We Be Trippin': The Great DIS-nee Road Trip

[madbrad76]

74 VOTES AND COUNTING!

 

[madbrad76]

Ah, very interesting! Thanks for the cool facts!

No problem Mrs. F. It's the least I could do. I knew this little Road Trip of ours was going to be entertaining. However, I have found out it has become quite educational as well. I don't remember learning this much when I took American History in high school.

Thanks DISgeeks for starting this journey of ours. It really has been a great trip so far.

 

[KigerKat]

YOU ROCK!!!!

AND I voted from home - two votes from me today!!

 

[DISgeeksfromDC]

One more shout-out to DISGeeks for starting this road trip...the more people post, the more I'm really liking this!

I knew this little Road Trip of ours was going to be entertaining. However, I have found out it has become quite educational as well. I don't remember learning this much when I took American History in high school.

Thanks DISgeeks for starting this journey of ours. It really has been a great trip so far.

Oh, good! 'Glad to hear that folks are finding our Road Trip enjoyable.

The beauty of our tag-team approach: You are the ones who have made it that way! Thanks, everyone, for your contributions!

 

[DISgeeksfromDC]

Hey, BTM: I just placed a vote for your re-usable shopping bag!

'Might not hurt to remind us again tomorrow!

 

[BigThunderMtn]

Hey, BTM: I just placed a vote for your re-usable shopping bag!

'Might not hurt to remind us again tomorrow!

Will do...

And Thanks!

 

[BigThunderMtn]

Yeah, I voted!! Don't know quite what I voted for but I hope it's not for Adlai Stevenson or Dolly Parton. Looked like an expensive purse or shopping bag!!
Yikes!!

Not quite, I think they retail at the grocery store for $0.99 now. I am hoping that my design will make the top 10 and hopefully grace the front of the bag.

Be sure to have all of your friends vote daily for this highly sought after $0.99 grocery shopping bag.

74 VOTES AND COUNTING!

Thanks!

AND I voted from home - two votes from me today!!

That's the ticket! Multiple PC's = Multiple Votes.

 

[3guysandagal]

I have finished editing and now look back...its long....sorry...

Sorry for the delay...company tonight..

BTM...still voting!!

I want to thank Microsoft for notepad without which I would not be able to do what I have done so far!



TORONTO

Part 2

Let me start with something I forgot last post, a map of the Islands.

As far as sites to see, Toronto is full of them.
Restaurants....thousands.

So lets swish through the sites.

The Royal Ontario Museum (ROM)

The ROM on opening Night

Designed by Daniel Libeskind (best known for his New York Freedom Tower design), the ROM as it is known, is quite a big landmark in TO now, as it just opened last fall.
The ROM has a special place in my heart as I spent a year in a small office in the basement doing Mechanical drawings for the new David Lee-Chin Crystal Addition a few years ago (Rennaissance ROM).
Watching it go up was incredible and the structural steel work was fascinating.
The following video is a time lapse of 4 years from the demolition of an existing wing built in the early 70s, to the opening day.
I was on site from the first steel work being installed to the first roof panels.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2s1EepgLNdg

The second and third video link is just a "tour" video by someone I do not know, but gives a good perspective of how this building impacts the street, and the inside after opening, before any exhibits were installed.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cru3d7rnV78
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qh0dO_p8z6g

And finally, introducing "Gordo" the Barosaurus, the largest dinosaur ever put on permanent display in Canada.

Most of the new wing is open, but not completely yet, as far as I know.
I intend to visit this summer with the family, as I have not been back since I left to start another project, and I really want to see the WHOLE thing when finally open.

ROM link..

http://www.rom.on.ca/tourists.php

Google image search ROM

http://images.google.ca/images?hl=en&q=toronto rom &um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=wi

Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO)

As it is now (before renos)

And Future..

Currently closed so we can just drive by and wave!

http://www.ago.net/

"New Art, New Building, New Ideas, New Future". This is the motto of the new Art Gallery of Ontario.
Like the ROM, the Art Gallery of Ontario began renovating their current building with the same goal in mind, to expand (by adding 47% more gallery space, 2000 more pieces of art, a restaurant and a cafe), and to make a visual impact(by hiring Toronto-born architect Frank Gehry). The new AGO expects to be completed by the year 2008."

I have not been since I was a kid, so cant say much.
Here are some facts on artists in the collections.

