Summer in the City

Summertime is pretty awesome, isn't it? Sunshine, blue skies, drinking beer on a patio, lazying around at the cottage, swimming, walking around at an outdoor market, ice cream sandwiches... Yeah, pretty awesome, I'd say. (Except funny enough, for someone who grew up in Taiwan and Arizona, I really can't handle the heat; I can, however, just about manage to sit in a perfectly air-conditioned condo and drink iced tea.)

I went to meet up with Mike after work on Friday to grab a pint at the Irish Embassy (wouldn't it be cool if it actually was the Irish Embassy?!) where I managed to down a few gulps of Guinness before I gave up and asked for a Magners cider instead to go with the tasty bacon-wrapped scallops we were snacking on. Then we skipped over to Commerce Court for our dinner at Jump. 

Nothing quite like Summerlicious to make you love Toronto. I can't think of many things better than a beautiful 3-course prix fixe lunch or dinner at a fantastic restaurant so we always try to take advantage when it rolls around. We start to feel rather guilty if we make any more than three reservations in a season but over the years we've ticked off some great restaurants off our list including Canoe, Auberge du Pommier, La Maquette, The 360 at CN Tower, Bymark, Oliver & Bonacini, Provence Delices, and Zucca Trattoria. This Saturday we've got lunch with Derek & Karina at The Bier Markt then next Friday we're gonna try out Eight Wine Bar. When Winterlicious comes around again in February, Centro and North 44 are the first ones I'm going to call. (I think I should probably get a job first though...)

We got up at 9am on Saturday feeling well rested and ready for our 8K run which wasn't too much of a struggle actually particularly when followed by a cool dip in the pool. I made a massive salad for lunch on the balcony (I normally hate salads, but this one had tomatoes, cucumbers, avocado, feta, and my own Dijon dressing and turned out to be really yummy) and then fell asleep during the second half of the Germany vs Uruguay game. After my lovely nap, we got ready and headed down to Polson Pier with free tickets to The Drinks Show (admission is usually $30 but someone was giving away free tickets downtown), had a number of lovely cocktails and saw the Toronto waterfront for the first time as the boats drifted in and out of the harbour.

Sunday was BBQ and the World Cup finals (is it just me or was the World Cup here then gone really quickly?) followed by a not-so-great-but-brainless movie to wrap up the evening. 

And here we are again, a brand new week in July. I hope summer never ends.