A Perfect Fall Day

It was a perfect fall day today: sunny and warm with just a hint of crispness on the breeze.

We met at South Campus LRT station and chatted for awhile...

Laura and Monie both had covetable boots.

Megan and Coreen

Elise and Micah. Check out Elise's patterned tights.

then rode the multiuse paths north...

saw some incredible things...

admired the homes in the mature neighborhoods near the University 

(and commented on how few now are the original bungalows)...

I spent a lot of the ride admiring Monie's cool slouchy purse with crossover strap and polkadot dress.

... as we took a 45 minute ride skimming the top of the river valley.

Sadly the leaves have mostly fallen already, but it did mean we had views through the branches.

High Level Bridge peeking through the trees

We stopped and took photos under the trees near the Faculty Club.

Karen looks amazing! 

She was our pregnant friend in the first Critical Lass ride, & her gorgeous little boy is 6 weeks old. 

The Fluevog boots, Sock Dreams tights, and corduroy skirt are a divine match to her vintage Sparta.

 Here's another shot of the Sparta (swoon!):

Laura sewed this incredible liner for her Eaton's Road King, BeBe, herself. 

She says the crucial thing is to dry-fit the bag to the basket before you sew the bottom in 

(which she learnt the hard way).

Coreen is effortlessly cool. Check out the button detail on her blouse and the purple tights.

Gorgeous Selene and her gorgeous Raleigh. 

We're so very grateful that they weren't badly hurt in the crosswalk incident a few weeks back.

You know, Judy, it's hard to get a good photo of a photographer! 

Matching the narrow belt you cinched your shirtdress with to your covetable Yakkay helmet? Nice touch.

Judy has lots of terrific photos from the ride on her blog.

This shot really shows off Micah's sundress and t-strap shoes,
and gives a nice glimpse of a beautiful tattoo and wonderful large-gauge ear plugs (I wish I had caught her name! update: on Corby).

Group shot. Thanks to the stranger who took this for us.

After photos, we continued on to the little retail area in Garneau near the High Level Bridge.

I also attempted some self-portraits:

I made the layered sterling silver chain necklace myself 

(the secret: tiny split rings and special pliers made for holding them open).

The hemp-blend skirt has drawstrings that let you ruche the top layer as little or as much as you like.

I triple-tied them so they wouldn't end up in my spokes. 

My equestrian boots are old favourites, 

bought to allow my summery 1st-pregnancy wardrobe be worn for my 2nd (autumn) pregnancy.

The dry leaves in the bike lane rustled as our wheels rolled through them.

I'm glad not all the leaves had fallen.

Our destination.

I didn't take any photos in redbike, our favourite LBS, but it's a wonderful shop full of temptations. I finally got to meet Cliff, the owner, and got some advice on a rack for installing a child seat - and Chris noticed that one of Mary Poppins' tires has a loose spoke and needs attention. (So *that's* what's creating that wobble in her gait!). I'll be returning very soon so they can attend to that and some other somewhat-urgent maintenance matters for me (Getting to EBC has been a challenge for me lately!).

Then we popped into The Sugarbowl for rehydration and an early supper. I probably spent an hour a day there back when it was a cafe and I was a grad student. The menu has changed, but the atmosphere is still wonderful there. We arrived just as the menu was switching, so some of us ordered right away from the brunch menu and the rest of us waited 15 minutes and ordered from the dinner menu. I had the delicious corn bread and part of an enormous serving of crab fritters - the rest got packed to come home.

Doesn't Selene's oatmeal look delish?

Karen's husband Dan and a friend met us at the bistro, so we all got to see her beautiful baby boy.

Then we parted ways, and Laura and I rode back the way we had come. 

On the way back I just enjoyed the ride without using my camera.

Thanks to all the fabulous women who came out for the ride!

Next Critical Lass ride date will be announced soon.

Update: in addition to Judy's blog post, there are more fantastic photos of our beautiful ride at Coreen's blog.