More Toronto

Sighhhhhh....

I'm still waxing poetic to myself about the Bata Shoe Museum in my last post. Writing about it brought it all back; I'm wishing I could return.

I remember how astounded I was to read on their site that their gift shop carried books about shoes. My two loves, all rolled into one. Think about that: Books. About shoes. As my daughter-in-law elect put it, "BOOKS! ABOUT!! SHOES!!!!!!!!! *squeal*" I remember wondering if any of these books about shoes would feature shoes with books on them... but the very thought made me faint, so I stopped thinking.

ANYWAY!

There is much more to see in Toronto than the Shoe Museum.



On the third day we utilized the excellent, efficient, clean transit system to get ourselves to the Ontario Science Centre. This was a trip entirely for the entertainment of our young son -- we have our own Science Centre in town and couldn't see how much better this one could be than our own.

The reviews I had read had cautioned the reader that the centre cannot be seen all in one day. As we walked up to it I thought, "Eh, it's no bigger than ours. We should be out of here in four hours or less."

Ahhhahahahaha! Famous last words!

Over six hours later we had only seen about 2/3 of the Centre. Most of the area was either underground or in back. Good God, this place was huge.



There was a floor with the planetarium and a whole ton of wickedly cool space exhibits, and two enormous play areas that had things like a water table, ball roller coasters, a play house with blocks, a big grocery store, and on and on and on. Another floor had a display about the technology and considerations in going to Mars, complete with weight simulators. There was a gigantic area where children could build things out of circuit boards and wires and stuff, or they could make shoes out of various materials, or they could make stop-go animation movies and publish them to the 'net. There was a floor entirely about communications and technology, a rainforest where you could even go on guided nature tours outside, and another floor dedicated to the human body, which we unfortunately missed entirely. My husband and I sat there, nearly dead, wondering how the hell we would summon up the energy to go anywhere else on this trip.

I found one thing that made me laugh, and it wasn't one of the displays. At the water table I saw the camp leaders of a variety of summer camps standing around as the children played in the water. One day camp was called the Lubavich Day Camp, comprised of orthodox Jewish people. The little boys wore yarmulkes, the women all wore skirts and the married pregnant ones had their heads covered. Another camp present was comprised of strict Muslim people; the little girls even had the head scarves (which normally they don't do until they get older, but with this one they started young). The adults of both camps were scrupulously avoiding each other. The children? They were all playing together and cooperating with their projects at the water table; I even took a picture of a little Muslim girl with a head scarf, building a dam in cooperation with a little boy with a yarmulke. (No, I won't post it; these are other people's kids.) This just cracked me up. Apparently they have forgotten how important it is to cling to religious and personal differences; instead they chose to play and cooperate.

I think we all need a de-aging machine. A lot of us could stand to be like that again.



Back to the awesome hotel to soak in the pool and get ready for the next day.

The next day, we were starting to plan for our trip to Niagara Falls and my husband had decided that going via Greyhound bus would be the best idea. So, our day consisted mainly of wandering around the city of Toronto for awhile, taking in the various neighbourhoods, and checking out the Greyhound station.

Toronto is a fabulous place in which to walk around. What a blast! Everything is so big, so clean, so cool.



This pic doesn't really do this area justice.

NOTE: None of the pics on here were taken by me. I haven't uploaded mine to my computer yet. Why? 'Cause I suck.

Anyway, this area is Yonge Street and Dundas Street intersection. Along Yonge street are all sorts of huge billboards, shops galore, and people, people, people. The area in this pic had a large stage set up when we were there, for the upcoming Just For Laughs festival. This is a comedy festival that goes on every year and it attracts very big names in comedy. We didn't see any, unfortunately.

We also sat in front of the City Hall area with the pool and fountain:



The buildings here are a real mix of old and new; instead of tearing down the heritage buildings like *some* cities I know, Toronto seems to have kept a great many of their old ones. The one in this pic is the old city hall -- very cool.

We also found the recording studio for MuchMusic, the Canadian version of MTV. This was a real surprise; the outside of the building didn't advertise its occupants at all. We stepped in and saw some filming going on, and a security guard suggested we leave, so we did. Somehow I thought the Canadian centre of rock TV would be somehow more grandiose.

We also wandered briefly into a Chapters store nearby -- Chapters is a huge Canadian bookstore chain -- where the building looked as though an enormous Rubik's Cube had smashed into it from space. I had been searching for the Rubik's Cube building that i had seen on the maps; my family thought it was a ruse to get them to accompany me into a bookstore. :)

I could write on and on about the streets of Toronto but I really can't capture the essence of it; you'll just have to see it yourself.

I will post more tomorrow about the trip.

Adios.