adventure in the beach.

Saturday was our 6 year wedding anniversary.  We celebrated by ditching our kids and heading into Toronto for an entire 24 hours on our own (the first time in 2 years!!).  Our friend Raye generously offered up her house in The Beach for us as she and her man Craig were up in the Big Nickel.  They have a very nice place so we truly lucked out.  We dropped our stuff off, chilled for a bit and then decided to go explore the area.  After walking for a bit in search of a suitable restaurant, we decided to go with our friend Raye's suggestion of Gio Rana's at Queen and Leslie.  Feeling particularly lazy, we jumped in a cab.

Gio Rana's doesn't have a sign with their name on it - just this 3D nose.  We were a bit confused, and, as it turns out, there an hour before they open.  

We asked where they suggested to get a drink while we waited for them to open and we were directed to the Ceili Cottage (pronounced "kay-lee" for all you celtic fans).

I asked for a coffee but was informed "this ain't Tim Horton's darlin'" to which I responded "well, fuck me, I guess I'll have a beer then".  We ordered up 2 pints of the McAuslane Apricot Wheat Beer.  Pretty damn tasty.

Turns out Saturday was also the US Little League Championships -  Texas vs. Hawaii.  Instead of  doing the required hot wives shot, ESPN treated us to a closeup of the yummy mummy club.  Too funny.

We felt really bad for the Texas pitcher- he was getting killed on the mound and his coach had to leave him in the game because there were no relief pitchers available.  It was kind of uncomfortable to watch actually.

After Scott finished my beer we headed over to "The Nose" for dinner.  I ordered that coffee I wanted (no falling asleep on the one night of the year I get to be kid free!). And took a blurry picture of my coffee...it wasn't actually running across the table.

Our very friendly waitress Carly posed with the menu.  

I ordered the osso bucco.  Tasty tasty murder.

Scott ordered a steak dish of some sort.  Carly peppered him up.

Because it was our anniversary, Carly treated us to dessert - a wonderful brownie with fruit and whip cream and caramel and faint booze...and of course, tiramisu.  We were pretty full but we made a pretty good dent in it.

Since we were super stuffed after dinner, we decided to walk back to Raye's place to digest.  Of course, we had to take rude pictures along the way.  This is Scott's best impression of what "double hung" means.  I just think this store is over-promising...

We were also treated to an eyeful as the "Drop Everything For Cancer - Underwear Affair"  race was happening in our very midst.  I was the creepy chick with the bberry and I snapped this pic of these ladies in their skivvies unbeknownst to them.

We passed this really interesting tree as well.  I have no idea what kind it is - but wow!

This poor dog was tied up on our way to dinner and was still tied up almost 3 hours later.  It was pretty warm out so I felt bad for him.  

The view from the end of Raye's street is incredible.  Now I understand why people pay a fortune to live in The Beach.  It's like being at super modern cottage country in the middle of the city,  except with more cupcake shops and patios than you have ever seen in a single block.

We spent the rest of the evening relaxing, getting reacquainted, watched the movie "kick ass" and did I mention we relaxed? And slept...and there were no kids...that was the best part I think.  I even got time to read my new book, which as it turns out,  Raye is also reading.

Sunday morning we got up, walked up to Queen Street for brunch on a patio, then came back, chilled out some more and then packed up.  Raye had recommended we check out Ed's Real Scoop - so we went there for lunch.  If having gelato at noon counts as lunch?

I had a hard time choosing just one flavour, so I finally settled on a waffle cone with both raspberry and chocolate gelato.  Divine.  We must go back!  We made it back to Oakville early so we went grocery shopping before we hit home (gotta make sure we have something to feed the kids!).  I can't remember the last time I felt this relaxed.  What a difference a day made.