Tidbits

Sleepover at Ikea - Maybe this is the only way to get to the $1 early enough…
A ramen bath - Japanese spa with special baths resembling instant noodles. I wanna play!
Old age homes for dogs - 1) Old dogs don’t like to be abandoned at strange places. 2) Playing with young puppies will probably cause the older dogs to die faster due to exhaustion.
A remote-controlled pigeon - Oh the poor thing…
An article on a brilliant method of teaching grade schoolers about bats and rabies. I smell a lawsuit.
Will trade beer for Crumpler bags. Tempted by the beanbag and messenger bags…

July Photo Updates

July 19, 2007, 12:36 am

Here is a quick update of events from June and July, in no particular order, with photos (FB has people, Flickr is more non-people, photos do overlap):

Waterfalls and Avaia

July 15 - Visited Webster’s Falls, a pretty popular conservation area near Hamilton. We only got to spend an hour or two there, so didn’t get to do much hiking. It would be nice to check it out in the spring when the falls have more water. Then rushed off to Niagara Falls to catch the 4pm show of Cirque Niagara’s AVAIA, kind of a cheap Cirque du Soleil wannabe with horses and in Russian. The show was alright, nothing special, and the tent smelled pretty strongly of horse and urine. Glad we only paid $35 for tickets…

Photos: Facebook
Photos: Flickr

Adirondack Park

Canada Day Weekend: Adirondack Park was quite nice, and I think it’s going to be a destination we will return to, in both summer and winter. Summer there’s some truly challenging hiking, winter, appears to be fairly decent skiing as well. The day hike we picked took us up to Algonquin Peak and down through Avalanche Pass. It was the most challenging 12 miles/20 km I’ve ever walked. There were elevation, rocks, ladders, bridges… We were all pretty sore for a few days afterwards, but it was good fun. There’s like 49 other peaks to tackle next!

The Olympic facilities around Lake Placid was pretty dull, EXCEPT for the ski jumping. That was awesome. You really don’t see the scale of how high everything by watching it on TV. We thought those kids are insane, but it seems like their light weight, and their giant skis create quite some lift. Still a rush for sure. And we missed doing the Biathlon shooting range by like 15 min, so I just HAVE to go back and try again. Although the place were run by two girls who looked barely old enough to drive..

Didn’t get back in time to do any shopping in Buffalo, so probably do that another weekend this summer. We did make it back in time for Cheesecake Factory. They pretty much revamped their entire menu since I was there last, there’s a lot of fusion/Asian-inspired dishes now. Portions are still as huge as ever though, and still quite tasty. Oh, and I got to play with the iPhone at the Apple Store. Not bad. Except I find the screen heats up, and is a bit warm against your face when you want to make a call.

Photos: Facebook

Niagara Winery

June 23 - Visited the Niagara Wine region with family. It’s been a year or two since I’ve gone there last. A couple of new winery’s sprung up, so I’ll probably have to go back some time to check out the ones I missed. Maybe do their Bed and Breakfast, biking tour thing. Most area winery will deliver to your hotel/B&B free of charge. Just worried about biking under influence…

Photos: Flickr

Pinery Camping

Jun 16 to 17 - Camping with Jerry and his brother and his brother’s gf is certainly interesting. We had full hotpot. Nuff said.

As a park, Pinery do have some nice beaches. Except it was rather cold when we were there, and I suspect that by the time it’s warm enough, the bacteria level will be so high, they will close the beach. Though it is close enough to just go there as a day trip for the beach. The sand is pretty good. The water isn’t the cleanest/clearest, but it stays shallow for a long time. You can be out 10, 20 metres from shore, and the water will just be up to your waist.

Photos: Facebook
Photos: Flickr

Ride for Heart

Did 50 km. Took us like 4 fricking hours (except for Victor). Weather was nice. Fun. Will probably do again next year. Of course, Mike got a new road bike now, so I think I’m gonna need to recruit some more slow people to keep me company.

Photos: Facebook