Wednesday, September 07, 2005

Halifax is cool too.



I was away over the long weekend. Roadtrip to Halifax. Not too many pictures because too busy having fun. Was impressed with the city. It's small but lot's going on. Lots of bars. The waterfront is very busy. Halifax is a regular stop on the cruise boat circuit. Queen Mary 2 is scheduled in next week. Here's my favourite boat. Theodore the tug boat.

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Tuesday, August 30, 2005

Twister emerges

twister emerging from clouds

Here's the twister emerging from the clouds. Great picture.

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Birth of a Tornado




Earlier I posted an observation that one reason the Toronto storm went generally unreported was because of the tornado in Fergus. Fergus is smaller town, an hour or so northwest of Toronto. A friend of mine just passed along a couple of photos showing the twister in Fergus taking shape. Very impressive.

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Thursday, August 25, 2005

Toronto Old City Hall


Toronto's Old City Hall behind the fountains/skating rink at Nathan Phillips Square. Crazy, out of place tropical island in foreground. Old City Hall was built for $2.5 million back in 1899. Over the past couple of years a lot of work has being going on to clean up the outside of the building. It looks good. The front of the building which fronts onto Dundas Street is still covered in green tarps and scaffolding. Nathan Phillips Square is a public gathering place. The fountain/pool becomes a skating rink in the winter. Toronto's new city hall is just to the left of this picture.

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Wednesday, August 24, 2005

Toronto Storm Picture

Storm flood at Donalda Golf Club
The storm that blew through Toronto last Friday went surprisingly under-reported given its severity. Because there was an actual (actual!) tornado in a small town called Fergus, most of the attention went there (note to Canada watchers - anything that makes us remotely American is reported by the press and gobbled up by the public; it's part of our national inferiority and love/hate relationship with the US - tornados would be one of those things... as would the opening of a Pro Bass Shop). Picture above is from Donalda Golf Club just after the storm. The Club will be lucky to reopen by the end of the golf season. Given the impact on so many people in the city, it feels a little awkward only showing pictures that affect the country club crowd. Ultimately...they'll be OK! Meanwhile scores of people lost cars, basements, yards etc. What's amazing is that no one died.

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Tuesday, August 23, 2005

Tropical Movie Shoot?

Tropical Toronto island picture
I can't really explain this picture. Last time I saw the moat/pool in front of Toronto City Hall people were skating on it - sometime in June. Just kidding. Now there's a tropical island with palm trees! Perhaps it's part of the movie shoot that's going on in the background?

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Sunday, August 21, 2005

JC's Bar & Grill Toronto

JC's Toronto Pics neon sign Not really a bar. Just a really cool site (I'm easily amused) that I came across for generating neon signs and a whole bunch of other stuff. It's called the Generator Blog. Check it out here. Also this cool site for generating code and icons for Technorati Tags - like the Blogger one below. Here. See ya!!

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Thornhill Club Storm Damage

Storm damage at Thornhill Country Club Another shot of the damage from Friday's storm. This bridge was picked up by the water and moved over 3 feet. Crap on top of the bridge was being carried by the water flowing OVER the bridge. First hole of the Club's 'short course' is in the background. Thornhill is a Stanley Thomson designed beauty. From the Blues it plays a modest 6562 yards, par 71. However, the course is tougher than it seems with narrow, treelined fairways, great elevation changes and few flat lies. 50 years ago the Canadian open was played at Thornhill.

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Sand Trap Water Hazard Thornhill CC

Storm damage at Thornhill Country Club More aftermath from a storm that came through Friday. Taken at Thornhill Country Club two days after the storm. One of the tributaries of the Don River flows through - and in this case - over Thornhill. Something like 80% of the traps are beyond repair and will need to be replaced. Normally, these traps are full of nice, white Bermuda sand. For those not feeling sorry for the Country Club types, the storm did plenty of damage to homes in the Thornhill area, most of it from flooding. In one case, 40 cars lost in an underground garage that flooded to the roof. Fore!!

