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Today Jen left to go back to Vancouver after visiting me here in Toronto for a little over a week. We had a great time together while she was here, and it's too bad that she couldn't stay longer. It'll be a few months before we see each other again.

Last Saturday we took advantage of this NON-winter weather to go for a long bike ride around the city, and to run some errands downtown. We decided to stay off the beaten path (Bloor St.) so that we could check out some of the other neighbourhoods along the way. Sometimes slowing down and taking detours is much better than a fast direct ride! We had one small destination to stop at before running our errands downtown: we had to visit the big elephant on someone's front yard on Yarmouth St. Very cool....not your usual garden gnome lawn statue! We also hit the usual downtown spots (MEC and Urbane), and had dinner in Chinatown.

Last Sunday we met up with Jen's parents and drove out to Unionville to visit Jen's grandma. After the visit and a delicious lunch we were dropped off at Scarborough Town Centre to take the TTC back into the city. The rest of the day's adventures involved exploring the east end around the Coxwell/Pape/Gerrard/Danforth area and going for some tasty Indian food with other bike/HPV fanatics.

Tuesday was, of course, Valentine's Day. Jen and I stayed in to cook up a delicious dinner and dessert.

Friday night involved another trip downtown, this time by TTC. We walked around Yorkville for a while, then found some food and topped off the night out by going to a story tellers gathering at the UofT.

Saturday was Jen's last full day in Toronto. We spent most of the day out in Brampton visiting with Jen's family and celebrating her other grandmother's birthday. We also had a great time playing out in the snow with Jen's two year-old nephew Thomas. It was nice that Jen was able to spend a good chunk of time with her family during this short visit back in Ontario.

Click the above links for more pictures and details of these adventures.

Although the weather has been unusually mild for January in Toronto, last Sunday finally brought some cold weather back. Cold weather, however, is a poor excuse to not go for a bike ride! Since I was planning on meeting up with a few people for dinner on Spadina St. in the evening anyway, I took the opportunity to ride my bike downtown and explore the Kensington Market area for a while too. So go ahead and click here for some more photos of my ride downtown and walk around Kensington and Spadina.

Today I spent the afternoon out on a nice walk, mostly around the Humber River north-east of home. I had a great time exploring some places not too far from home that I hadn't looked at too closely yet. Check out the picture gallery for a detailed look at my day, especially if you like bridges and birds. ;-)

I wanted to get out of the apartment today, and since the winter bike is in the shop, I decided to go for a long walk. I covered more turf than expected, escpecially once I threw in a couple of subway and streetcar rides. Dundas and Islington, Chinatown, Nathan Phillips Square, Dundas Square, Yonge St., Yorkville, and more...
The whole photo gallery with descriptions of where I went is over here.