Hello Friends,

Just days ago I posted about how serious I was about resuming strength training, and really with 6 weeks to go before the Superior Man Triathlon there’s no more time to procrastinate.

Of course my annual visit to my dad’s side of the family was a rather indulgent time.  It was 56 hours with 5 large meals.  My iPhone camera does not do the large spread of Chinese dishes justice.  I didn’t even try.  It did do a fantastic job highlighting the beer.  One afternoon between a substantial lunch, and an even larger dinner we piled into the family van.  We ventured out of the deep suburbs into downtown Toronto for their budding brewery scene.

We went first to Bellwoods where my uncle Pao and I hung out last year when my dad was on his personal light speed tour of Toronto’s art museums. He was doing the same thing this time and missed out on these fantastic brews because the place, the whole place had been reserved for the rest of the night.  We had 1/2 hour to drink as much as we could.

My Cousin Enoch

I had this lovely goblet of Mashpipe.

With our 1/2 hour up, we had a small dilemma.  Dad with the van, was going to meet us at the brewery we were no longer at, and he had no cell phone.  So the 6 of us walked down the street he should drive down and hopped and yelled when we saw him coming.  We piled in and my cousin directed us to our next stop, Indie Alehouse.

We stared with two flights of everything they had.

Then we all ordered our favorites. This was my strawberry wheat Inside Joke from Second City.  It was surprisingly perfect.

My second favorite was High Maintenance which I received a lot of ribbing for.

We had a blast.

This is my dad and uncle Pao

We get a little blurry the more fun we have.

This is my uncle Brian and aunt Jo Ann.  To their right is Paul.

We then ordered poutine and a pizza (with wild boar sausage, pork belly, and smoked pork).  Because while we would go directly to a large family meal after this, we could not resist.  And because the number one family value I’m aware of is to love all food.

Which makes being fit the second and complementary family value.

What do you do to bond with your family?