ATTN Toronto/Ontario/Canadian FOH Members!

[canadianbeaver]

Tell you one thing:

Pedro looks like a French spy or arteest, especially with a foot+ long custom lanceros.

First post of the night!!!

CB

[tmac77]

Here we are in the upstairs lounge area where we had dinner.

left to right

Canadianbeaver, CKs, Don Pedro, Bundwallah and CDNeh

Uploaded with ImageShack.us

A wicked good lobster appetizer

Uploaded with ImageShack.us

Keeping warm by the fire out on the rooftop patio

left ot right

Canadianbeaver, Bundwallah, CKs, CDNeh, Friend of DP and Don Pedro.

Uploaded with ImageShack.us

CanuckSARTech did show up but forgot to get the camera out to take another group pic. Sorry Keith.

Tom

[pedromendes]

First post of the night!!!

CB

And I NEVER smile.

But seriously, what a fantastic time. If the weather had cooperated, would have been 10 out of 10 - great people, great location, great cigars.

We'll do it again soon!

[Puros Y Vino]

Great pictures and posts folks!! I had a great time meeting people for the first time. Despite the weather it was an enjoyable night. CanuckSARTech ran into a lot of traffic coming from his home town to Toronto and ended up being in traffic for 2 hours longer than he cared for. At least he booked a hotel room, stayed the night and is off fishing as planned. With our Summer around the corner, we'll have better days in which to hold herf's and smoke some beauties.

[El Presidente]

Fantastis stuff Fellas!

Friendship, fraternity, laughter, loyalty

[Tarks]

Good stuff guys/gals! Can't wait for herf season to arrive in da Peg!

[thechenman]

Looks like a great Herf guys...despite the cold. Thanks for sharing it with us.

[ckearns]

I had a great time on Saturday as well. It really was nice to put names and faces to usernames and avatars. I enjoyed the chats we had and the times (yes pl. ) we spent out in the cold enjoying the fine things that brought us all together in the first place. I'm already looking forward to our next get-together.

[CanuckSARTech]

Cheers all.

Glad everyone enjoyed their time at the start, and sorry that I didn't get there as soon as wished. The SAR course that I was teaching ran a bit longer than I wanted it to, and then traffic on the QEW was a sticky issue (surprise, surprise).

But yes, as Frank mentioned, I had a hotel room a few blocks and a $10 taxi ride away, so I definitely did my damndest to catch up to all, beverage-wise! Especially with a number of dark-rum-and-cokes in me, my suppertime-at-10pm-burger sure hit the spot! Hell, even with me arriving there at 8:30pm, there was still time for an easy 2 cigars (enjoyed a Trinidad Robustos T to start, and then a Dip #4 to finish it up), and some great chatting with fellow members.

It was very cool to be outside, sitting around a patio-firepit and stainless-steel gas-heater stands on the upper deck of the Drake, and enjoying cigars, while enjoying the lights-out "Earth Hour" from 8:30 to 9:30pm. A very cool fireside and candle-lit experience to chat up with online friends and enjoy cigars!

And sorry, but no fishy pictures. I did indeed get to go out fishing the next day, but the conditions, while sunny, were far from ideal. With high pressure and cold temps, there was no bite. I was shoreside fairly close to the Devil's Hole rapids on the Niagara River, and fished from noon-ish right on until after sunset. With multiple layers of UnderArmour thermals, parkas, etc., etc., I still froze my tail off - temps were somewhere around the -10 C mark, which wouldn't have been that bad, but the wind whipping up the gorge was making everything freeze up. My line (a braided Spiderwire line) kept on freezing up, both into the reel's spool as well as the rod's eyelets. There were a number of times that I thought I had a snag, only to realize that it was my line that had flash-frozen onto my rod and making it near impossible to reel in. So, needless to say, with all that negativity, no, I didn't catch a fish. Not a single hit. Guys out in boats were saying that they weren't even having any luck painting any with their sonar, and there was only one guy shoreside that had a single hit/fish, a small rainbow that he ended up releasing back (only about 4 or 5 pounds).

Only thing I caught was a speeding ticket for cruising down the QEW to Niagara when I was heading there to fish (totally my bad - trying to pass someone without paying attention to my overall speed, and drove right into a speed trap, but a break was cut on my ticket, and it was reduced to a simple 15 kph over in a 100 kph zone). Better for a $50 fine than a $300 one!

Yet, I was still able to enjoy a splendid Monte 2 from a Czar's HQ box. Even with the cold (and me starting to feel a bit sickish), it was still loaded with creamy coffee and light cocoa hints, wonderful.

Fish or no fish, and cold weather or not, I still thoroughly enjoyed my weekend, and had a wonderful time meeting all.

Cheers!