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Saturday, August 20, 2005

Adveritising is Big at the Corner of Dundas and Yonge


It's not Times Square and it's brighter at night, but when it comes to beating the hell out of your consuming sensibilities, the corner of Dundas and Yonge is no slouch. Thank goodness true Canadian spirit remains intact - notice the can of Labatt's Blue under the LG sign. Party on dudes! This is one of the 'famous' corners in Toronto - although any intersection with Yonge Street is well known. All the streets in Toronto run either north-south or east west - which makes getting around pretty easy. Yonge Street is the most central of the north-south streets and therefore has the most stores, cars, bums, hookers, etc. The Subway runs under Yonge Street from Finch in North York (way the hell up there) to Union Station by the Lake. From there it loops back North a little further east. Shopping on Yonge Street includes anyting from the primo stores in the Eaton's Center to antique stores up near St. Clair to Canada's most shopped post yuppie, going on mid-life crisis outlet, Sporting Life.

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Big on Tommy Hilfiger

Tommy Hilfiger ad in Eaton's Center One of a series of large scale advertisements hanging in the Eaton Center. This one for Tommy Hilfiger which would be sold in about half the shops in a mile radius of the mall.

The Green Monster

Big storm in Toronto yesterday. All of the summer's rain came down in about 4 minutes. As a result lots of flooding, traffic mess, airport delays, etc. We got off light. Just the pool overflowed. Sort of not good for the neighbours down-yard of us but with all the water around they wouldn't have known it was us!

Toronto's Eaton Center??


When the Eaton Center was built, Eaton's was the flagship store and the T. Eaton Company was one of the original partners in the builder's consortium. The center was synonymous with the store. Not now. Eaton's went out of business in the late 90's. Now the flagship store is probably H&M - but given they've got all the signage, let's call it Sears. The Toronto Sears Center?

Friday, August 19, 2005

The King of Retail

An almost empty Eaton Center, 10:30 am Friday. By noon this place is busy - by 3:00pm it's jammed. Tourist destination. Good shopping but nothing unique. Get all the same stores in most Canadian malls. Just big. Great people watching. Follow the skywalk at this end of the Eaton Center over to the Bay store - probably the best department store in Canada. 7 or 8 floors. Merchandise you can't get anywhere else and great prices, especially on weekends. Best of all if you don't like it, you can take it back.

The Birds of Retail




Canada Geese hanging from the ceiling of the Toronto Eaton Center. It's scary to think how many times this picture has been taken. I had to wait my turn to take this picture and according to the Eaton Center web site, the Eaton Center is Toronto's (and therfore probably Canada's?)#1 tourist attraction. These geese are the symbol of the Eaton Center and even make it into the logo (top).Given that the Eaton Center opened in 1997, Canada Geese were probably still kind of a cool bird. Not so much now - although some people apparently care. Their population seems to have exploded and geese can be seen occupying any green area, particularly near water. Ask any golfer. Strangest place I ever saw Canada Geese was a small (very) patch of grass at the entrance to London's Heathrow Airport. It's not clear whether they flew themselves or took Air Canada.

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Thursday, August 18, 2005

Toronto is a Clean City


For as long as I can remember, Toronto has had a reputation for being a clean city. Almost always, that's a comparison to American cities of similar size. Overall, I guess that's probably true. It's actually what struck me about this photograph which is taken just below the CN Tower - probably one of the busiest tourist areas in the city. Of course it's early - but there were still perhaps 20 buses on the scene. Not all areas are like this though. And from my perspective, there's no question the Toronto the clean has been in decline for years. Garbage is actually a huge issue for Toronto as their isn't enough local capacity for the tons of crap the city produces every day. So, much to the dismay of environmentalists and residents of Michigan, the city sends something like 125 truckloads of garbage across the border to the US every day. What is it they say...one man's garbage is another man's gold?! Here's the City of Toronto's 'Facts About Trash'.

