Car Modern 2011

Cranes are necessary for building high rise towers and there are plenty of them in Toronto. At the Sony Centre there is a set of the large cranes; one is the traditional horizontal type called a tower crane and one with an inclined arm called a luffing crane for use in tighter spots.
Daniel Libeskind is building the new condo called the L Tower right beside the Sony Centre building. The tower will be shaped like an L, or for Canadians it is a hockey stick and for Americans it is a cowboy boot.

I haven't actually gone into the Hockey Hall of Fame, I think it is because that if it has stuff from when the Leafs were any good I wouldn't want to be around all those dusty antiques! They do have a beautiful building with a great location at Yonge and Front Streets and they also have a 17 foot bronze statue titled 'Our Game' by Edie Parker in front of the building.

You would think Tim Burton had a store on Queen Street West, his wacky view of the world has produced some great movies with designs that only he could imagine. He has brought an exhibition to the home of the Toronto International Film Festival TIFF where some of his creations beckon the outside world into the show. I want to run into Helena Bonham Carter as the Red Queen in Alice in Wonderland - that huge forehead was so hot.
New York's Museum of Modern Art arranged the exhibition and you can drop by and see some of his work including paintings and sculptures - like the giant one in the window titled "Holiday Creature", until April 17, 2011.

Toronto has so many great world class events going on every year that it is hard not to be excited at the prospect of the upcoming months attractions. Some of the best activities and other fun things to do in 2011 include the following must see events. (Schedule to be updated regularly - keep checking back here).

Now that you don't have to be good for Santa (for a little while yet) you can be bad - if fact you can be so bad that you have to stay in the badlands.

The Toronto Maple Leafs started the NHL hockey season on fire, winning game after game, everyone excited, counting the games to the Stanley Cup. The streak only lasted four games. Now they stand at 24 points, near the very bottom of the League and people are sad.
If you can get seats to the Leafs you are lucky, if you can afford to pay for those tickets you are even luckier (tickets for this weekend's game run from $160 to $660). The Air Canada Centre (ACC) fills up with Leaf fans, win or lose.

On a lighter note I happened to notice a bright glow in the sky and I tracked the source way up north, I mean North York. The light that shone so bright that I thought Rudolf was guiding the big guy's sleigh was in fact a large display called Downsview Park Trail of Lights. Bring your money because powering up those 400,000 LED lights takes a lot of coin - the minimum vehicle cost is $25.

There are two birds in the city that make you hate birds - pigeons and seagulls. Not surprisingly you see a lot of the seagull variety near the water. Both kind are waiting to poop on you but the seagull is more aggresive so he is also looking at stealing any food you might be eating so be careful.

I was going to go up the CN Tower on the weekend when the lines made me turn away at the door. After waiting for about 20 minutes in line just to buy tickets we find out that the wait time for each of the different stages reached about one hour. The ticket price combined with the wait times said come back on a weekday when the crowds are down. The best value for going on the Tower was to combine the purchase with a multi attraction pass for other Toronto locations. So it is always a good idea to keep an eye open for good deals on Toronto events, attractions and meals.
I recently joined Groupon for Toronto deals. You sign up, get daily email deals for 50-90% off the regular price and if you like the deal you sign up for it - if they get enough buyers the deal is on. If not enough people show interest the deal is cancelled and you are not out any money. I have seen deals on helicopter flights and speed boat tours on Lake Ontario so there are a large variety of offerings.

Here are some other places you can use to find savings.

Red Flag Deals which also points out free items offered by many stores and restaurants.
Online printable coupons at FlyerLand.

Continuing our tour of Lake Erie area attractions in Southern Ontario we head to Clovermead Adventure Farm, home of 24 million hard working bees, a bee beard competition and a tasty honey giftshop. I didn't get to experience the bee beard but I don't think I would have tried if given an opportunity.

They have plenty of animals with horses, goats (and goat bridge), bunnies and a lazy cat enjoying the sunny day. They also have several play areas for the kids with a zip line, rope walks, swings, a hay bale mountain castle, a bee train as well as animal and bee displays. As this was the end of the season we had fun on the pedal cart track vehicles without the large crowds.

See the goat bridge after the jump.

While zillions of people head north on the summer and fall weekends I take the opportunity to visit the lands along Lake Erie and I start with the Port Stanley Terminal Rail which is an operating tourist railway. The line started in the mid 1800's as a passenger and freight line between London and Port Stanley, then became an electric commuter railway which ceased in 1957 with the freight train ending in 1982 with the railway now running as a scenic tourist trip up and down a short section of tracks. You can lean out the train in the cars that don't have windows or stay in the enclosed car and later check out the trains at the park at the end of the line, like the train plow below.

Canada's Wonderland has the horror of Halloween Haunt, which opened on October 1st, and which has frightfully spread into the heart of Toronto. Ghoulish ghouls and zombies walked the streets terrifying citizens to promote the fun at the park on weekends (Friday to Sunday) throughout October from 7pm to midnight.
I have not been to the Haunt but I loved the haunted attractions listed on their flyer like the Psycho Circus, Clowns at Midnight and Club Blood.

It's fun to go to places that share the same name with more famous travel destinations. We were on a waterfall tour on the way to a train ride in Port Stanley when we ran out of time and just decided to continue looking at waterfalls. On our way back we stopped in Paris and to prove it Joe Fresh took our picture (I noticed that famous Cigar Guy had joined us in Paris - check out the photo after the jump). Paris was nothing like I imagined it, but they did have a river (the Grand), which also had a man made waterfall at a dam just upstream of the town.
We stopped at two waterfalls on this day. The first was Sherman Falls in Dundas.  This waterfall is nice and easy to walk to and is just a few minutes away from the road. The valley was filled with leaves falling to the ground and there was a nice flow of water. For some relaxing video of the waterfall click here.