This
is the start of my end of the day commute, sadly soon to end. My
office
is in the ninth floor of the big, concrete block building behind the
church. The new place, where I'm moving is the low, two
story,
brown brick building in front. As you can see, I will be
living
literally right around the corner from work. Good for waking
up
late, but not so good as far as commuting for exercise goes.
I
guess in the future I will need to take exercise rides everyday instead.
This
next picture shows what I consider to be the "Waterloo" portion of my
ride. At this point, I have just passed most of the Waterloo
downtown area (confusingly called "Uptown", I guess to differentiate it
from Kitchener's "Downtown" where I work). This is a little
bit
past the halfway point. The building in the background used
to be
a Seagram's factory (possibly distillery?). I had read that
some
of the old Seagram's buildings were converted to living quarters, but I
don't know if this would be an example of that or not. From a
distance, it doesn't appear to me as though anyone lives there.
I'm guessing the clock replaces an old clock used for the
railway
station.
And
this is the railway station. I'm not sure you can make it
out,
but here the path turns from asphalt to gravel at the same and changes
from a downhill to a slight uphill grade as well.
Those two
combine to make me feel like I suddenly travel half the speed with the
same effort. Luckily this is the only gravel/dirt portion of
my
commute.
This
building is called the Perimeter Institute for Advanced Physics (I
think) but everyone calls it the Pi building. I like the
architecture, but those look like sadly small windows.
Scientists
need sunlight too!
Here
I'm well into Waterloo Park. In the morning when I go past,
the
animals aren't out yet, but by the time I get off work, there is
usually a strong farm (and manure!) smell as I go past. I
think
this was a pair of deer, but I'm on the wrong side so I can't see if
there is a plaque or anything identifying what kind of animals they
are. There are some smaller animals later on (and lots of
swans,
geese, ducks and robins everywhere along the commute) but I didn't stop
to take any pictures of them.
Still
moving on gravel and dirt, still on a slight uphill. Usually
the
park is fairly busy, especially on weekends and now that the weather
has changed. My camera doesn't take good enough pictures to
make
it easy, but you can still see lots of park visitors if you try hard!
Here
I have past the park and am about to cross University Avenue.
The
University of Waterloo is to my front on the left, but you can't see it
in this picture because of lens flare from the sun. On the
right
is a strip mall; I got my hair cut there.
Past
the university, we go by the Research and Technology Park.
Its an
industrial park on land owned by the university. My firm is
trying to land some office space there. It would be ironic if
I
commuted from downtown Kitchener to the R&T park because that
is
almost exactly the opposite of the route I have right now.
Sadly
I'd no longer be in walking distance of my gym, so I'd need to think
about how to shower.
And
finally made it to the end of the trip. My cousins (and uncle
and
aunt) live in the red brick house with the silver Ford Taurus parked in
front. Its a really great neighbourhood, although small.
I
love all the mature trees. Their backyard faces what is now
the
R&T Park, but what used to be undeveloped land. That
must
have been great, but even now, the road and building don't have too
much impact because of the thickness of the trees remaining.
Whew!
Took longer than usual to get home because of the picture
taking.
I'll do the Kitchener half someday when I get off early
enough
that there is still sunlight, and I remember to stop every once in a
while for photos.
