Toronto

Well we have arrived in Toronto and have begun settling in. Dan and I have been walking around the city lots (at least twice a day).

Eaton Center

There is an indoor shopping mall down the road that we visit every day or two. There is an A&W outlet in the food court, but we gained a bit of weight in Novato so we haven't really eaten there yet (actually I had a burger and root beer the other day, really nice).

Here are some photos of a fountain in the Eaton Center. It goes through a cycle were the inner bowl partially fills, the fountain builds up for a while as the bowl fills to the top. The fountain then stops while the water drains from the bowl. A huge jet then shoots water a couple storeys high a couple times before it starts the whole cycle again.

TIP: Clicking on the photos will open them full size.

Dominion

There is a supermarket in the bottom floors of the building across the road that is really handy. I was told the other day by an employee there that it is open 24 hours a day!

Town Square

The town square is a few blocks away near the Eaton Center (shopping mall) and there is always something happening there on the weekend. On Wednesdays there is a farmer's market where you can buy fresh fruit and vegetables (we went to one of these in Novato/San Francisco too).

The fountain converts to an outdoor ice-skating rink during the winter (like the one at Millenium Park in Chicago).

Neighborhoods

There are a few neighborhoods that are lined with stores, restaurants and cafes. Lots of places to eat. I'll focus a bit more on specific places in future postings (too much to cover in one sitting).

College Area

We walked around the College neighborhoods last night. We went down Bloor Street (home of more high-end shopping and restaurants - very nice) and walked along the top of the University and cut back across it diagonally. There are lots of old buildings that look really interesting... feels very European/old English (even though I have never been to Europe or England... yet).

More Photos

Anyhow... here are some more photos that we have taken since we've been here. Dani has started a new scrapbook and is producing some good looking pages from them ;-)


We walked by the CN tower. We haven't been up there yet, but are planning to soon.

Baseball

The owners of the apartment we are subletting are on holiday in Japan at the moment (heading to the UK next). They were given free tickets to see the Toronto Blue Jays, but will not be in town for the game so they gave them to us. I've started watching them play on TV and have been getting into it. We went to see the Cubs play at Wrigley Field last time we were in Chicago. It was a great experience, so I'm really looking forward to the game (this Tuesday). Can't wait for the Hockey season to start. We are walking distance from the Air Canada Center where the Maple Leafs play!

Niagara Falls

Dan and I are spending next weekend at Niagara Falls. Really looking forward to it too. Hopefully I'll be able to put some good photos of the falls up here when we get back.

Back to Brisbane

The weekend after we get back from Niagara, we're heading back to Brisbane for my brothers wedding. We'll be in Brisbane for a week before heading back. We are going to spend another 2 weeks or so in San Francisco on the way back through.

San Francisco Park

We spent Saturday at the de Young art museum. It was very large with 3 levels of exhibits. The lower level contained a lot of modern art. Some of it was interesting, a lot of it was pretty weird.

On the second level there were some more modern art exhibits along with a native American art exhibit. The third level was pretty interesting with native carvings from around the world and some classical American art. The American art was very nice with silverware, furniture and paintings. There were one group of paintings that were so realistic that I thought the exhibit was a serious of objects displayed in glass cases... until I actually went up to them and realized they were only paintings. The carvings were very interesting, especially the Papua New Guinean pieces which included decorated skulls and head-hunter racks.

Here are some photos from the exterior of the building (photography was not allowed indoors). There was a park out front with a fountain. The fountain did not have any water (like all the fountains back in Brisbane) and kids were using it to skateboard in.


Here's a close-up of the building's copper exterior.

Twin Peaks

After visiting the art museum, we went up to Twin Peaks which overlooks the city. It was pretty busy with tourists and there was traffic backed up around the lookout. The view was great and we were able to take some good photos.

City skyline:

View of the Golden Gate Bridge from Twin Peaks:

Sonoma Wineries

Danielle and I went touring around the Californian wine country on Sunday. We visited Viansa and Gundlach-Bundschu Wineries in the Sonoma Valley. We also visited the township of Sonoma. The day was really fun. We had a great lunch and it was good to see the wine country. Here are a few photos from the trip:

San Francisco

Dan and I spent a couple days in the city over the weekend. We walked from the Ferry Terminal to Fisherman's Warf. The weather here is cool, it is the middle of summer but feels like spring or even a warn winter's day in Brisbane. Although the UV is still high (we got pretty sunburnt on our walk).

Here are a couple of photos of Danielle and I in a park near the Ferry Terminal and the Bay Bridge:

Carnelian Room

We had our 1^st anniversary dinner at the Carnelian Room on the 52nd floor of a San Francisco high-rise building. I had forgotten about the earthquake activity in California until Danielle brought it up while were eating dinner (in one of the tallest buildings in town). We later found out it survived the 1989 earthquake! The food and service was great and the view was spectacular, we ordered coffee to make sure we were there to see nightfall (at around 9:00PM!). The Bay Area lights surround the horizon and look great from that height. They look even better when you are flying in by plane, but you do not have the time to enjoy while the plane is making a steep left bank to line up with the runway. Here are a couple photos:

More photos

We did the cable-car and were walking up and down the huge, steep San Francisco hills all weekend (great exercise)... We walked around Chinatown a few times where we came across a some stores selling ?illegal? fireworks.. We should have taken more photos, but were having too much fun (and were a bit lazy). Here are a couple more snaps:

Hills we had to walk up and down to get from the hotel (at the top of the hill!) to get around.


