Pearson Airport Jurassic Dinosaurs

Recently I have been getting lost in the terminals of Toronto's Pearson Airport. One time I got so lost I ended back in the days of the dinosaurs. A big raptor was trying to get a small fry. I wasn't deluded, the dinosaurs were on loan from the Royal Ontario Museum which provided skeleton casts of Jurassic beasts Allosaurus (the big one) and Othnielia (the small herbivore known as lunch meat).

I think that the dinosaurs were real, they had been trapped in the terminal for millions of years trying to find where they are supposed to go - and they forgot where they had parked their car in the damn parking garage (I would hate to see that parking bill). Sheeze, they don't make it easy to find your way around, thank goodness that the staff are trained to spot confused faces and are quick to offer help. 

Toronto International Airport - watching the planes

Many people are fascinated with the large jet planes that take us around the world on exotic journeys and vacations and we are lucky to have the Toronto International Airport (Airport Code: YYZ) in our own backyard.


On streets and parking lots around the airport you can usually find plenty of cars and people, called Airplane Watchers or Plane Spotters, looking or photographing the planes land and takeoff. Airport Road has a number of places such as Wendys Restaurant (Airport at Orlando - just south of Derry Road) which are right under or near the flight path of approaching planes. Many locations along the street are no parking or no stopping to discourage people from Plane Spotting.



As the planes start to come in you can see them lined up waiting, lights on, for their turn to touch down with a puff of smoke as their tires hit the runway. Even if you are not a die hard plane fan it is still fun to watch the big planes take off or land just over your head.

Toronto International Airport - Pearson Doors Open

Toronto International Airport joined the Doors Open event and showed off some of their emergency services staff and equipment at the Fire and Emergency Services Training Institute (FESTI)area within the Airport.

There are a number of plane mockups and one actual plane that they use to practice emergency response and firefighting. The planes are torched and the fires put out by there large pumper trucks. You can see the powerful spray starting to spray the airplane in the photo below.




To add to the realism and as a reminder of the importance of their training there are several objects made of metal or fire hose that stand in for human casualties, including this hose construction that looks like a baby.



Several demonstrations were put on for the public including allowing the children to use a hose to aim water at a target, a rescue high abouve the ground using rescue ropes and a tactical police unit and their amoured car. Some raptors from Falcon Environmental Services were also shown with their hoods on and off. They help to keep the other large birds off the runways and away from planes taking off and landing.

Canadian International Air Show

There was some good flying around the Toronto Harbour during the 2009 Toronto Air Show CIAS. My favourites were the WWII mustangs and the U.S. Navy Blue Angels.

Watching the show from the beaches of Hanlan's Point on the Toronto Islands provided a great view and some refreshing water to keep us cool during the perfect long weekend weather. Hanlan's Point beach is also famous for being Toronto's nude sunbathing beach - so clothes are optional at this site. Here I am just before I got naked (just kidding, photo by Joe).



The Blue Angels put on a great show and it was nice to see them up in Canada.



The Blue Angels fly past the CN Tower.



While their support aircraft named Fat Albert, shown below, also appears in the show. Here they fly just outside of the beach heading towards the Toronto shoreline passing all the boats lined up to watch the show.





A Spitfire comes in for a landing at Toronto's Island Airport while the Canadian National Exhibition amusement rides are in the background.

Ferry Ride to the Islands

With the municipal strike over the ferries running between downtown and the Islands are back in business. I take one of the two ferries that allow bicycles - Wards and Hanlan's Point. This is a popular destination during a nice weekend so it was crowded and you often have to wait for a couple of ferries to come and go before you can make your journey.

The Islands are a great getaway with bike paths, boardwalks, beaches and the Centre Island Amusement Park. You can also get some fantastic views of the city. Here is a view of the open Rogers Centre from the west side of the Island Airport and a panarama of the skyline from the same location.




This is the skyline view from the Hanlan's Point ferry pier. While the sunset photo was taken during the evening boat ride back to the City.




This ferry has discharged it's passengers and is ready to make the journey back to the Islands.