I holiday hard.

Here's an epic recap post of my last five days of summer vacation awesomeness.

Wednesday

I lazed around in the morning and then went to my favourite Body Pump class at 1:15pm. I really like the instructor, and my friend Eric goes to this one. My work spouse/gym buddy also joined us, which made the class fun, and we chit-chatted for awhile after.

When I got home, my dear Claire phoned me and we had a lovely catch-up conversation. We discussed the concept of holidaying hard, and that's where the title of this post comes from, because I've definitely been holidaying hard these past two weeks.

Becca T came home from a visa appointment and we watched Harry Potter 7 part 1 to get ourselves prepped and psyched for the new movie.

Thursday

Thursday morning I biked to the gym to go for a run. I do not enjoy running outside in the heat (nor the rain, cold, or a multitude of other conditions), so I spent some time on the treadmill. Don't forget, I've got that 5K in NYC to prep for. Not sure if I'll be ready for it, but I'm doing my best.

After the gym, I biked home, showered, and hopped on the bus out to Scarborough to meet up with Becca T at the mall. Our friend Flora, who had a baby about three weeks ago, lives out there, and a visit was necessary. It was fun catching up and meeting her cute little guy.

In the evening, Becca and I headed out to see more university friends. Our friends Jon and Ali (it's very convenient when your friends marry each other) threw a reunion party for our group of friends. I'd seen mostly everyone within the past year, but the highlight was seeing my friend Matt who I hadn't seen in maybe four years. He'd gone off to work in Azerbijan, and now is living in Calgary, but might move back soon. It was really nice reconnecting with him, plus seeing all of the old group who I don't see often enough. We've all changed in years since university, but we still click as a group, and as soon as we're together it seems like old times. Awwwww. It was a great evening.

Friday

Friday was the special day that I planned for Becca T, and I ended up fleshing it out with more fun stuff in the days since my last post. I'll run down the schedule.

9:30 am - Body Pump class. I got Becca some free passes and she was keen to come build some muscle with me.

12:00 pm - Mani/pedis at my favourite neighbourhood nail spa. I ruined the surprise slightly before we headed off to "undisclosed location #1", because I was showing Becca my new red sun dress that I had planned to wear that day and I said "I'll have to get my toes painted a colour that matches this dress... Oh shit!!!" Anyway, she had suspected I'd scheduled some pampering time.

2:00 pm - Lunch at Sassafraz in Yorkville. I managed to not ruin the surprise of "undisclosed location #2", which was the bigger surprise, anyhow. As I described before, ever since university, we'd wanted to eat at this posh restaurant, and now we finally had. We ordered off their $25 prix fixe Summerlicious menu, and the food was absolutely delicious. We splurged on white sangria, and finished the meal off with lattes. During the meal Becca commented that we were living a day like trophy wives do, and it was absolutely true.

We didn't take too many pictures in the restaurant, because we didn't want to be those guys, but my sangria was so pretty that I couldn't help but take a shot.



4:10 pm - Harry Potter 7.2!! The movie was EPIC. WOW. I've seen each and every HP movie in theatres, and it's strange to think there will be no more. I got very emotional during the movie, and I've never been to a movie before when people are clapping when people are killed. (Sounds morbid, eh?) It was such a great film. Hats of to JK Rowling for creating HP, and for the actors, directors, writers, etc. who were able to bring it to life on film.

6:30 pm - Drinks at the Duke of York. After the movie we walked to the Duke of York, a cute pub with a great patio near U of T. Jason met up with us, as did Eric, who wanted to see Becca T during her week in Toronto. It was a pretty fun night. We polished off quite a bit of beer, and discussed everything from the Muppets to male burlesque.

And can you believe after all of that, Becca T and I stayed up doing laundry? It needed to be done. Holidaying hard has its byproducts: dirty clothes.

Saturday

Luckily, we got to sleep in a bit. Then we trekked out to Mathew's place so that Becca T could see all of the renovations he'd done on his new house. Our friend Elaine met up with us there too, and we wet to Swiss Chalet for lunch. Yum. Becca hadn't been yet since her return to Canada, and that was a restaurant that we could afford during university, so it was good to make a full circle with respect to our culinary choices of the week.

Later in the afternoon we decided to meet up with Jason to take the ferry out to Centre Island to catch a show planned for Parks Canada's 100th birthday celebration. The wait for the ferry was absolutely hellish. There was no shade over the waiting area, and the sun was beating down on us. There were tonnes of people heading over to the island since it was a beautiful day, and there was also an Indian festival going on. The waiting area had no queuing system; people were just packed in like cattle and pushed and shoved as soon as the gate for the ferry opened. Poor Becca almost got run over by two strollers. It was madness. I seriously felt like a refugee try to pack on a boat to escape.

After we got on the boat, the rage and stress subsided, and it was so beautiful on the island. We arrived to the concert in time to find a shady spot to spread a blanket and listen to Serena Ryder. We moved closed to the stage for Sarah Harmer's set, which was amazing, as usual. She's such a great singer, songwriter and performer. Seeing her definitely fit the week's theme of connecting with university memories, since we listened to her a lot back then.



After the show, we couldn't help but hang around and take some pictures of Toronto's skyline in the setting sun.



The line for the ferry going back was INSANE, so we decided to hike 3.25 km to the east end of the island (Ward's Island) to take that ferry back instead. It was a really nice walk despite the mosquitos. It had cooled off, and once we got away from Centre Island, it completely felt like we were out of the city. Of course, a lot of people had the same idea as we did, but the line was orderly, and we got on the second ferry back to the city. I think we only had to wait for about forty minutes or so in total after a walk.

Today

This morning Becca had to leave to go take care of work stuff in Vancouver, so she was off to the airport, and her visit was done. We went out for coffee in the morning to celebrate a super fun week. I hope I'll get to see her again before she heads back to France; she has to pick up her visa at some point, so hopefully that's when I'm in the city.

I came home and passed out on my couch for awhile. It's a really hot day, so I decided to see a nice air-conditioned movie. Jane Eyre was playing at one of the old-fashioned rep cinemas in my neighbourhood, so I decided to see that since I love the novel, and I'm not sure if I've ever seen a movie version of it. It was well done; the actor playing Mr. Rochester was dark, brooding, and handsome, and the cinematography of the English moors was outstanding.

I'd also made it a goal to see a movie at this theatre, because it is right out of the 1960s. It's taken me four years, but I finally did it.



So, week #2 of summer vacation is over. Next week is road trip week. I'll write more about that as it's happening. Happy Monday everyone!