Sunset over Sandbanks Park

Part of out itinerary for our outing to Wellington was to photograph the sunset over Sandbanks Park after having dinner at Pomodoro. We weren't exactly successful in fulfilling our goal.

The traffic jam along the 401 on our way out set our whole schedule back. We arrived at the restaurant over half an hour later than planned and finished dinner with a similar time deficit.

According to Peter the sun was supposed to set at about 8:20 p.m. The route to the park from the restaurant is about 24 kilometres. The drive is supposed to take 25 minutes. We left the restaurant at around 8:00 p.m.

The race was on...

Peter's car took the lead again. He was the only person who knew where the "secret" sunset location was.

We had to make a big circle around West Lake on small, country roads to get to our destination. All the while helplessly watching the sun set lower and lower into the sky.

By the time we reached the lake shore it was too late. The sun had dipped fractionally below the horizon. We missed it by just a scant few minutes.

It still afforded us the opportunity to get a few decent shots in nevertheless. What we did see was pretty amazing - a pinky, orange hue reflecting off the scattered clouds in a dark blue sky.

Not bad. Not bad at all.

First Ride of the Season

Cervélo R3 similar to what my friend bought

I went for my first ride of the season last week. My friend, Jenny, called me up and asked if I wanted to go out. She had bought a new bike over the winter from Wheels of Bloor and was going to take it in for a bike fit. They were going to adjust it to fit her body and riding style.

I have to say I was quite jealous. Jenny had bought a Cervélo R3 road bike. It was beautiful. And she got a great deal to boot. Cervélo, a Canadian company, had a manufacturer's deal where if you bought two bikes from them you got $1000 off each! So she bought one and so did one of her friends. If I had only known...

The store is located near High Park. It was a lovely day as I rode down to meet her there. We've had some record-breaking temperatures in Toronto over the past week or so. It got to at least 26C this particular day when the normal daytime high is only supposed to be 5C.

On my way across Bloor I bumped into a former colleague of mine from Trader, Shawn Belzner. He left the company a few years ago to work in New Zealand where his ex had found a job. They lived out there for three or four years and he's been back for about the same amount of time. So it's probably been close to eight years since we last saw each other in person.

Shawn was heading across the street from his small office near Christie Pits to get a slice of pizza for lunch. We stood by the road for 15-20 minutes and caught up on the latest gossip.

Afterwards I continued over to the bike store. Surprisingly I beat Jenny there even after stopping to chat with Shawn. She left slightly before me and she had driven her car. But, she had parked at High Park and half walked/half rode to the store.

The guys there made a few adjustments and we went out for a ride.

We rode around High Park for a little while. Unfortunately it's not a very big place when you're on your bike. So we went south to the trail along the waterfront and rode a bit longer.

Since it was my first ride of the season and I still had to ride back I didn't want to stay out too long. So a short time later I cut the ride short and headed back.

There were two body parts I knew would hurt - my butt and toes. For some reason my shoes feel way too tight now. And my saddle seems to be hard as a rock. Either that or my skinny ol' rump has no padding.

Still it was great to get out again. It was an amazing day to ride. And it was nice meeting old friends again.