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Monday, August 15, 2005

Picture - Toronto Tourist Boats


Toronto's lakefront is teaming with boats for touring around Toronto Harbour. These are two of the more interesting ones - Oriole and Showboat. Foreground is Northern Spirit, a 'classic' harbour party boat. All three are owned by Mariposa Cruise Lines. Toronto has a pretty decent harbour for touring around. Across the harbour and facing the city is Toronto Island. From there, great views of CN Tower, Rogers Center, Toronto skyline. Most of the tour boats in the harbour have shallow enough draughts to cruise the inland waterways in and about Toronto Island. I once tried to buy a boat like these. This was a few years ago when there wasn't as much competition as there is now. The financials for the tourist/event boat business at that time were remarkable. All booze based. Very low costs and very large mark-ups. No need to work winters! Could spend those down south - maybe even doing the same business. Here's the Google link for Toronto Harbour Cruises.

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Saturday, August 13, 2005

Steamwhistle Brewery Toronto

Picture of Steamwhistle Brewery Toronto

Kind of funky home of Steamwhistle Brewery near Toronto's Rogers Center. This shot taken looking south towards condos on Lake Ontario. Steamwhistle is a micro brewery making a pretty good Pilsner. See the rating here at RateBeer.com. The building used to be a locomotive repair shop for Canadian Pacific Railways. It was built a few years ago in 1929. Location is interesting. Basically right down by the Rogers Center, just up from the Gardiner Expressway. Lousy grass cutting job out front!

Wednesday, August 10, 2005

Picture - Roy Thompson Hall

Different architecture around Roy Thompson Hall. Hall is a performing arts center at King and Simcoe streets. Known for pretty good accoustics. Cost $52 million. It opened in 1982. Web site here.

Friday, August 05, 2005

Canadian Culture


Canadian culture - hockey, Tim Horton's, Inukshuks (sp?). A whole inukshuk mob scene here on the waterfront. A group of them just threw a cylist into the lake.

Thursday, August 04, 2005

Picture - Humber Bay Bridge

Cool pedestrian bridge on Toronto's western waterfront. Supposedly, this is a picture of the same bridge!

Saturday, July 30, 2005

Toronto Windpower


Where all the hot air comes from. Windmill on the grounds of the Canadian National Exhibition. Called Windshare, this is a project of the Toronto Renewable Energy Coalition. In a 50/50 partnership with Toronto Hydro, Windshare owns this ExPlace turbine and the power it generates.

This is a noble cause and no question there are opportunities for windpower to help reduce power costs in office buildings, condos, etc. But the reality is VERY modest - as in powering the lobby lights in these buidings - not running them. Europe in particular is much further ahead of North America in this regard. However, Ontario/Toronto is living on the edge of an acute energy shortage, for which unfortunately, windpower will not be the answer. Currently, there only is one answer - but nobody wants it. Nuclear. This answer is so politically incorrect that it has stymied the building of any new power generating sources in the Province of Ontario for many years. As a result, Ontario purchases much of its power requirements from others, at costs well above the ceiling set by the government for consumers to pay. Everyone knows there's a crisis coming but no one so far is smart enough or ballsy enough to do what's required to fix the situation.

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Friday, July 29, 2005

Christopher Columbus Discovers Toronto


Arrives just in time for Caribana. Toronto is a multi-ethnic city but this may confuse the hell out of him! This weekend TO will look a lot like some of those southern islands some of Chris' buddies banged into searching for the new world. Of course, this is actually tourist ship. The sails are for show. Boat is really diesel powered.

Wednesday, July 27, 2005

Picture - BCE Concourse

View looking up the elevator of the funky concourse, BCE building. Once you start noticing, you'll see this concourse everywhere, particularly print ads, photo shoots. Probably better known for the Hockey Hall of Fame just behind to the left of where this picture was taken.

Tuesday, July 26, 2005

Drinking in Toronto Harbour

Best view of Toronto waterfront from a bar. The Docks. Doesn't get any better than this. Staff are friendly. Beer is good although there isn't any draft and everything is Labatt's!! On a day like this - who cares??!

Mini-Golf in Toronto Harbour


Mini-golf course at The Docks. Docks is an 'entertainment complex' - bars, driving range, swimming pools, soccer pitch, muscle beach north, drive-in theater - just off Cherry Street at eastern end of Toronto waterfront. Great place for a beer and pretty decent people watching. Big enough (huge) to attract a lot of corporate outings.

