bike ride

for father's day, my dad and i pushed ourselves to our physical limits.  we went on what is by our standards, an epic bike ride.  riding close to, if not more than 40 kilometers with only a couple short breaks. 

our first destination was downtown hamilton.  we were going to stop for coffee but since i'd already had two that morning i decided to pass and we continued on to hess village for a beer . . . unfortunately we were ahead of schedule and none of my dad's favourite spots were open yet. 

our next stop was a to visit the statue of queen victoria, located on the western part of gore park.  click the links to read about a bit of hamilton history ... although a better option would be to talk to my dad who is a fountain of knowledge. 

we rode through nicer neighbourhoods and rougher ones. . .  we saw expensive and well kept houses and some that were completely run down.  the city is diverse and spread out.  there was interesting architecture and old buildings that were beautiful to look at.   hamilton has a lot more history than i had imagined.  if i wasn't delirious from exhaustion i could tell you all about it.

happy father's day dad, thanks for a great day!

photos of the weekend to follow . . .

where i went

via

after doing very little research i have determined that douglas adams and calvin and hobbes have nothing in common except this image that someone put together.  that may or may not be true but either way, i love the quote and calvin and hobbes were two of my good friends growing up so that makes me love it a little more.

yelp comeback

i quit yelping for a bit.  i quit going out for drinks and dinner too.  okay, you caught me...  i didn't quit altogether but i definitely cut back.  

but yelp didn't give up on me.  it sent me messages and awards and all kinds of things.  okay - not awards, but they featured quotes from two of my reviews, and another ROTD (that's review of the day in yelp speak). so as you might have guessed it's really good for my ego.

if you're wondering what the heck is yelp, you should check it out.  it's a good resource to find just about anything just about anywhere and their slogan is real people. real reviews, so i think you get the gist.  it's also a good motivator to try new places, and in a city as diverse as toronto it would be a shame not to.

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here is a picture of the cilantro pesto i made the other day.  i know pesto is usually made with basil, but i was feeling adventurous... and i had a bunch of cilantro to use up: