Take Off! My Life and Times in Toronto
My life and work in Toronto, Canada.
My life and work in Toronto, Canada.
An attraction in Niagara Falls I didn't get to take my kids to is the Lego Brick Art exhibit.
The whole thing is the brainchild of a Mississaga artists who bought all the Lego, rented a small hall in Niagara Falls, and built all this.
An overview. In the center is a full replica of the CN Tower as well as many Toronto buildings on the left.
What Lego exhibit is complete without a replica Golden Gate Bridge?
A stunning replica of the Taj Mahal, complete with elephant on the lower left. The artist said he just used photos of the buildings to replicate them.
Around the whole setup ran nine train loops with various Lego trains on them. I told the guy that he'd "achieved one of my fantasies in life -- having more Legos than I knew what to do with". He looked at me like I was a kook.
Went back to Niagara Falls, Ontario for one more round. I don't know if I'll be leaving town next Sat. (21st) or the one after (28th), but in either case, I won't be back to Niagara Falls for quite some time. (I'm still waiting to get a chance to see Geneva, Switzerland again.)
Skylon Tower, all 525 feet of it.
The main observation deck with easy-to-poke-camera-through fencing.
The Marriott Renaissance hotel that Anne and I stayed in when we were here in June. We were on the lowest glass windowed floor, near the middle.
The new Casino, plus our hotel and the Hilton next to it on Fallsview Lane.
The view our "fallsview" room didn't have -- of the American Falls.
A very busy Rainbow Bridge.
Closeup of Goat Island point and part of the Horseshoe Falls.
Closeup of the Walk Under the Falls on Goat Island and part of the American Falls.
The Maid of the Mist passing near Table Rock.
The falls spot light point (and some obsolete hydro equipment).
The American Maid of the Mist elevator and two of the ships.
Today I was planning on visiting Elizabeth Allen (neeBeth Seog) at the bookstore she works at in Aurora, Ontario and then go do some random thing. I wasn't able to find the bookstore but as I was leaving the RI, I took a look at the tourist info rack and saw a very well made flyer for The Fergus Scottish Festival. I decided to go check it out.
I don't want to bore you with all the navigational details, however this festival was out in the middle of nowhere. I had to drive out 401 to Guelph, and then up Hwy. 6. The festival organizers placed signs directing traffic to a back road (my GPS led the way) to the parking.
Fergus is farm country, folks.
The Festival is held at what looks like a rural civic center that is better suited for cattle auctions than anime conventions. Just inside the entrance was the strangest thing I've ever seen a bank do, an ATM embedded in a van.
The Festival was spread over several acres and fields, but the main drag looked something like this.
These being Scottish farmers, there was livestock on display. What Scottish Festival would be complete without sheep (and an open lecture on the perils of sheering said sheep).
A small barn held two "Scottish" cattle. They were substantially furrier than the Texas variety, better suited to living on rainy, cold rocks all year round.
A large area of the Festival was filled with netted tents, in which young women were constantly changing clothes in plain sight. After a while, I realized that all the shirtless girls in bras were getting ready for the next round of Highland Dance Competition.
A live bagpipe player accompanied the dancers who ranged in age up to 18 years. I assume that was so that each performance had to accomodate the tempo of a human performer and not a recording. The costumes are fairly simply but all featured a kind of doily worn across the chest by each young woman. Many were wandering around with the doily and and a brassiere (on top). I wonder what the ancient Scots would have thought?
Another major competition was marching pipe bands. I called Anne while watching these to tell her where I was and hope she could hear the pipes. She really likes bagpipes, and these bands (while not large) were quite audible. And also, quite good. Fortunately, few actually played Amazing Grace.
I saw (to my surprise) that you could tune a bagpipe. I imagine some kind of vise adjustment on the cat trapped in the bag. You tell me.
But perhaps the biggest draw, and certainly the largest crowd, was for the Highland Games. I only saw two events: Robertson Caber and Fergus Stone.
The Caber is a telephone pole toss. I mean, look at this and tell me it's not a telephone pole toss:
I had a number of funny captions in mind ("Scottish telekinetic lifts telephone pole" or how about "Man in Kilt 'heals' possessed tree trunk") but watching this insane "sport" just took all the fun out of ribbing it. This must be the original "X Game".
You gotta admit, that caber looks like the bone tossed at the beginning of 2001: A Space Odyssey.
So what sort of git comes to this kind of event? How about this lad on the left, who looks like he didn't have a SciFi convention to attend this weekend. More typical is the gent on the right, with full kilt and gear (getting coffee, of all things).
And speaking of kilts, there were more than a few around. Here's one for the handyman (it was called the "Utilikilt").
Fortunately, there were a lot of artisans selling their wares. This stunning image ased on Stonehenge caught my eye (the artist is inset).
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Some beautiful Scottish wedding dresses were on display.
As were many sword vendors' collections.
What about food, you ask? Scottish food? You mean ... haggis? I have no idea what this booth actually served ... I was too afraid to approach and ask.
This eatery caught my eye because I thought the elephant theme would amuse Anne.
I had some local ale (Sleeman's Honey Brown Lager) just before I left, so I didn't leave without a proper drink at the pub. The lager was tasty with a hint of honey. Don't take my word for it ... I'm not a qualified beer drinker by any means.
They held a "Scotch Nosing" event that I would not have enjoyed, but which many of my dear readers would. Eight different Scotch brands were offered and a history of Scotch whiskey was presented with the drink. It would have been quite an interesting lecture if I could have stomached the drink. Alas, scotch is wasted on me.
Here are the promised photos of Casa Loma:
Tonite I wandered through the Toronto Beaches International Jazz Festival, held on Queen Street near Woodbine, one block north of Toronto's beachfront.
I parked on the north edge of Woodbine Park (see next entry), walked down the side street bordering Woodbine on the east side to Lake Shore Blvd. Then I went along the boardwalk to the Kew Gardens, where the Boathouse is located.
Inside the Boathouse a small group was performing rather loudly to a mixed crowd. Every venue during the fete was open and free, so you could sample the music buffet-style.
On the way to Queen St., I passed this interesting looking house.
The main venue for the Beaches Jazz Fete.
Queen St. crowd and ubiquitous street car. Oh, and that "Rollergirl" from the Dire Straits song.
Hey the Great Ones have been here, too. Believe me, this B&Js is perfect for this part of Toronto. The Beaches are very much a tourist-Jimmy Buffet zone.
What pub crawl is complete without a visit to Murphy's Law?
After I made my way back to the cinema, I stepped in to see Spiderman 2. When I left the theater I was surprised with a performance by Vivian Clement performing outside the theater. She was quite good!
I finally went down to "the Beaches", Toronto's beachfront on Lake Ontario, to see what is there.
I parked a block away at the Beaches Alliance Atlantis theater, and walked down a road that bordered a park. Along the way, I noticed a vista I couldn't resist-a:
This is part of a small kid's park, but the frog and the CN tower together made a uniquely Torontian view.
I made my way down to the boardwalk, which was lightly crowded with weekend beach combers. One thing about Toronto, and it's a good thing, is the huge diversity of cultures represented in town. And they were all here ... saris, burkas, all-but-naked, and of course, me wearing long pants and a Tilley™ hat.
One section of the Beaches features dozens of volleyball courts. No sane person would actually get into the water, mind you.
Partway down the boardwalk, looking back at the CN Tower poking up behind a tree. Oh look! A crazy person in the water afterall. Psycho!
I made my way to a rocky out cropping to take this stark image looking south onto Lake Ontario. St. Catherines is "that-a-way" if you can swim 35 miles in cold water.
Near the boathouse (where a Jazz venue was playing) is this utility building out on the sand. It looks very "New England"-ish to me.
On my way to Dershstock I diverted my route to pass through Delhi, NY. This is the small Upstate NY town that is featured in the Newberry Award winning children's novel My Side of the Mountain by Jean Craighead George. I read that book as a 4th grader, and I've been reading it to Leo (in fits and bits) as well. Now I've seen the town and have some sense of why the author chose it for her story.
On the outskirts of town.
This is the main street, which happens to also be NY Route 28, the road that crosses the Catskills Park.
After visiting downtown Ithaca, NY, Barbara and I drove out to Robert H. Treman State Park to see the Enfield Glen and Lucifer Falls.
This is the Enfield Glen, a natural channel with strikingly orthogonal features.
Further down the Glen, towards the narrow channel.
A smaller staircase waterfall between the Glen and the Lucifer Falls.
The top of Lucifer Falls. Barbara is standing at the top of the long staircase winding down the side of the Falls.
Looking down the one and one-half mile long gorge running from Lucifer Falls.
Part of the top of Lucifer Falls.
Looking back up the staircase leading down Lucifer Falls. Again, that's Barbara in frame.
Barbara and I drove out to Ithaca, NY today. She wanted to revisit one of her childhood haunts and I wanted to see the Sagan Planet Walk again.
We parked at the city garage behind the Ithaca Commons and walked through a used book store to reach the main concourse.
We stopped for lunch at this eclectic deli (it was decorated in faux tree branches and greenery).
Hey, it's a college town. So people do weird stuff to their bodies nowadays.
The starting point for the Carl Sagan Planet Walk, a series of exhibits representing all the bodies of the solar system, arranged in relative distance from each other as are the real planets. The Sun is unique in the exhibit as it's represented by a hole in the stone tablet.
My favorite planet (outside of Earth) is represented by this tableaux.
Of course no trip to Ithaca is complete without passing by the famous Moosewood Restaurant, a renouned vegan restaurant. It's part of the DeWitt Mall, which has several eclectic shops in it that we stepped through.
The Moosewood Restaurant's bar area, which had a live Jazz artist performing when we walked through.
After the Aero Car ride, I drove down to the main Falls thinking I would do the Table Rock exhibits, but the parking lots were entirely full (and charging the "Gouge the Yankees" rates of $18CDN), so I went back up Niagara Falls Parkway and stopped at the White Water Rapids walkway (which, incidentally, has free parking).
For $8CDN you take a looooong elevator ride down to the river level, and then can proceed up a gang plank path that stretches for 300m or so, along the most violent and powerful section of the Niagara River.
At the bottom of the elevator shaft is a long tunnel that takes you through the rock to the river's edge.
At the end of the tunnel there is a small room with tourist and geological information (plus video), leading out to a platform just down river of the Whirlpool Bridge (the bridge that isn't open to the general public -- it's the commuter bridge between the Lewiston and Rainbow bridges). I took this photo by extending my arm over the rail and pressing the shutter, so it's not a perspective you'll easily duplicate.
All along the walk there are views of water rushing over rocks of all sizes. This particular flow caught my eye. The resulting photo is a fascinating view of the fractal patterns flowing water will take.
Most of the water is exploding up into the air thanks to enormous boulders just under the water. This is the river equivalent of a mine field.
Click here for a small Quicktime movie of the rapids. Watch the left side of the screen for some spectacular water jets. I shot this with my new Coolpix 5400 digital camera ... not too shabby.
At the end of the gangway is an observation area right at the water's edge. It's quite loud and splashy. I think this is just a few hundred meters up stream from the Whirlpool (see the Aero Car photos for a different perspective). The clouds painted different levels of light on the canyon walls, which is why they vary in darkness.
The gangplank it self is very attractive. I felt at times like I was in a section of the computer game Myst.
Here is the view of the humans at the end of the pathway. The lower level is where the water hits the ... uh ... people. There is an observation area above, too, for the aquaphobic.
Never forget that you are in a falling rock zone. All along the path is evidence that rocks of all sizes occasionally come down ... hard.
More Mystian views.
Here is the starting observation area from a different view (coming back down the path to the entrance tunnel). The Whirlpool Bridge is in the background.
The tunnel that leads to the elevator is dug into this riverbank. This is the outside of the anteroom with the maps and video at the start of the walkway.
Proof that ancient ... glaciers ... landed here, thousands of years ago! I took several photos of rocks of various textures.
Today I drove down to the Niagara Falls park region to explore the Whirlpool and Rapids region. Everyone who comes to the Falls from the U.S. side, (like we did in 2002) misses an incredible amount of fascinating geography and well positioned nature tourism if they don't cross, or if they only stay near the Falls themselves.
This funicular is one of the best in the world. Six cables support the open air car as it makes its slow trip across the entire Whirlpool and back. The ride is around five minutes long, and is amazingly smooth. The only jarring occurs at the dock itself. I don't recall how high up it is, but I'd wager 80m or more. It costs $10CDN to ride it.
The bottom of the Whitewater Rapids.
This is a zoom of the white water section of the Niagara (see the White Water Rapids Walk for other photos), seen from the Aero Car. We're looking upriver, towards the Whirlpool Bridge with the U.S. on the left bank and Canada on the right. These rapids are the strongest in North America.
Looking back at the loading station. No doubt this view is the one many dread!
This is the Whirlpool viewed from 3/4 across the funicular. Some campers were down on the shore of the river (you cannot see them on this reduced image). This view is entirely of the Canadian side of the river. The Whirlpool Golf Course is behind the trees.
This view looks upriver, towards the Whitewater Rapids, the Whirlpool Bridge, and back towards the Canadian side of the river. The direction of the Whirlpool changes depending upon how much water we draw into the electric turbines at night.
The Spanish Aero Car does not stop on the United States side, so you must cross into Canada to ride it. Here is the view on the States' side.
After the ride, I stayed at the exit stairs hoping to take some more photos of the car itself, and possibly other events and views I had missed. Here you can see the elegant six-cable truck that rides on the wires.
Another attraction for the lower river is the Whirlpool Jet Boat. I saw this vehicle on the PBS special on Niagara, so I knew it would show up at the whirlpool if I just hung about for a few minutes. Sure enough, it came up river and into the Whirlpool. They slosh around the pool itself, and then teasingly dip the nose of the boat into the whitewater rapids, then turn back. Nonetheless, you get a serious soaking on this boat.
CNN has an article about the Whistler exhibit at the Art Gallery of Ontario.
American painter James McNeill Whistler is the pivotal artist linking the styles and influences of Frenchman Claude Monet and Briton J.M.W. Turner in a three-man exhibit of impressionism at the Art Gallery of Ontario.The show of the 19th-century landscape painters, making its only North American stop in Toronto, chronicles how a friendship between Whistler and Monet helped to establish impressionism under the industrial revolution's polluted skies.
Whistler broadened Monet's experience by stressing the importance of Turner's epic, atmospheric oils from the first half of the 1800s, said Katharine Lochnan, senior curator at the Art Gallery of Ontario. Lochnan conceived the show while studying Whistler's work.
"He is the pivot, the catalyst, the link between Turner and Monet," Lochnan said. "Whistler was fluent in both English and French and at home in both cultures, so he was a great carrier of ideas."
While we all went down to the Canadian side of the Falls on Friday, today's weather was orders of magnitude better. We had clear skies, and lots of sun. While everyone else went to the Journey Behind the Falls, I walked along the Niagara River stopping to photograph the river and falls.
A close up of the Horseshoe Falls from the Table Rock observation deck.
Two of the Maid of the Mist boats between the American Falls (in the background) and the Canadian Falls. The Rainbow Bridge is visible in the background.
The American Falls and the Table Rock observation decks in the foreground. Rainbow Bridge and Maid of the Mist elevator and platform in the background.
A close up of the Table Rock tourist building and the Horseshoe Falls, taken from the 28th floor of the Embassy Suites.
The Ontario Power Plant and the older and defunct Canada Niagara Power plant, along with the Niagara Falls Park tourist parking lot along River Street. The Botanical Gardens building is between the two power plants.
This is the whole enchilada ... the Canadian (Horseshoe) Falls, Table Rock tourist center, the power plant water inlets, and on the left, Goat Island's viewpoint of the Horseshoe. Niagara Falls, NY is in the background.
Barbara took this family portrait. I need to work on it a bit ... I had the camera setup to over expose the background in order to get our faces more clearly. Of all the shots, this is the one where the kids are not frowning or looking away :-( !
I took Anne to Peller Estates Vineyard for dinner this evening.
We visited the facility when we first drove into Niagara-on-the-Lake (we came up the Niagara Parkway). We were still dressed for Marineland, so we didn't hang out for too long at the wine store.
We had a late reservation, and so we arrived at nine on schedule. Anne quickly chose to order the James Beard Tasting Menu:
She urged me to join her in this, and I agreed. So, for the first time I had oyster fritters, bison, and foie gras. On the whole, it was rather good. I was surprised how rich the 6 yr. old cheddar tasted, for example. Anne was in heaven, and since she had the wine with the meal, was able to enjoy five different Peller drinks.
For dessert, they served a "Valrhona Dark Chocolate & Cabernet Franc Icewine Cube":
By the time this was served, we were so stuffed we could barely finish it (in fact, we didn't). We were there until 11:30pm, after which we only had enough strength to crawl back to the B&B and crash (ok, I did watch a bit of SNL).
Saturday evening before eating at Peller Estates Vineyard, Anne and I went downtown to look out over the lake, do some shopping (I needed a necktie), and take a carriage ride.
You can see the map-themed tie I bought (ironic, given that tomorrow is Father's Day) tied (badly) around my neck. Anne was reluctant to take a horse ride, but I insisted and we got a surprisingly interesting tour of the town, some inside dirt (a Hong Kong woman is buying all the best hotels and B&Bs), and found out the driver was friends with Linda Evangelista's brother.
Historic Fort Niagara (the one we ... America ... used to attack Canada) is clearly across the river on the lake. A local said that the U.S. Coast Guard still used it. I thought that was rather tacky of us.
We had a good view of Toronto 35 miles across Lake Ontario.
On our second night in the Niagara region, Anne and I stayed at the Victoria Street Bed and Breakfast on (where else?) Victoria St. in Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario.
This is the B&B that Brian and I visited a few weeks back. I didn't get to see the Winter room in the inn that I reserved, so I took this room sight unseen:
I knew that we had a large bath and a sleigh bed, but the owners took my plan for a belated honeymoon to heart.
While I was in the bathroom, Anne started laughing out loud. When I came into the room she challenged me to "spot the hint". It took me a few moments to spot the blocks on the mantle ... and burst out laughing myself. I had to explain that I had told the owners that this was to be a surprise, 14 yr. after the fact honeymoon. At the time I told them this, I had completely forgotten that our trip to San Antonio in 1993 was are "real" honeymoon. Doh!
Take a trip with us now, through time and space. To the late 1960's, and to Southern Ontario. To ... Marineland.
It was my idea to drag the kids, Anne and her mother to this theme park. I figured there would be decent animal shows, and a good aquarium. I knew that they boasted the "longest" steel roller-coaster, so I figured that the kids would like that.
What we found was a theme park that has scarcely changed from the 1960's Marineland that I remember going to in California when we lived a few miles from Marineland of the Pacific.
The first thing we did was stand in line for twenty minutes to attend the main animal show. They used seals, a walrus, four dolphin and a smaller female orca in what was largely a traditional yet extremely corny show.
One of the highlights was the unintended switching of walruses as Walrus #1 refused to come down the slide (from my vantage point, I could see the staff struggling to get the beast to move). In case anyone has forgotten ... the Walrus is one ugly critter! Not cute like Mr. Seal.
The show included four very frisky dolphins who did the usual high jumps, flips and squirting the staff. They are so agile, it's startling sometimes. When the orca was brought out these guys made themselves scarce in the adjacent pool.
What Marineland would be complete without a stunt orca? This female was amazing to watch ... an eighteen foot long uber-dolphin that eats fifty pounds of fish a day.
The show ended with the requisite "wave good bye".
A viewing tank held a large collection of Beluga whales. Two of the females were pregnant ... they look like double-wide dolphins.
Alanna and Leo rode this vomit comet ... it's a "Scrambler" that climbes into the sky.
We all rode the Dragon Mountain roller-coaster. The ride ops said the ride was four minutes long ... and it probably was. A very, very long steel coaster that felt like two regular coasters combined. It was cleverly built into a mountain side, with hidden turns and two inversions plus a head-banging cobra head.
The park has only a handful of attractions spread over an enormous area, which meant we spent most of our time walking, walking walking.
After dinner on Friday, Anne and I retired to our "Fallsview" room. Around midnight, I took these photos from the 14th floor of the Marriott Renassance Fallsview.