Sunday, July 24, 2005

Sailing in Toronto Harbour

Parasail overtakes an Albacore. This Albacore was lead boat in a fleet of about 50. Parasailer very skilled and worked his way through fleet several times.

Saturday, July 23, 2005

Tranquility Base


Finally, the heat has broken. A beautiful Saturday morning in Toronto.

Tuesday, July 19, 2005

Last of the Muskoka pics

Classic Muskoka. Trees and water. Old boat house and bunkie (what you can't see is the new multi-$million super-cottage just off to the right). Have noticed an interesting trend on this blog to evening pics. Could it be that this is the best light for my little Canon A520?...or, is it just a passing fad?

Sunday, July 17, 2005

What lifes all about!


This is one of my favourite Muskoka views. From the BBQ overlooking Lake Joseph. Nothing more relaxing than a nice glass of wine after a tough day on dock. I gotta get a cottage like this! Need the bucks to acquire a decent place in Muskoka. While cheap compared to Europe, some US lake country, properties here range up to $10 mil. Nice ones go for $1.5 to $3 million. Can get some 'starters' for $500K but probably stuck on a river somewhere with boats blasting by your dock. Check it out!

Muskoka sunset


Great Muskoka sunset over Lake Joseph. Wenonah II in the background on one of her overnight lakes cruises. Muskoka is cottage country north of Toronto. Bunch of lakes but the most popular are Lakes Joseph, Rosseau and Muskoka. Goldie Hawn, Martin Short and more than a few hockey players with summer places up here. Towns in Muskoka include Bracebridge, Port Carling, Rousseau. Getting to north end of Rousseau takes approximately 2 hours from Toronto. Worth it. Along with great swimming, scenery also excellent lodges/resorts, outstanding golf, decent fishing.

Sunday, July 10, 2005

Ken and Barbie Go Cruising


Nice fake boat. Radio control model approx a meter long. It's sailing in a foot of water on a pond at Toronto Harbourfront. Bunch of old guys with their models have been doing this for years. Tourists love it. Actually, there were a bunch of nice (real) boats in town this weekend. Normal for summer plus Molson Indy weekend. Saw one from San Francisco. That boy's a ways from home!

Fun Rogers Centre Gargoyles


These gargoyles greet you as you enter the Skydome from Front Street. Actually, Skydome is now called the Rogers Center. Rogers is the Canadian purveyor of lousy internet access, cell phones, digital cable, etc. Probably a decent company but despised fairly broadly for their terrible customer service. Everyone has a story. When it was built, Skydome was a modern wonder although that has mostly faded. Skydome's funkiest feature is it's retractable roof which can open to the elements or close to shut them out in something like 20 minutes. Home teams in the Skydome include the Blue Jays (baseball) and Toronto Argos (CFL football). The Blue Jays won back to back World Series here. For sports nuts, there's a hotel that looks out over center field. In early days before tinted glass, etc fans occasionally got the unexpected thrill of watching couples getting it on high above center field. Great fun for the kids and no extra charge! The facility had been in fairly steady decline until Rogers purchased it a couple of year ago - to go along with their purchase of the Blue Jays who had also been in steady decline. Here's the Rogers Center website.

Saturday, July 09, 2005

Fiery Toronto Summer Sunset


Taken from Lake Ontario over western part of Toronto. Double sun affect was real - not just bad photography. Seems to be caused by interference from clouds?

Topless CN Tower

Top of CN Tower in clouds
Top of the tower is gone in some low hanging cloud. Picture taken looking from Islands which are south of the city on Lake Ontario. White dome is the Skydome. Tower is over 1800 feet tall and is billed as world's tallest building?? Here is website with more info.

Toronto Skyline

Great view of the skyline taken from an evening cruise on Lake Ontario. CN tower defines the skyline and the city. Skydome is the other big attraction downtown. Skydome is the white, round, ghosty thing in front, to left of CN Tower. Tallest building are all bank buildings - Bank of Montreal to left, black TD Towers in the middle, Scotia Tower just hidden by CN Tower. Royal Bank Tower is gold building to right. Good banks in Canada thanks to limited competition, government protection.