared in an article they published afterwards.  Chris Krueger won the event with a 1:15.60 World Record, which I feel is very impressive.

In the 3x3x3 one-handed, I had five bad solves that I don't want to talk about, so I averaged only 54.04 seconds and took 8th place overall.  Dave of course won the event with a 35.66 second average.

The second round of the 3x3x3 did not bring me solves as fast as the first round, but I averaged 22.10 seconds, so I was still in 6th place.  Harris was in the lead at the end of the round with an average of only 13.59 seconds, setting a new North American record.

I did surprisingly well (for me) in the 4x4x4 and 5x5x5 events, getting a personal best single solve in both rounds.  I placed 7th in the 4x4x4 with an average of 2:02 and 6th in the 5x5x5 with an average of 4:38, both of which I was able to stay under the maximum time limits.  Those who know me know that I suck at the big cubes and don't really practice them, so I was happy with this result.

In the 3x3x3 final round, I started out well, but got a pop costing me some time on my 22.39 second average and potentially one place.  Harris won the 3x3x3 with a 14.21 second average, good enough for a trip to the World Championship in Budapest this November.

The awards were very nice.  I managed to get three trophies and three medals.  We were also provided with pizza and soda, which was great since I hadn't eaten in so long.  Craig and I did a few more team blindfold solves, and then we left.

Chris and I hung out in my room for a few hours after the competition.  He taught me how to use commutators.  Amazingly, for the first time in years now, I understand commutators!  Words can hardly express how great I felt when I was able to cycle three edges on the 4x4.  Eventually, it got late so he went downstairs and Jaclyn and I went to sleep to wake up early to take Chris back to the airport.

SUNDAY, MAY 20, 2007
We took Chris to Pearson Airport first thing in the morning.  Luckily, we were able to find it with no problem.  After seeing him off, Jaclyn and I headed to downtown Toronto to do some sightseeing.  We parked and had breakfast at Tim Horton's.  Afterwards, we walked to the CN Tower.  On the way, we found some Rubik's Cube knockoffs at a market and bought them for a dollar each.  The Tower was very tall, but Jaclyn was brave and overcame her fear of heights by accompanying me to the top.  I was glad she could see the magnificent view of greater Toronto.

Next, we drove to Niagra Falls.  Jaclyn had never been there before, either, so I promised to take her.  She really enjoyed it because the falls are very beautiful.  We took a bunch of pictures and headed back home.  It was another 7 hours of driving (that I did most of) before we got home, but we got back finally a little after midnight.  It was a great trip and I had a really nice much-needed vacation.

I would like to thank Dave Campbell and his organizational team for all the hard work that went into running this great competition.  I was very impressed with how organized it was and how much media attention he was able to obtain.  It truly was a great event and nice to revisit the Ontario Science Centre.