Sunday, October 17, 2021

Fall Colours on the escarpment 2021

Fall colours look the best with beautiful clouds, splashes of sun and some vibrant green to really make the season pop. It is a small window of the year to try to catch the gorgeous views of nature before the trees become bare and winter comes blasting back - usually around Halloween!


On top of the Niagara escarpment the colours have peaked but there is still beauty in the forest, especially when the sun comes out to play. These photos are from Halton Hills and around Frog Pond.



Monday, October 11, 2021

Collingwood keeps getting more expensive to visit

We took our annual trip to the Collingwood area to check out the fall colours, which are nice on the escarpment by the way, but still muted around the city and one of our stops is at the top of Blue Mountain. We usually walk along the trails at the top of the ski resort, then take the ski lift ride down, enjoy the village and grab a bite to eat in one of their restaurants.

Water trikes rent for $17

This time we found out that they have added a ticket booth up top and are charging $25 to use the trails, $34 if you want to use the gondola to get down to the village. It used to be free to take the gondola down, then you paid for the trip back up (or you could climb the mountain), then they added the cost to go down as well. So we bailed and drove back down to park in the village and skipped the trails and the gondola. Not much was going on Saturday so we decided not to stay for dinner either.

Some of the fall colours on the escarpment above Blue Mountain
The view from the water's edge at Sunset Point Park

Our next stop was the park at the edge of Georgian Bay called Sunset Point. Parking was $10 per hour but they gave you a break and the maximum fee that they would charge per day was $50! We strolled the park for an hour and got out of town fast before they charged us for driving the streets. We ended up going for dinner in nearby Stayner.

Tuesday, October 05, 2021

Blue Jays end the 2021 season with sweep against Baltimore

We bought nose bleeds tickets to Rogers Centre, so high no one was above us, to watch the Blue Jays crush the Baltimore Orioles in a weekend series that only ended in heartbreak as the Jays didn't have the points to get into the playoffs as a wildcard. Wins by the Yanks and Red Sox ensured that we were finished for the year, but they played great and it was fun to see them back in Toronto in front of fans once again.
The tickets for the seats so high in Rogers Centre that they were beyond the lights and our section was pretty dark.  We chose these seats to help social distance and not worry about squeezing in between other fans, and our plan worked, plus they were cheap - it's nice that they offer $15 tickets (plus fees and taxes) to help reduce the cost to attend a professional sports game.
Still the other costs associated with the game include the money required to buy food and drink in the stadium are pricey, luckily they let you bring in your own food and small bottles of non-alcoholic liquids so you don't have to chow down on a $11.50 hot dog. But why are the MLB sports paraphernalia so expensive? Baseball jerseys sell for around $190 plus tax so if you were thinking of buying some Jays wear you better start saving up if you want to buy one at the game.

Heavy hitter Vladimir Guerrero Jr. with 48 home runs in 2021 explains on the Jays website; "It hurts. Knowing that you win 91 games and you didn’t make the playoffs, it really hurts me, hurts all my teammates,” Guerrero said. “Like I said before, that’s just gonna make me stronger. [I’ll] come back next year even better than this year.”


Better luck next year Blue Jays, you did us proud.

Monday, October 04, 2021

Toronto Bike Rave 2021: Nuit Blanche Art Ride Cruise

A hundred riders lit up with LED lights cruised the City of Toronto on the night Nuit Blanche 2021, the all night art event, was supposed to be held before it was cancelled once again due to Covid restrictions. I joined Steve D'Silva of the Neon Riders group for a Toronto Bike Rave starting in Nathan Phillips Square at 7pm on Saturday, October 2, 2021. Many of the bikers also dressed up as skeletons as we celebrated the memory of Nuit Blanche with an unofficial alternative to the cancelled art festival.

Steve D'Silva
Bikers start to gather in Nathan Phillips Square

We hung out at the square for about a half hour before hitting the road in our night busting lighting accessories, following Steve as we headed to Matt Cohen Park to join up with the Toronto Cruisers group for the Nuit Blanche Art Ride cruise. As one big group we left the park at Spadina and Bloor around 8pm and began our journey through the streets and alleys of the city as we journeyed to various art installations or projects scattered throughout downtown Toronto, accompanied with music from some of the mobile DJs that were in the group.

Joining the Toronto Cruisers in Matt Cohen Park
While the route was unknown to most of the riders it was a night similar to the normal Nuit Blanche (just with less crowds), some of the art was amazing and some of it was a question of 'is this art?' Some of the highlights included the installations included in the Geary Art Crawl.  On this night though the best art was the large group of illuminated bike riders on the Art Ride cruise and as we passed crowds on the streets or on patios they cheered us on and took plenty of photos and videos of the ride.

See more photos of the night's adventure after the jump.

Doors Open

Scarborough Bluffs

Pride

Redball

Beaches

Graffiti

Lake Ontario

Nathan Phillips Square

Transportation