Wineries closer to Toronto than Niagara-on-the-Lake

Thousands from the GTA travel on weekends into the Niagara-on-the-Lake area, famous for its blend of wineries, scenery and lovely towns. Getting there is a scramble on the QEW which many times slows to a glacial pace, then you have to wait to get close to the tasting bars. Well, you can get off the path most travelled and enjoy the Bench and Niagara Escarpment areas from Beamsville to St. Catherines. 

Back 10 Cellars

I know one of Ann's favourite wineries is Angel Gate which is on the Beamsville Bench and the last time we visited I learned that Nuns used to look after the property. Then when it became Angels Gate they made the building look like a church or mission.

Grape vines on rolling hills

The BENCH Brewing Company

We found a Ghostbusters hearse

Spend some time watching the boats travel the Welland Canal in St. Catherines

Shoreline Commemorative in Toronto

Once upon a time the edge of Lake Ontario cut through what would become Church Street, just north of the Esplanade. The spot was marked with a work of art as part of a development in 2014. You can find other markers of the past limits of the waters of the Great Lake throughout Toronto, like the one in nearby Distillery District.

From the artist's website, "Shoreline Commemorative by artist-architect Paul Raff is a public artwork commissioned by Concert Properties for their urban boutique residential development The Berczy. The artwork’s location, south of Front Street on the west side of Church Street, was the site of Lake Ontario’s shoreline for thousands of years. The artwork has a sculpted limestone base evoking the original topography of the city’s edge. Its focus is a glowing glass orb set on a bronze tripod, which acts as a dense glass rendition of the line separating sky and water. The tripod reminds passerbys of the surveyors’ instrumentation of the line of sight, an important tool in creating the city. The brick wall to the south is inscribed with the text: “For 10,000 years this was the location of Lake Ontario’s shoreline. This brick wall stands where water and land met, with a vista horizon.” These elements, as an ensemble, present a summary of the experience of being on the shoreline with the horizon view open to open water, an experience formerly available at this exact location."

The inscription reads "For 10,000 years this was the location of Lake Ontario's shoreline. This brickwall stands where water and land met, with a vista of horizon"

Mini Train and Carousel in Guelph

The 80 acre park in north Guelph along Woolwich and Woodlawn Streets is a lovely park bisected by the Speed River, full of special features including the miniature train and carousel. The amusement rides are open daily from Victoria Day weekend to mid-September and during weekends only until early October (10:30am till 6pm).

Standing on the tiny railway track

Carousel building

The park hosts seasonal events including outdoor concert series at the amphitheater and in winter time the annual Rotary Sparkle in the Park returns December 16 to 31, 2021 (5:30pm to late).

You can also find rock gardens, children's playground, horseshoe pits, a windmill, a 9-hole disk golf course, a floral clock and walking trails. 

In autumn the park is full of vibrant colours. You can see more photos after the jump.

Glowing Hearts in Brookfield Place

#HeartsTO at Brookfield Place is helping the United Way of Greater Toronto with donations when you post the hashtag and photo of the hearts. The neon LED lights have been setup in the downtown core by partners of Brookfield so keep your eye out and share the love.

Halloween in Toronto 2021

October 31st in Toronto was still a Covid Halloween (no large events) but some people dressed in costumes as they returned to the clubs and restaurants. Out in public we saw The Steampunkin mobile rave on Church Street, then head into Barbara Hall Park and Neon Riders took their last official bike rave ride of the season.

A spooky character playing Bram Stoker's dracula on Church Street in the Village

People did gather at Yonge-Dundas Square either wearing costumes or looking at the people wearing costumes. One of the big costumes of 2021 are from the television series "Squid Game".

Jesus is floating on a tiny cloud

Posing with Squid Game people

The CN Tower lit up the night with lighting that included "spooktacular orange" and pumpkins in honour of the night.

Pumpkins high above the skyline on the CN Tower

Toronto Neon Riders Halloween Night Rave 2021

Capping off a fantastic year the Neon Riders end the official riding season with a haunted journey on October 31, 2021. The Halloween night bike rave ride headed to the west side of Toronto as far as Bloor West Village after first gathering at Toronto's City Hall.

Santa was checking his naughty list

Gathering at 6pm in Nathan Phillips Square for the night's ride

From their facebook webpage by Steve D'Silva "Neon Riders proudly presents the 2021 Halloween Ride. I have scouted out some of the best decorated Halloween houses in the city and we are going to do a Rave Ride and check them out. The ride is on Halloween night so we are once again going with the Skeleton crew theme. Feel free to dress up as a skeleton to scare the kiddies as they go trick or treating. As usual we will be meeting up at Nathan Phillips Square, but please take note of the early start time of 6:00 pm. Hope to see you all out there as this ride will be a lot of fun."

I decided to join them for only the second time and am amazed by their coordination and safety precautions that keep the riders together and the ride so fun. About 75 riders took part in the Halloween 2021 ride, decorating their bikes in lights and boom boxes as the riders wear skeleton and other scary costumes. 

Typical of the people drawn into the friendly, inclusive group I met a new rider who had seen the Nuit Blanche art ride during the Geary Art Crawl. She loved the energy, the music and the friendly group and decided to join Neon Riders and so went on her first rave ride on Halloween night.

Everyone is now hoping that some unusually warm November nights will bring the group out of hibernation before Christmas hits the city along with all that white stuff that makes biking difficult in winter.

See more photos of the rave ride after the jump.

The SteamPunkin Halloween in Toronto

Legend has it that a steampunk fairy godmother waved her wand and created a rolling pumpkin DJ booth pulled by a metal rat, crewed by Cruella Deville and her Dalmatian pack on this all hallows eve. Reality is that some very hard work went into the creation that is called The SteamPunkin and the DJs help to bring the mobile rave to life on October 31st, 2021.

Here is a closeup of the ROUS or Rodent of Unusual Size

Their facebook page notes that The SteamPunkin is "an artistic carriage combining a fusion of an old school fairytale coach, pulled by the zodiac year of the rat all wrapped into the futuristic world of the Victorian era, the sub-genre of Steampunk."

The party started on Church Street in the Village around 4pm, gathering some costumed revelers before heading through the streets of Toronto and ending up in Barbara Hall Park. It really is cool seeing the procession traveling along roads shared with everyday traffic and I am so glad that I was able to finally see The SteamPunkin in person. I was at the party early but as the day descends into darkness, the lights on the rat and the DJ Punkin turn into quite the light show.

The DJs were JD Mack, Amanda Raygun and Purpelle while Dr Draw performed with his electric violin. See more of the party after the jump.

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.

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.