Had to do the cable-car (we were lazy on one trip).

Ice Skating (Millennium Park)

The public ice skating rink at Millennium Park opened a couple weeks ago. Entry is free and skates can be rented for a few dollars, or you can bring your own from home (or the office). When I first arrived, the rink was just a concrete area with a Cafe operating out of it. Since then, the Cafe has been disassembled and removed and the concrete has been flooded to form the ice skating rink.

The rink reminds me of the public outdoor park rinks we skated on when we visited Edmonton several years ago. The only difference is that in Canada, you could show up with a hockey stick for a game of "Rat Hockey". Maybe the glass "boards" have something to do with it? They have Rat Hockey here, but the only place I could find that was close enough is an indoor Hockey rink, where you pay to play and the sessions are held during business hours. There are also a few safety restrictions involved...

It has been above freezing for the last couple weeks, but the ice has remained frozen thanks to the built in cooling system. It was put to the test earlier this week with some unseasonably warm days, where the temperature peeked around 15-18ºC. A few puddles would start to form on the ice around lunch time, but wouldn't last long into the afternoon. Now that the temperature has dropped into the negatives, the ice should be in good condition until March.

Millennium Park is a few blocks from the office, so some of us have been down a few times for a quick lunchtime skate. It is usually very quiet during the week. We also go skating on the weekend, where we can spend more time on the ice. It is busier on the weekend, but has been pretty good compared to the Thanksgiving weekend where the line up to hire skates was about twice as long as the "approx 40 minutes to wait" sign.

Luckily I picked up a pair of skates a couple days before the rink opened. Skates are very reasonably priced, where a quality pair of hockey skates are often on special for under $40. Back in Brisbane, they are at least 5 times that price for similar quality! Obviously there is a larger market over here.

Anyhow... here are a couple photos of the rink.

Segways

They use Segways (http://www.segway.com/) quite a bit in the US, mainly for security and marketing. I have seen security guards buzzing around San Fransisco airport and Millennium Park on them. I have also seen Chicago police riding more rugged models around the city. Some companies attach small advertising signs to them and ride around in groups.

There is a Segway tour group operating out of Millennium Park. You see them cruising around in a group with their g00fy-l00king helmets. I wanted to take Dani on a tour, but we never got around to it. Maybe we will get a chance to go on a tour in the new year.

Thanksgiving Day

Yesterday was Thanksgiving, so I thought I would go down and checkout the parade. It was pretty impressive, there were plenty of marching bands from around the country (I even saw one from Texas).

The bands played everything from Classical Music to Christmas Carols to Pink Floyd. Some of them consisted of a couple hundred marchers with large drum sections that were pumping out some really cool beats. They often bobbed, turned and kind of danced in formation as they marched along.

A few bands had people throwing their batons and sticks in the air and catching them. Some even had cheerleaders in front who would do the cheerleading stunts when the band was marching on the spot. Here are a couple photos I took of some marching bands. Unfortunately I could not capture the sound, motion and general atmosphere in these photos.



These guys were playing "Another Brick in the Wall" boppin' around and throwing their batons up in the air:




I didn't get the camera out quick enough to catch these cheerleaders doing their flips/catches etc:



And some Tap Dancers... They would march along and quickly stop to drop their wood boards and do a tap dance every now and then:



There were also lots of floats and balloons in the parade. There was even an Elvis impersonator singing Christmas Carols on a float. The parade went for a few hours, but I was only there to see about an hour of it.

It was fun to watch and everyone there was happy and cheerful with the crowd often cheering and applauding. There were lots of young children having plenty of fun. I guess Americans have a lot to be thankful for. Americans are very festive and always go the extra mile for special occasions. Last month the streets and homes were decorated for Halloween, there was even a (small) parade. This month there was Thanksgiving with plenty of lights and Christmas decorations going up.

Next month will be Christmas. The buildings, trees and homes are still being decorated in Christmas decorations. Almost every tree in the downtown area is covered in lights and there are lots of wreaths and other greenery etc layed out around the place. I'll have to get some pictures, so people know what I am on about.

Back to the parade, here are some more photos of various floats, balloons etc. I'll try to squeeze in as many as possible in this little space (clicking on the images will enlarge them):



Kermit squeezes under the trainline:





I took over a hundred photos, so I better stop before I run out of space...

American Cars

The cars (pronounced Veeh hikels) in America are quite different to those in Australia. Well except for the new Pontiac GTO which is actually a Holden Manaro and most of the Asian cars which I don't really care for anyways.

Corvettes, Mustangs, Camaros, Trans Ams, Chargers, Hummers and large Chevy and Ford SUVs are quite common. The least common is the Corvette, but there are still a few around on the weekends. I saw a Dodge Viper the other day, but these are about as rare as Corvettes are back in Australia. There are also plenty of Ferraris, Maseratis and even a Lanbourghini or two.

The cars are pretty cheap too. A late 1990's to early 2000 model Corvette (pictured below) starts at around $18,000 USD.




Here is a new Mustang.