This image is looking down the Niagara river towards Lake Ontario. The new Casino dominates the image (and the parking garage in front it) but the Rainbow Bridge is visible as a line of lights behind the Casino, and to the right of the Skylon Tower.
Here is a closeup of the Rainbow Bridge. Cars coming from the U.S. still covered half the bridge -- at midnight. When you gotta gamble, you gotta gamble.
I arrived early on Friday, leaving Markham at 11am and reaching the hotel around 12:30pm. I pulled up to the newly built Marriott Fallsview hotel on Fallsview Rd. (seen on the left in the picture below).
As it turns out, I didn't have a reservation here (I had a reservation, just not at this Marriott). In fact, there are two "fallsview" Marriott hotels in Niagara Falls, and they're both on Fallsview Road. The one I had a reservation with was across the street from the enormous new Fallsview Casino, which just happens to block our view of the American Falls. We stayed on the 14th floor, which is the lowest level of the glass rooms in this image (we were right smack in the middle of the floor).
We ended up a block down the street from the Embassy Suites, where Barbara stayed on the 28th floor with the kids. Thanks to her room, I was able to take all of the spectacular aerial shots of the Horseshoe Falls and surrounding areas. The Konica Minolta Tower was right outside her window.
We did the Toronto theme park located a short drive from the RI (just up 400 from the ETR). We arrived around 10am and found the line of cars leading to the entrance rather spectacular. After some derring-do, we were parked and inside this compact yet full featured amusement park.
The Paramount tie-ins were abundant and amusing. I found many references to Jimmy Neutron, which was produced by an old HS friend (John A. Davis). We saw the Spongebob character walking around the park, too. It was wall-to-wall Spongebob, and almost no Star Trek to be seen!
The first ride we stood in line for (about 1h) is the new Tomb Raider coaster. This was our first "lie-down coaster", essentially a mouse-style coaster with the added bonus of corkscrew flips thanks to the enclosed cage cars. It was a bit of a head banger, and really not much of a thrill ride.
We didn't ride this vomit comet, but we were amazed to watch it balance upside down on some runs. Note the irony of using the Space Shuttle in a theme park ride. A startlingly large number of rides fell into the "spin and puke" category, including the infamous "Spinnaker" ride that graced Six Flags Over Texas in the eighties.
Anne and Alanna rode this stand up coaster (the name of which escapes me). Leo decided not to ride while in line, so I just took him through and we waited for Anne and Alanna to report. They said the stand up coaster at Six Flags Fiesta Texas is better.
One surprising sight was dozens of carp swimming almost out of the creek at the feeding bridge. These fish were aggressive and most had their snouts out of the water. Scary.
We rode the hanging gondola ride which is similar to the XLR-8 at Fiesta Texas, and the "mountain train" which is the run-away mine train inside a cave. It was fun, but like all the rides we experienced, very short. No single ride was more than a minute, which was dissappointing. The park was very clean and attractive, but the themes were very dated.
Anne and I went to Le Select for dinner tonite.
We left the kids on their own at the RI (they had all the gear and an entire hotel full of staff backing them up), and drove down Leslie to Don Mills, then across to the DVP and downtown. Traffic was pretty insane thanks to a Blue Jays game, but we found our way to Queen Street and the same parking garage I used last week when I came down to get Melanie's Lush soap.
We walked down Queen Street and visited Lush. Anne found some massage oil bars and some soap she wanted to try. We looked in the silly boutiques and marveled at the urban critters.
At Le Select, we were seated in the front table (#1) by the window. We had a good view out the front but were not really in the romantic section of the restaurant. Anne had lamp chops and cous cous, whereas I ordered the prix fix flank steak and frites. Anne enjoyed the meal, the brandy, and the time away from the kids at the RI ;-).
Took Anne and the kids to Scooters for the Wed. night family skate. There were two young kids' birthday parties going, but other than a small swarm of rugrats on roller-blades, we had the rink to ourselves.
Dinner was at a local Boston Pizza. The power was out for an hour before we showed up, so the restaurant was understaffed and hobbled. Service and food were ... well lousy is the word I'm going with here. We passed on a Wolfgang Puck restaurant, too!
