Fall - the leaves they are a changing

I have spied with my little eyes that some leaves in the forests have already started to change colour. While the prospect of the coming winter fills me with something less than glee I must admit that I do like Fall. The comfortable temperatures and beautiful scenery make Fall one of the top four seasons. Fall does not officially start until September 22, 2010 so those leaves better stop changing.

The Ontario Parks - Fall Colour Report website currently shows that 0% of the leaves have changed colour, well screw them, I know what I see and I won't be silenced. Ontario has some of the best places to take photos of Fall and I look forward to my annual waterfall tour.

Friday the 13th - Port Dover Motorcycle Rally

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Silent Protest

A graffiti stencil proclaims "It's always ok to lie to police" on a temporary barrier beside Ryerson University. The big RU near Yonge Street almost hides the red graffiti.

I wonder if this was the result of the police lying about the five metre stop, search and require identification zones outside of the G20 security zone?

Toronto's Flatiron building

Hey Toronto - Reddit Rocks! I'm up-voting that.

When I went to Detroit I was surprised to see their Flatiron building was one of the boarded up, abandoned buildings that litter the street-scape of the motor city. Toronto's Flatiron building was constructed in 1891 which was before the 1899 Detroit building and even before the more famous New York Flatiron building. Seeing it's lonely, triangular shape made me want to visit Ontario's version again. Beside the unusual shape the colour and texture of the building is what makes it such a nice landmark.

Known as the Gooderham Building

TO's building is in the heart of the vibrant St. Lawrence Market and the iconic structure is further enhanced by the  large art installation of, funnily enough, the side view of a building which can be seen from the Berczy Park side. It is also a favourite of tourists and tours as many of the yellow and red tourist buses stop, empty out their passengers who point their cameras at the red and green triangle. In fact I felt like I got swarmed when one group moved across the street to my location and started taking pictures.

See more photos of the flatiron building after the jump.

Blue Jays go down in flames

The Toronto Blue Jays faced off against the Boston Red Sox at Rogers Centre on Wednesday August 1, 2010 and went down in flames as Boston scored ten and the Jays had one lone run. Blue Jays pitcher #28 Shaun Marcum throws toward home plate in the above photo.

Knowing that they have not sold out we decide to buy tickets at Rogers Centre before the game. We splurge for the best and get nosebleeds - the 500 sections. The view is always superb even way up high where the open roof lets in the fresh city air. The only issue we had was everyone fighting over seats as we heard that Rogers Centre double booked a section of seats and the young kids had to look everywhere for seats to watch the game. It didn't look like Rogers Centre was very helpful in trying to resolve the issue and we felt bad for the kids.

Down by the Lake

Lake Ontario beckons when the weather heats up around the Big Smoke. Toronto's new sandy park (or urban beach) was recently opened right beside Redpath Sugar at the base of Lower Jarvis Street. In honour of the sweet, smelly plant next door they have called the park Sugar Beach. It is very similar to the HTO Beach out west along Queens Quay with pink umbrellas in place of the yellow ones at HTO and the addition of big, granite, candy-striped rocks. Sugar Beach also has comfortable Muskoka chairs where you can watch the boats go by - just remember no swimming is allowed.

Further to the east Cherry Beach was the temporary set for the YTV television show The Next Star. Camera crews were set up as four musicians blasted out some tunes. I believe it was Brandon from Stoney Creek who was the lead singer. The Cherry Beach Baywatch lifeguards were on hand to help keep swimmers safe while the filming was going on.

At Lakeshore Blvd and Cherry Beach I found a rock that was drawn up to be Stewie from Family Guy.

I have looked for the new public automated pay toilet (costs 25 cents to use) built at Queens Quay but I never actually noticed where it was. This time I looked it up on the internet and armed with the knowledge that it was just south of Rogers Centre at the northwest corner of Queens Quay and Rees Street I managed to find the elusive $400,000 plumbing facilities. This thing really is a thing of beauty and you can even fit your bicycle inside which comes in handy, especially if you want to ride around after you use the facilities. when you leave (or after 20 minutes when the door opens, ready or not) the bathroom automatically cleans itself.

At the Exhibition grounds preperations are underway for the upcoming Canadian National Exhibition (CNE) or as it is commonly known, the EX which runs from August 20th to September 6th, 2010. The CNE Casino is already open ahead of the fair but some of the game booths are now in place. You can also check out the Horse show for free which is running from August 3 to the 19th (noon to 3pm) and until September 6th as part of the paid admission CNE.

