My partner and I recently spent a week in Toronto, our old stomping grounds. For him, it was partly a business trip; for me, it was catching up with the old neighbourhoods. For both of us, it culminated in a curbside spot with old friends for the Toronto Pride parade.
I had planned to cover Pride in tonight’s photo diary, but as sometimes happens, the clock caught up with me and I simply ran out of time to prepare.
Instead, I will show a few highlights of other things to see and do in Toronto, in particular the CN Tower.
Join me in this space this coming Thursday for the Pride edition.
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tonight’s feature presentation: Toronto CN Tower
On the morning of the last Tuesday of June, we headed from home to the Calgary airport. An unusual cloud formation was in the east, taking up a spot in a nearly perfect sky:
A few hours later, we checked into our room on the 34th floor of the Sheraton in downtown Toronto, with this as our view facing southward:
The next day, as Partner went to work, I headed out on the streets for a walkabout, working my way eventually toward the CN Tower:
Opened in 1976, the tower was the world’s tallest free-standing structure at that time, and held that record until completion of the Burj Khalifa in 2010. The main observation deck, inside the larger of the two “pods” visible in the photo above, is 1,122 ft. up. A smaller pod, with another observation deck, is about the equivalent of a 33-story building further up. Way up top is the antenna unit, originally designed for TV, radio, and other telecommunications transmissions.
You approach the base of the tower from an entertainment complex that includes the adjacent Rogers Centre, the stadium previously (and forever) known as SkyDome. Now look up. Look wayyyyyy up.
I hadn’t been in the tower for many years, and in fact I had never been up to the second smaller pod. So with my $50 ticket in hand for both pods, I took the ride up in one of the six glass-enclosed elevators to the main pod. In about a minute — literally — you find yourself staring down at the tops of some very tall skyscrapers in downtown Toronto. (The flickering is due to the horizontal separations in the panes of glass that enclose the elevators).
This view, from inside the elevator, looks through a glass panel built into the elevator floor, straight down into the tower’s core:
Inside the main observation deck is a restaurant with a great view. I was there at about 9:30AM, well before the lunchtime seating.
Toronto Island Airport (not Toronto’s main airport) is just below and over there.
This part of downtown near the shore of Lake Ontario has lots of high-rise condos. At least they appear to be high-rise from the ground.
Bay Street and the financial district has some very tall buildings. The darkest buildings in the collection below are at the heart of the TD Centre, which I used to think were scary tall. I remember visiting the observation deck in one of those towers, at about 55 stories, when I was much much younger. And we’re looking down on that.
Directly below, the short-ish square building with a collection of satellite dishes on the roof is the headquarters of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC).
Inside the observation pod, a section of the floor is made of glass panels. You can stand on them if you dare, and look straight down. Those are my feet just on the edge of the glass.
Other people have varying degrees of adventurousness.
You can walk up one level and go outside, to another deck that is open-air, but with a protective mesh so that nothing gets out. It’s quite windy on this deck. On this day, and at this time, there weren’t many tourists around.
Prepare yourself for the second elevator ride, to the upper observation pod. This elevator is inside the core, with no view outside until you get up there.
And what a view it is:
The long white stripes in the centre of the photo below are the “GO” commuter trains, parked between shifts.
The financial district again, from up high, but zoomed in somewhat.
The three circular structures below are (clockwise from the left):
- The Roundhouse, now a museum and park, but in the old days a maintenance facility for train engines, with a huge powerful turntable that could rotate tracks into position for locomotives to be moved into one of several maintenance bays.
- SkyDome (now called Rogers Centre), a stadium with a 3-segment retractable roof. The two rectanglular sections move straight back on a rail system, and the upper left round section rotates to nestle underneath the straight sections, when the roof is opened.
- The roof of the tower’s main pod, about 33 stories below us. There’s a “SkyWalk” attraction in which you can suit up and be walked in a guidance tour around the edge of the pod’s roof. Not for the faint of heart.
Here’s a zoom in on the Roundhouse.
Back on the ground, I continued my walking tour and passed by Toronto City Hall. From this side it’s a bit dull looking but has some great architectural curves.
It gets more interesting as you walk around to the more familiar public facade.
And then you pull back and see both of the curved towers, and a hint of the roof of the “flying saucer” in the centre, which is actual the City Council chambers. The facility was opened in 1965, and remains an iconic symbol of Toronto.
The Toronto Jazz Festival was in full swing (no pun intended), though at this hour of the day, workers and tourists were enjoying being out in the sun on a beautiful day.
Pivoting to the other direction, we see more of Nathan Phillips Square adjacent to City Hall. In winter, this pool (which is not for swimming) ices over and is very popular for skating. The tall boring building on the left is our hotel. Last time we stayed there, we had a room on this side, looking down on the square and City Hall. This time, our view was on the other side, looking toward the CN Tower.
Another view of the square and City Hall, from an elevated walkway surrounding the square.
My lunch on this fine day was a sausage on a bun and french fries, from this very food truck. In a cluster of food servers, the one with the longest line is often the one that people regard as the best.
Top comments for sunday july 10, 2016
From Yasuragi:
Some brilliant comments in Denise Oliver Velez’s piece today “How far have we come since the Scopes ‘Monkey Trial’?”
In truth, there are so many amazing comments in there -- many from people who have taught and are teaching evolutionary science, that the entire comment thread is worthy of submission to you wonderful people.
...Can't promise I won't send more... ;)
mconvente has a point of view from the lab.
kovie goes in a more sociological direction.
top mojo for saturday july 9, 2016
top photos for saturday july 9, 2016