 The Royal Alexandra Theater | Tonite we went to see Mamma Mia! at The Royal Alexandra Theatre on King Street. Astute readers of this blog will recall I went to see the musical months ago. It was just as good for me this time, although we were in the nose bleed section (upper balcony ... waaaay upper balcony). Almost all of the upper balcony was full of 7th graders from Western Ontario, almost in Manitoba. They had come to Toronto earlier in the week after nearly 24 hours on the road in chartered buses. Their chaperons were rather stunned to find themselves in a very adult (and ribald) musical. It was fun watching the kids squirm. But it was great to finally get to share the musical with Anne and Alanna and Leo. We had a great time. |
Today we went to the CN Tower. All week the air in Toronto has been smoggy, so no one has even seen the tower before today. I was wondering if Anne was going to go through with this -- but not only did she go up the tower, she put a foot on the glass floor!
We had a spectacular view of the Blue Jays game going on in the Skydome below us.
Leo was very reluctant to get on the glass floor, but he was delighted to roll my carcass over it!
The things kids'll do to their parents. That really is me lying on the glass floor, 1,122 ft. above home plate (or so it seemed).
After we descended the tower, we did the Lego Racers VR ride, which was amusing but nothing to blog about, so I won't.
We were in a bit of a pinch for time as we were planning on eating at the Horizon's Café at the CN Tower, and it was closed for a group event. Instead, we went to the Texas Lone Star Grill down Front St. after being taxied there on a rickshaw.
We visited the Pacific Mall today. I had never been there, so it was an adventure for all of us. Anne looked longingly at jade and black pearl jewelry, Alanna lusted after plushies and Pocky ("pocky ... pocky ... pocky ... mushroom -- mushroom"), and Leo found almost every console game store. Anne picked up some fried squid bits, and Alanna and I stocked up on Cowboy Bebop posters and cards.
I had to go to Buffalo this weekend to do some shopping. I needed to replace my Golf's tires (they had an average of 2/32nds tread left and were getting pretty slippery on the wet roads), and I wanted to get a wireless NAT router for Anne's mom, Barbara, so her DSL connection can be shared. I shopped around Toronto fo r these items, but I couldn't get them financed at little or no interest for several months in Canada (my Best Buy and NTB cards don't work here), so I had to drive to the U.S.
This was the first full sunny weekend in Toronto since I've arrived (the weekend with Brian was sunny on Sunday), and I spent it in NY. Oh well. The drive was easy and quite familiar now. The line of U.S. cars seeking asylum, er, vacation in Canada at the Peace Bridge in Buffalo was astonishing. By contrast, I had a three car wait.
The guys at the tire shop did a so-so job on my car ... apparently VW uses stick-on weights that these guys couldn't handle very well. But the got the tires on and reasonably balanced, so I'm much better off than before (and Sears financed the deal for six months at 2.9%). By comparison, Best Buy was easy.
Today Brian and I went to the Royal Ontario Museum, and visited the Eternal Egypt exhibit.
The exhibit was closed for personal cameras, so I don't have any shots of it. It is extensive, and composed of items from the British Museum that were taken from Egypt during the end of the British Empire and which are now highly contested objects (Egypt wants them back). Dating from 3000 BCE to the Roman era, the exhibit's items were truely amazing in their form and fabrication.
Ok, the truth is unless you're seriously into Egyptology, it was kind of dull. The exhibit was professionally done, and I learn a lot, but kids will be bored out of their minds here.
On the other hand, they do have beavers and other things Canadian.
And other things British.
The main hall has exhibit boxes that give you an idea of what exhibits are on each floor.
Outside the main building is a great view of downtown, and the CN Tower, somewhere kid's rather have a lot more fun.
Brian had never been to the Falls, so after we found Tesla, we visited the Horseshoe Falls from the American side (the same place that Barbara and I were a month earlier).
The lower (and closer) walkway was open, unlike earlier when Barbara and I visited, so Brian and I went down to get a better look.
Most of the time, I never get a photo of myself at these places. I asked Brian to take photos of me ... I'm "posing" in this one as a harried tourist photographer. Am I acting, or is it natural?
This time the Maid of the Mist was running.
One thing I love about Toronto is the large quantity of VW Golfs on the road. I was downtown this weekend and this scene of two Golfs caught my eye.