No Love for Banksy

Banksy's graffiti has taken quite the abuse since he first painted his works on the walls of Toronto. Many have been totally destroyed or defaced. It is both sad and ironic that his street art/graffiti gets painted over. But I do love Banksy.

On Wild West Queen Street West I find more art. It's like CityTV; everywhere. A beautiful girl looks down onto Queen Street pedestrians passing by (pictured above) from Omy Gallery. There website says "Pabst is the best beer for shows & you better have good art or nobody will show up".

At Trinity Bellwoods Park I see a "Where's Omar" poster stuck in the entrance gate. I also find some posters stuck on a pole, the posters have multiplied and are thick on the pole and have started to peel off.

2010 Toronto Buskerfest - Aug 26-29

Update: You can see my photos of the Buskerfest from Thursday here and from Saturday here.

Get ready for amazing tricks and fun, fun, fun as we fast approach the 2010 Scotiabank Toronto Buskerfest during the 26th to the 29th in the St Lawrence Market area. I found Silver Elvis in a small town warming up for his work in the buskerfest, posing in front of a beautiful red, classic, Falcon convertible. I told Elvis that he was on the poster for the event and he was surprised.

I also found a winged vampire - she was promoting Screamfest which is coming to Acton in October.

Thunder over Michigan - The Detroit Airshow

Update: Keep an eye on this post to see what is planned for the 2011 Thunder Over Michigan Air Show.

The largest gathering of World War II bombers happened at Willow Run Airport and they put on a great show for the extremely large crowd at the Thunder over Michigan 2010 Airshow. The annual show was a great mix of old and new military aircraft with eight B-17's on both static display and flying during the show. I stayed at and can recommend this Super 8 Hotel which was just down the road from the airport. Don't forget that the Toronto International Airshow starts September 4th and lasts until the 6th.

I was surprised to see the stop sign on the runway - I guess even fighter jets need to follow the rules of the road.

Some of the viewers found it a little noisy.

Two gorgeous airshow Calendar girls were on hand to sign autographs and sell calendars.

More pictures of the airshow after the jump.

Sinful and the Re-enactors

As part of the Detroit airshow - Thunder over Michigan, military re-enactors played a big part in the show. On Friday night they held a parade in Belleville where I met Sinful who is a beautiful biker chick helping to lead the parade. Sinful had quite the dazzling helmet. I forgot to ask why she is sinful. (Shout out to Sinful who called and said she read my blog - Hi Sinful!). Here is a member of the police honour guard.

Speaking of bikers I will be heading over to Port Dover for the upcoming Friday the 13th motorcycle rally. This is Ontario's answer to the annual Sturgis event in the states where a million bikers are expected to attend. While Sturgis is 70 years old the Port Dover event only started in 1981 and I hope it will be as wild as the stories say. I am getting my chaps ready for the day.

The World War II military re-enactors represented several different countries and everyone battled the Germans during the airshow. I believe the Nazis lost this battle.

See more pictures of the re-enactors after the jump.

Rainy Day Detroit

Road trip - Detroit Motorcity. Down the road from Toronto, just follow Highway 401 to it's end at Windsor and cross the Ambassador Bridge or take the Detroit Windsor Tunnel. What will you find at the end of the rainbow? A clean city with little graffiti, an elevated people mover, plenty of boarded up buildings, parking lots and fenced in gravel graveyards of former buildings, waiting for new boom times, restoration and growth. Old, historic buildings are seperated from the City by razor wire and large plywood boards - they save buildings of distinction hoping that they can be preserved later, like saving something for a rainy day. Large letters along the Michigan Central Station building, pictured below, spell "Save the Depot". I don't think there are many windows that remain in one piece in the large, haunted structure.

I have heard stories and seen pictures on the web about the abandoned and derelict buildings in Detroit. The crunch started in the late 1960's. Detroit still has beauty - down but not out, they continue to survive and grow with new development along the waterfront. But as someone seeing the city for the first time it is hard to get over the shock of the blighted landscape. The City has destroyed many buildings but so many remain, slowly disintegrating. It is sad to see neighbourhoods that were once full of beautiful homes now empty, save for one house struggling to remain a home.

I was struck by the similarity of Detroit with Toronto. Both are old cities with a lot of history, both are large metropolitan areas having desirable waterfront locations with islands and both are subject to the impact of the economy. Hopefully this scale of de-construction will never find a home in Toronto. Here is a happy wedding party taking pictures at the FOX theatre.

See more pictures of Detroit after the jump.