Open House - the Steam Whistle Brewery, the Roundhouse and the TD Tower

OK, this happened quite a long time ago but I didn't record it.... so here we go.

The CPR John Street Roundhouse is across the road from me so I thought I'd go there. The Steam Whistle Brewing is on site and the guys (three of them) decided to build it in 1999 ... "breathed new life into the building, renovating with an eye to preserve the original post and beam construction".

The building is full of light from multi-paned windows and the original Douglas Fir posts support the cedar roof. The catwalks and exposed brick retain the feels of the building's original use.

Brewing in bottles (very few tins) takes place on site and, in the tour, we could see all of it from brewing to bottling it.

Steam Whistle Brewing 

Rotating Turntable 

Outside, I joined the Toronto Railway Association and rode on to massive 120 foot rotating turntable designed by the Canadian Bridge Company about 80 years ago. The roundhouse has stalls for 32 locomotives that move in and out of the roundhouse on the  rotating turntable.



After this, I went to the TD Centre. I waited in line (and waited... and waited... and waited) until it was my turn to go out the the 54th floor. In 1970 - 71 we went out for dinner there, on the 54th floor. It was  the only thing on the horizon apart from the Royal York Hotel! Wow!

Pride Festivities: Church Street

Hey, I went to the Pride Festivities on Church Street just before the parade got underway. I walked down from Bloor Street and came out at College Street with all the booths (TD, police, radio stations, Stag Shop etc etc) and restaurants and florist shops along the street. About a million people came for the Parade so it was busy.

The Pride Toronto defines "lesbian, gay, bisexual, transsexal, intersex, queer/questioning, 2 spirited and Allies" ... wow, that a big lineup ... to "create a safe space to engage communities in the celebration of their sexuality". 

These are pictures I took along the street.

Sargasso

The Luminato Festival 2011 was here in Toronto June 10th - 19th. It was a 'free creativity' thing for all of Toronto. Stages and theatres all over Toronto being for free and ticketed events.

I went to the Allen Lambert Gallery, I go there a lot, to find out about Sargasso. Philip Beesley, the architect, was commissioned by Luminato to install the 'vast, tangled masses of living matter and cast-out material that drifts at the centre' and blooms the in atrium of the glass and sky. "A visionary architectural pioneer creates a responsive landscape to infuse one of downtown's busiest spaces with astonishing new life".

And that's all I have to say... It is beautiful.

It's Not Toronto - But It Is The Niagara Wine Tour

On June 15th we (the kids and me) sent off for the Wine Tour. We left at about 8:15 am - going along Lake Shore Blvd, the Gardiner and the Queen Elizabeth Way (QEW) before we ended up in an hour and 20 minutes at the Hilton hotel. Believe or not, at 9:40 am we were checked it to the hotel! Very nice. It was sunny and warm and we drank coffee, tea and fruit outside in the patio.

At 10:30 am a van showed up and we were taken to the Niagara Wine College for a little education on wine.  Our tour guide, Josh, was knowledgeable in the art of wine and he was a student before landing this job. We went out to the winery, with all the wine vines growing and, in another place, talked about there stemming and seeded the new grapes. Josh explained how they are putting the grapes in a stainless steel rotator to extract the skins. White wine they remove the skins and red wine they soak it with the skins for awhile but eventually they winded up in barrels or stainless steel bins.

The flowers among the leaves

The grape vines all snuggled in a row

The Barrels

After, we tried the wine. We are looking at the for color, sniffing the wine, swirling it around in the wine glass and, of course, tasting it. We had white, red and icewine.

And then we went for lunch on a beautiful patio called the "The Old Winery Restaurant". The restaurant had a huge clay oven and I ordered my pizza and salad. It was really good!

After lunch we made it to "Reif Estate Winery", "Caroline Cellars" and "Diamonds Estate Winery".