It's great being in a city in a country where VW Golf TDIs roam freely and without fear of being eaten by Hummers.
I made my way downtown today, and visited one of the larger shopping malls (ok, that's not 100% true. I was going to Henry's main store to get some Fuji Velvia slide film and the easiest place to park is Eaton). I took this series of photos inside:
At the north end of the Centre is a large mobile of Canada Geese. Quite spectacular. I was hoping they didn't move and do the other thing Canada geese are notorious for.
I loved this musical! It's always fun when you know the songs, but to hear ABBA classics twisted around and inverted ("Take a Chance On Me" is turned into a song about a young man hitting on an older woman, for instance, instead of the original where an older man rebuffs a younger girl) made them sound fresh again. The Toronto cast is great, and I was reminded of why live performances are so unique and special compared to movies.
Go see this if you can!
Here are some more CN Tower photos:
Here's a better view of the glass floor and the distant ground beneath it. Remember, it's 1,122 feet to the cement in this shot. I'll never forget that number. The blemish in the picture is not an American tourist splashed on the ground, but rather something slowly eating away at the structural integrity of the window I'm standing on ...
The interior of the Tower is gorgeous -- a kind of high-tech wood panel look that is very classy.
Ok, every native Canadian I have asked has said, "no, I haven't been up the CN Tower, now that you mention it..."
Now, I can relate. I've never been to "J.R.'s Ranch" in Lucas, TX. I mean, I know where it is and all, but I'd never go there. That's for tourists (a.k.a. suckers)!
It was then that I realized I had one and only one opportunity to go up the tower, and that's the first time I went downtown to the real Toronto. Once I got a taste of being in Toronto, I'd be "too cool" to go up the tower (hey, that's for tourists). So I went.
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Let's just cut to the chase: at 553 meters tall, the CN Tower is the tallest object humans have ever raised from the ground to the sky, period. This is the Big Enchilada. The Tall Cool One. You can see the tower from almost anywhere in Toronto, if you know where to look (hint: south). It looks like an enourmous rocket, ready to launch.
I parked at the SkyDome and walked up to the CN Tower ticket line, which ran outside the building and into the windy, freezing, cold. After about forty minutes in line, I dropped 20$CDN for an adult ticket to the observation deck, which gets you to the main section where there are three floors and two restaurants. The elevator glides up the side of the tower, climbing the 1,122 feet to the observation deck in 58 seconds (around 22 MPH). The ride is smooth, and you can crowd in the back of the elevator car if you don't want to see Mother Earth slowly dwindling underneath you. For the rest of us, there are some midsized windows to peer through at the spectacular view. This excerpt from the CN Tower website describes the main observation decks:
Click here for an huge panoramic photo of the Tower. |
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That's my foot pressing down on the glass floor, poised 1,122 ft. above the FREAKING GROUND. All the adults were glaring at the glass floor like we had all lost some idiotic bet and were only here long enough to get past this terrifying mistake in our (hopefully) short lived gambling lives.
After some long, painfully introspective moments ("I believe in engineering! I believe!") I stepped, gingerly, onto the glass. And then stepped back. Man, that will really fry your brain. Eventually I took a walk across the glass, but I couldn't look down. You can have your photo taken whilst lying on the glass, and many people were doing variations on that theme with hand held cameras. It's not so hard if you don't face down. |
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 | Children, on the other hand, were stomping and jumping on the "Glass Floor From Hell", to their parents' utter horror. The kids were giggling and laughing -- proving beyond a shadow of a doubt that kids have no sense of self-preservation what-so-ever. It was amusing seeing parents tearing their kids away from a floor that is probably stronger than the concrete they are standing on, as if some low flying SUV was about to run them over. |
| Lake Ontario, looking south towards the United States. Toronto Islands are in the foreground, as is part of the Horizons Cafe decor. | 
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The good news is that the tower doesn't sway at all. In fact, it was rather solid when compared with my recollection of being at the top of the World Trade Center in 1983. I look forward to bringing my wife and kids up this monster when they visit this summer. Anne, in particular, is no doubt reading this and calling divorce lawyers. But remember, I got you on the Millennium Force in Sandusky, OH. This is only four times higher! It's a nit!
