Home again...

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Hey all,

Well, this is a quick note from the homefront...where we are whiling away a great summer in T.O., enjoying time with friends and fam, and gearing up for another year in Shanghai -- and the flight back! (hope we're over the first one by the time we have to get onboard!) It feels a bit strange just laying over in T.O....so since we feel like tourists, we decided to BE tourists!

One of our favorite activities we're enjoying is biking everyday to the Distillery District. A national historic site, the district is a collection of forty buildings on one acre in downtown Toronto. Just like Xin Tian De, it is only open to pedestrians, and the area is filled with cafes, restaurants, art galleries, boutiques and theatres. We particularly like biking there straight from home, because it's an easy route of bike paths through parks and protected wildlife grounds. It's hard to believe that one's in the middle of a city of over 3,000,000 when biking through fields of wildflowers...but then this population would only qualify for a village in China, and consequently that's what T.O. feels like after one year in Shanghai -- a small town!

Other activities we've been participating in have been enjoying barbeques, in our's and friends' backyards...thanks to Craig and Carly's influence, maybe next year in Shanghai we'll partake of the street barbeques, but in the meantime we can't get enough of anything from the grill! Movies on the big screen have been fun, even though our choices have been fairly limited...and Will Smith definitely let us down with "Hancock", (and we picked it!) but we're looking forward to seeing Chris and Johanna's choice of the summer Blockbuster hit, "The Dark Knight"...admittedly for much more than 7 yuan (about $1.00 Cdn), but it's a treat to see films larger than life once again.

So apart from lots of visiting and reacquainting ourselves with friends and places, there's been a lot of relaxing and reading. Whether you're reading this from Singapore, Toronto, or Shanghai...we'd love to hear about your summer, too! Hope it's a good one!

See you soon,
Amy and Roel

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Photos

Good-bye Shanghai
Getting to Pudong Airport was the hardest part...after that the 14-hour flight was a breeze!
(And it only took 5 movies to get across the globe!)

Kabbs
Carly and Craig are manning the Shanghai homefront...and we can't wait to try out their new discoveries, and we loved introducing them to our favorite haunts.

...and New Heights
Where Craig took this picture of Shanghai's skyline from one of our favorite perches on the Bund.

Biking in downtown T.O...
...check it out! This path at the corner of Cherry St. and Lakeshore Blvd. is about 10 minutes from the city centre!

Mill Street Brewery
At Toronto's version of Xin Tian De, we enjoy dinner with Chris and Johanna in an outdoor cafe at an actual brewery in the Distillery District...food was great too!

Sleeman Brewery's 20th Anniversary
In celebration, the entire Distillery District became a party...and we enjoyed beers and jazz bands al fresco.

Cherry Beach
Sun, sand, bikes...and

...para surf sailing
...the newest sport to hit T.O. beaches.

Scenic Route
..this scenic trail winds along the waterfront. We bike it most days, for the view as much as the exercise.

Just a spot of tea...
...on a brief stopover with our yacht...ha, ha!
(We wish) But this tennis club on Lake Ontario is one of our favorite bike destinations for lunch...

Until the clouds roll in...
This summer storm is only one of many in T.O., which is experiencing record rainfalls. But after Shanghai's heat, we love it!

Cn Tower
Without this pic -- snapped quickly from a ride on a 'red rocket' no blog on T.O. would be complete...