Car Modern 2011

And his sleigh should be pulled by eight tiny, little hamsters.

The annual celebration of cold stuff and the interesting building that is the "new" City Hall provides plenty of sparkling lights and fireworks, although due to the proximity of all those windows and buildings the fireworks aren't like the big, exploding starbursts - more like giant streamers of fire.
Starting way back in 1967 this, the 44th annual event, is squeezed into the areas that are still in one piece around all the construction in Nathan Phillips Square. The stage is set up right in front of the entrance to City Hall.
Debbie Travis will start off the night from 5:30 to 7:00pm, then the lighting the Christmas Tree, followed by concerts, fireworks and finally the skating party. Debbie Travis was sponsored by Canadian Tire who gave out free hats and scarves while Debbie posed for photos with fans (the pictures were printed and given to the fans). Musical guests are Shawn Desman, Divine Brown and Sarah Slean. There was also a really cool trampoline performance by Haut-Vol see my YouTube video here.









You can see my pictures of the 2009 celebration here.

No, it's not the Olympics, it's vacation time up in cottage country. It was time for the Civic Holiday weekend up at the Band Cottage on Kawagama Lake which is a couple hours north of Toronto, near the town of Dorset in Haliburton Highlands (which is just beside the boundary with Muskoka). Dorset is a fantastic place to know because when you run out of booze and other goodies you can get it all in the small community with the famous Robinson's General Store. Waterfront property provides recreation and stunning beauty while the ducks provide some of the wildlife and a lot of the poop.

The Band Cottage is a little touch of heaven and we enjoy getting away and partying with family during the annual get together (If you are in the market for your own slice of heaven in the area you can always check out the area Real Estate Directory).  Days are spent enjoying swimming, tubing, games, campfires and sing-alongs. With tubing the participants sit in various styles and sizes of tubes pulled behind boats and depending on the rider's age one of the goals maybe to get them airborne and bounce them out of the tube.

We had some huge marshmallows which tasted great when lightly toasted over the fire. Our fire was spectacular as a dead birch tree was recently cut down and used as firewood. The birch bark is highly flammable and creates a firestorm until the bark is burned away until only the wood remains.
The Civic Holiday weekend also features fireworks put on by the Lake's marinas including the Old Mill Marina.
See more pictures after the jump.


The Kawagama Lake Cottagers' Association also holds a Regatta during the long weekend. The Regatta had many events that reflect vacation activities up in cottage country such as swimming, building sand castles and canoeing. This year they supplied all the canoes for the race events.
Here are some of the Band Clan in the 2010 group photo.

In Dorset we find a street sign advertising the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) which has a CPO designation which stands for Community Policing Officer. Someone has changed this sign to read C3PO which is a reference to a golden protocol robot in Star Wars.

I enjoyed the weather in the GTA and had fun watching a duck race (rubber duckies) and some spectacular fireworks. Happy Birthday Canada. The fireworks, above, are a composite shot and took place in Acton.
The rubber ducks start in a bucket of a front end loader and are dropped off the side of a bridge. People buy tickets and if their duck (numbered on the bottom) crosses the line first, they win the top prize. They are a big group when first dropped but after a couple hundred metres they start to open up. The duck race was in Glen Williams.

Just down the road from Toronto lies Hamilton, otherwise known as Steeltown, the Canadian Fireworks Association 2010 conference had a spectacular Friday night of Fireworks. The setting was Bayfront Park just beside Hamilton Harbour and the fireworks started at quarter to nine and went until 10:30pm. For upcoming fireworks in Hamilton check out the city's special events webpage. For Toronto fireworks see the information below.



We set up our cameras on the platform lookout and waited for the excitement to begin and we weren't disappointed. It was an East versus West battle and the night featured both consumer and professional fireworks.




In Toronto you can always catch fireworks during Victoria Day and Canada Day celebrations. On Victoria Day you can watch fireworks at Ashbridges Bay (The place to watch the fireworks, on a wide expanse of beach!
Monday, May 24, 2010 after 9:30 p.m. but come MUCH earlier!!) or Ontario Place on May 16, 2010.

On Canada Day 2010 the party will be at Mel Lastman Square and also back at Ashbridges Bay. Ontario Place will also play host to the Toronto Festival of Fire from July 1 to the 3rd.

At the end of the year you can also see fireworks at Nathans Phillips Square during the New Years Eve celebrations.