Reif Estate Winery was purchased as a plot of land on the Niagara river. Ewald Reif brought the wine plants for Neustald, Germany along the Rhine River Valley in 1977 and began producing wine in 1983.  I had never been to Reif Estates and I'm impressed with the Wine Sensory Garden - "to explore our Wine Sensory Garden to ponder the colours, aromas and flavours characteristically used to describe wines. The gardens are designed to complement and reflect the heritage of our original 1870's Coach House". We also saw the huge barrels of wine, there not used very much, but the are HUGE.

We went out for dinner at Treadwell/ Farm-to-Table Cusine in Port Dalhousie. The father, Chef/Owner Steven Treadwell and his son, James Treadwell, the managing director of the restaurant, make this one of the finest restaurants in Canada.

The Soup

The Main Courses

We had wine and cheese outside on the patio and watched the full moon rise above the trees.

And from there we heard about the Vancouver/Boston Stanley Cup Game.... we arrived at our hotel just to see it finish.

The next day we went down to Niagara-on-the-Lake to tour around, drink coffee and eat gelato. We had to make it to our Lailey Vineyard at 12:30pm. The three of us went on a tour inwhich the guide talked a great deal about Lailey's smallness and the difference it makes to the wines.

Then we came home....

Union Station: A National Heritage Site of Canada

This is Union Station. It is a picture from Wikipedia, very nice. I have all the ones during construction of Union Station and all along Front Street including the Fairview Royal York hotel and there along at the bottom.

Union Station from when it started (1858), it was the Great Toronto Fire of 1904 and this cleared the area of a third Union Station to be built here. It took until 1927 for the new station to be built. Prince Edward, the Prince of Wales, opened Union Station on August 6, 1927.

It was 1975 that Union Station was designated a National Historic Site of Canada. It was constructed by the Montreal architecture firm of Ross and MacDonald as well as the CPR's architect Hugh Johnes and Toronto architect John M. Lyle.

Bikes - Outside the Union Station. For Rent...

Going In...

The Pigeons are there at Union Station... Tons of them... all male and female trying to get laid. The male birds, all puffed up, trying to get the females to look at them, at least for spring.

And the bicycles, all lined up at the bike station, are to be picked up by people rented them. This is a sight most people don't see.

In 2004, the station saw 2.34 million Via Rail boarders, GO Transit and TTC (subway, streetcars and buses) servicing 200,000 passengers a day. It is the busiest transportation facility in Canada.

Trains coming in to the Station

Allen Lambert Galleria

I loved it here! I come to eat in the Marche Restaurant. I read, and then look at the architecture surrounding me. I have a camera with me (... don't you know it ...) and I take all kinds of pictures.

The historic Bank of Montreal building, was build into the Allen Lambert Galleria and is the oldest intact streetscape. It is sitting at the corner of Yonge and Front Street and was built in 1885. "Conceived by the Spanish designer Santiago Calatrava, the Allen Lambert Galleria is a soaring, six-storey avenue of light and glass that flows between Bay and Yonge Streets."

The Midland Commercial Bank is a facade inside the steel arches of the Galleria with porch, steps up, the railing about the yard and beautiful lamps (2 of them) over the pillars 'outside'.

Cherry Blossoms at High Park 2011

It was Mother's Day and I was late... I couldn't decide what to wear. Rory and Hayley had made it and two playful dogs. Erin and Dan were making a brunch with eggs benedict, tomatos, many kinds of sausages and also, I don't know what they are but their gluten free, just delicious.

Erin and Rory are my kids. They were talking about going to High Park. Everyone knows (I didn't know this) that going to the park around May is alright for Cherry Blossoms in the park. So, off we go on the streetcar, with the two dogs following us. And into the park we went. We walked down the hill and up the other side to the Grenadier Restaurant and further down where the Cherry Trees are blooming.

After the end of the Second World War, Japan, as a gift, brought Cherry Trees to put in High Park. The trees have grown so large since the they were put in and every year we can find 5 days of Cherry blossoms by about two dozens trees.

Down the path on which Cherry Blossoms are found

Lots of people ... and the sky

Dan and Erin marvel

Even more people....

Little boys carry the Cherry Blossoms with them