Friday, March 27, 2009

A San Francisco March Break



For a little variety from the big smoke we venture down south - California way, to the great city of San Francisco. It was great to seem some of the world famous views, buildings and bridges - especially the Golden Gate Bridge, pictured above.

We flew out directly to California and survived the 5 hour flight. San Francisco is three hours time difference (fall back) and started checking out the sights right of way. The combination of scenery, city, water (Bay and Ocean) and surronding area make this a great tourist destination. One of the best things we did was rent small Go Cars which are small three wheeled vehicles that are classed as motorcycles. The Go Cars use GPS and provide an audio tour - they are tons of fun and you feel free to explore without getting concerned about being lost. We traveled all around the city with these mini cars. One of the areas we checked out was the famous Haight Ashbury District made famous by the hippies of the 1960's. There were quite a few of today's hippies in the area, traveling from city to city. We met with some of the kids including one girl that had a cute (but sad looking) tie died puppy. It was trippin' man!





We explored many of the tourist areas including Fisherman's Wharf, Telegraph Hill, Twin Peaks, the Aquarium, the Presidio, the Golden Gate Bridge Parks, Alcatraz, Union Square in the core of the City, the Castro gay district, Lombard Steet (the City's crookedest street). The waterfront had many parks and the entertainement was fantastic along the Piers with the most famous being Pier 39 - home of the many seals that hang out lounging on the floating docks. We also tried all manner of transportation such as the the famous trolley cars, streetcars, subways, buses and taxis. Some of these areas are shown in the photos below.









We also rented a car and went north to Muir woods, home to a grove of magnificent redwoods, and then headed south along the coast following Highway 1 to Carmel-by-the-Sea (made famous by Clint Eastwood). I talked to a surfer and said that California was supposed to be warm and she said that it does get warm, except for the water, you will still need a wetsuit for surfing. Most of the Ocean's coastal beaches had nice stretches of sand and almost all had posted warning signs indicating the danger of dangerous currents. It's like here is the beautiful Ocean - don't come close or it will kill you.




Here is a Youtube video of the visit.

And here is a Youtube video of the seals on Pier 39 playing a game of King of the Mountain. They climb up onto a floating dock and try to push the other seal off the dock.

It's good to be back in Toronto now (stuff is cheaper here in Canada than in the States, especially with the high American dollar compared to the Canadian looney).

Thursday, March 12, 2009

LG Fashion Week Mar 16-21, 2009


Some mighty big tents are being set up in the courtyard (in fact there is no courtyard left) of Toronto City Hall's Nathan Phillip Square as LG Fashion Week comes to TO from March 16 to the 21st of 2009.

The annual event brings out the best in Fashion and the economy is crying out for everyone to buy a few togs so come out and see what will be showing up soon at your local stores. The Heart Truth event is an invite only fashion show with
Canadian Celebrities wearing original Canadian designed red dresses all to raise awareness of the impact of Heart Disease and Stroke on women. Kreesha Turner will be one of the Red Dress models - you can see pictures of Kreesha in my blog about 2009 Fashion sCares.

Setting up the runway.

Tuesday, March 10, 2009

Earth Day - April 22, 2009 - Bloggers Unite


Our annual celebration of the planet approaches and every year more and more people seek to make positive contributions to make our world better. We recycle more, compost more and try to turn off lights, but is this enough?



In decades we will see the production of oil fall while the demand for oil, coal and gas increase. We see factories pollute and every car on the road seems to be a massive SUV with two or more vehicles sitting in the driveways and garages of large homes. Oil and other carbon energy sources are finite and the markets have recently driven the costs of a barrel of oil through the roof - helping to put the economy into this recession/depression once again.

Joining in the growing green revolution we must seek to reduce our impact to the environment, we have to reduce our energy requirements, we must make choices that will not harm earth. And 'we' includes companies that must not always act in the interest of only their bottom line although going green can hopefully reduce costs and return more profits to the stockholders.

People have started to change their attitudes and small steps like not using plastic shopping bags can soon grow to where large Cities like Toronto can turn off the lights in a mass show of support for Earth Hour on March 28, 2009. "At 8:30 p.m. on Saturday March 28, the City of Toronto and its residents and businesses will join millions of people around the world and turn off the lights for Earth Hour to show our support for action on climate change."

Green is making a choice: less packaging, buy the more fuel efficient vehicle, take and support public transit as much as possible - you can choose what you can do to help. Love your neighbors, your family, your friends and the Earth.

www.earthday.net/earthday2009
and Earth Day Canada www.earthday.ca/pub/index.php

Sunday, March 08, 2009

Waterfront Swans


The ice along the Lake Ontario is quickly melting, only small chunks litter the edges of the beaches. Small protected harbours are the only remaining holdouts for winter's ice. At Cherry Beach and other spots along the waterfront we find a large groups of swans amongst the many waterfowl.

Here is a swan going under water for kernels of corn.




Tuesday, March 03, 2009

Rannie Turingan - Photojunkie


LG Canada was staging a fashion designer contest called LG Denim DIY at Sears in the Toronto Eaton Centre and who did my eyes spy covering the event as photographer but Toronto's own 'Photojunkie' - Rannie Turingan.


Never having met Rannie in person I had to go up and ask - are you Rannie? It was indeed Rannie, famous Toronto blogger and photographer and one of my blogging heroes even though he has been slacking off on his updates the last little while (I think he is to busy as a pro photographer lately) and I miss catching up on his latest work and postings.

Doors Open

Scarborough Bluffs

Pride

Redball

Beaches

Graffiti

Lake Ontario

Nathan Phillips Square

Transportation