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Fathers Day Weekend!

Blog and Journal Urban Exploration

Nightbird and I decided to go up and visit everyone this past weekend. On Saturday we drove up to Toronto in a refreshing rain storm. We ended up driving up to Dixon Road and picking up my friend 'Skelly' who had come in from Oregon to spend a few days in Toronto. So we picked him up and then headed down to 'Avatar-X's loft to hang out for a bit. Richard was there and we all sat around and watched some videos for a bit until it was time to head to a Toronto UE meet! I haven't been to a UE meet in years let alone a Toronto one. Back in the day, I used to host the Roadwolf Meets in Toronto and we often did very crazy things. i.e. Accidentally gaining entry and getting a team of about 14 people inside an ACTIVE factory which we thought was abandoned.... I don't think I ever hosted a boring UE meet (except maybe the ones in Buffalo).

Shiroi showed up at the UE meet wearing a dog costume... for some reason he was the only person Skelly took pics of at the UE meet... lol

It was nice to see some old familiar faces, and a lot of new faces. There was a large turnout at this meet, about 32 people or so. We had lunch, and then headed out to the first location. After a bit of troubleshooting between Richard and I regarding our radios, we were on the road.

Shiroi and I hang out under the Hogs Hallow.

The first location was the Hogs Hallow Bridge in Toronto. This is located on the 401 just west of Yonge Street. The 'location' itself is under the bridge. Catwalks and construction platforms were set up in order to preform bridge work. So we hung out under the bridge for a while. I ended up getting soaked and covered in mud. Which is fine if I was to continue with exploration, but I had planned to meet my mother that evening for dinner as it was her birthday the week prior.

Shiroi attempts to climb a fence...

So once we cleared out of there, I said my goodbyes and headed up to Aurora/Newmarket to visit my mom. The first thing I did when I got there was have a shower as I was covered in mud... Then we ended up ordering pizza and enjoying coversation and TV shows. We ordered pizza nova of course. Actually interesting story. I have written about how Pizza Nova is the best pizza in my opinion in the past. Well as it turns out, it has a bit of history in my family. The guy who ran the original Pizza Nova used to be located in Scarbrough. My mother had never had pizza before, and I believe she said she was in high school when she had her first slice. No one believed her that she had never had it. So they went to Pizza Nova and got a pizza and my mom loved it. Every week when I was a little kid growing up, I can remember my mom ordering a pizza from Pizza Nova every Friday. Pepperoni, Mushroom and Green Pepper! Perhaps this is why I think this is the best pizza... I grew up with it, therefore it is what I feel pizza should taste like and feel like... but I still think the Buffalo pizza is way too greasy. Anyhow, Nightbird got a message from Avatar-X saying they were ready to meet up again for the evening and we left my moms and headed back into Toronto. We met at Av's place and ended up sitting around for a good hour or two trying to figure out how to spend the evening. We called Caesium in Vancouver and I chatted with him for a while. It was very nice to hear from him and catch up on things. Him and I took many adventures together when he lived in Aurora near me.

el_nerdo plays with Av's 'muff' and gives it the shocker.

We ended up getting a list of Beck Taxi frequencies and going out for a drive. We listened to eck Taxi and impersonated a cab a few times on the radio, resulting in many laughs. Then we headed to a hackers pad. A rented out apartment which was shared by a community of hackers. A place where they can come and work on things. It had a nice little work bench and some neat tools for making things with. It was protected by a key card access system and was actually very high tech as you would assume a hackers pad would be. We then headed back to Av's place and watched Bruce Almighty until about 2 am. Nightbird and I were going to stay at Skellies hotel room, since he had an extra bed. So we headed back up to Dixon Road and it wasn't long before we were all asleep. It was a long day! Sunday I woke up early and did some surfing while the other two slept. Skelly then got up and said he was planning on going foaming (chasing trains / rail fanning, and photographing them) in a bit with someone, so we got Nightbird up and got on the road. After dropping Skelly off at Union Station, we decided to head up to Ikea. But first I wanted to get some brekfast. We stopped near my old workplace at Yonge and St. Clair and had breakfast at the Fox and the Fiddle. It wasn't much or impressive, but it worked. Yonge Street was active on this sunny Sunday. Everyone was out, the streets were packed. It was a nice drive up Yonge Street, as I have mentioned before. This was real traffic! Not this crappy Buffalo 'traffic'. Anyhow, we got to Ikea and enjoyed our tour of the place. I must say that Ikea is one of the best stores I know of. Its cheap, well laid out and it is fun! The kitchen sets there were actually really nice. We ended up getting a few items and then headed up to TigerDirect. But first, we stopped at my old house in Thornhill. I gave Nightbird a tour of the neighbourhood I grew up in. Showed her what all used to be farmland and how quickly things grew. A field which I remember used to be a horse pasture, was now a townhouse / highrise apartment complex. Toronto and area has grown so much over the past 20 years, it is amazing. Then you look at a city like Buffalo and you wonder how the hell Buffalo failed. But we all know why Buffalo failed. The Welland Canal, NAFTA, White Flight, and Politics. TigerDirect was busy as usual, but full of decent prices. Except their printers were kind of expensive. I saw that the motherboard I purchased for my computer project was still there and was still the same great price too! A TigerDirect sales person saw me looking at it, and asked if I needed any help. I told him I already had one, and he said oh yes, they are very good. They havent had many complaints or returns from it. We then headed up to my fathers place in Aurora. It was nice to sit and chat with him for a few hours before company showed up. It was my dads birthday as well as Fathers Day, so we had a bit of a party with family. It was great seeing everyone, and everyone was so very social. Even though my dad's side of the family is notably older then Nightbird and I, it is interesting to note that as young people, we never feel awkward or out of place with them. Jane (my aunt) especially is very cool, and open minded. We can talk about pretty much anything with them. I mentioned to my father that I would like to go up north and go fishing on some remote lake with him some weekend and maybe catch some real fish! I don't know if we will, but I hope so. After the party Nightbird and I returned home, to Buffalo. All in all, it was a great weekend. :) Wish I could find some local friends to hang out in Buffalo, and have the same kind of fun that we had in Toronto. I thank Skelly for the photos. As my camera wasn't working. His website can be found here: ke7jff.net


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