"More than 40% of the collection vividly documents the development of Canada’s art heritage since pre-Confederation, including one of the largest and finest Inuit art collections in the world.
The collection includes pivotal works by Cornelius Krieghoff, Lucius O’Brien, James Wilson Morrice, Tom Thomson, the Group of Seven, David Milne, Emily Carr and Paul-Emile Borduas.
Major holdings of the work of pre-eminent Canadian artists Paterson Ewen, Betty Goodwin, Greg Curnoe, David Blackwood, Kazuo Nakamura and American artist Robert Motherwell.
The world’s largest public collection of works by internationally renowned British sculptor Henry Moore.
Masterpieces of European art, including works by renowned artists such as Anthony van Dyck, Thomas Gainsborough, Auguste Rodin, Claude Monet, Edgar Degas, Paul Cézanne, Vincent van Gogh, Pablo Picasso and René Magritte.
A collection of photographs representing the emergence of the medium in its artistic, cultural and social diversity. Works by 19th-century British, French, American and Canadian photographers, and 20th-century modernists, including one of the foremost collections of works by Josef Sudek.
A contemporary collection illustrating the evolution of artistic movements in Canada, the U.S. and Europe, including major works by Claes Oldenburg, Andy Warhol, Mary Kelly, Jannis Kounellis, Jenny Holzer, General Idea, Joanne Tod, Jeff Wall, Rebecca Belmore and Luciano Fabro.


Ontario College of Art and Design (OCAD).

I have only included this because it is next door to the AGO
Nice design, HUH?

CASA LOMA - The Castle on the Hill.

One of my favourite places in Toronto, even if it is only for a few hours.

http://www.casaloma.org/Main/MainDyn.asp

"Sir Henry Mill Pellatt commissioned Canadian architect E.J. Lennox to design Casa Loma with construction beginning in 1911, starting with the massive stables a few hundred feet north of the main building. The stables were used as a construction site for the castle, with some of the machinery still remaining in the rooms under the stables. The house cost approximately $3.5 million (ETA...at THAT time!!) and took a team of 300 workers three years to build from start to finish. Upon completion in 1914, at 98 rooms, it was the largest private residence in North America. Notable amenities included an elevator (the FIRST in TO, Otis #1), an oven large enough to cook a steer, two vertical passages for pipe organs, central vacuum, two secret passages in Sir Henry's ground-floor office and three bowling alleys (never completed).
Many of the rooms were left unfinished, and today serve as the Regimental Museum for The Queen's Own Rifles of Canada. (ETA...As well as the Girl Guides of Canada, of which Lady Pellatt supported).
Pellatt joined the Regiment as a Rifleman and rose through the ranks, eventually becoming the Commanding Officer. He was knighted for his dedication to the Regiment. Later, Pellatt served as the Honorary Colonel and was promoted to Major-General upon retirement.
During the Depression, Toronto increased Casa Loma's annual property taxes from $400 to $1,200, and Pellatt—already experiencing financial difficulties—was forced to auction off $1.5-million in art and furnishings for $250,000 during bankruptcy hearings. Sir Henry was able to enjoy life in the castle for ten years, leaving in 1923.
Vacant while proposals were considered for its future use, architect William Sparling put forward a proposal to convert the house to a luxury hotel in 1925. A long term lease was granted to Sparling to open a hotel within Casa Loma. He began completing the Great Hall and the Billiard Room, areas that Sir Henry had never finished. Sparling planned to add two large wings to the main building, one to the east and to the west, each wing containing 96 full suites and 56 rooms. At an estimated cost of $1 million for each wing, they were never built. The hotel failed in 1929.
During the late 1920s Casa Loma was also a popular nightspot. The Orange Blossoms, later known as Glen Gray and the Casa Loma Orchestra, played there for eight months in 1927–1928. Shortly thereafter, they went on tour of North America and became a major Swing Era dance band.
The city seized Casa Loma in 1933 for $27,303 in back taxes.
Contrary to popular belief, Casa Loma has never been an official residence of either the city or the Province of Ontario. In 1937 it was opened to the public for the first time as a tourist attraction operated by the Kiwanis Club of Toronto. Coincidentally, this is the same year that Chorley Park, the Government House of Ontario was closed by the provincial government.

During World War II, Casa Loma was used to conceal research on sonar, and for construction of sonar devices for U-boat detection. The chateau is still operated by the Kiwanis Club. Today it is one of Toronto's most popular tourist attractions."


----------------------

I might add here that Sir Henry died pennieless, alone, living in an apt. above his chauffeur and his wife.
He was instrumental in bringing electricity from Niagara Falls to Toronto.
I grew up LOVING Casa Loma and would go down there on weekends with friends when we were in our preteens and walk around (and the odd game of hide and seek).
I have many stories of Casa Loma, from both myself, and my father who grew up just up the street.
He played hide and seek and "Relieval" (which I had never heard of) there during the early 40's.
No furniture, nothing, just a big empty castle. He did say they could never get to the stables, they were guarded, and hence the military thing above.

If you are ever at Casa Loma, do the Spadina House tour next door!

http://www.toronto.ca/culture/spadina.htm

Original gas lighting and everything!
I love walking in to a turn of the century home and get that gas smell.
It takes me back (you know) to the time when it was an everyday occurance.

More Casa Loma links...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casa_Loma
http://www.trimpe.org/casaloma/index.htm
http://www.digitalozone.com/casaloma/

A SHOPPING link to Toronto!!!

Underneath Downtown TO is a series of tunnels, (other than our Subway of course) which link most, if not all by now, of the major buildings and shopping areas.

"According to Guinness World Records, PATH is the largest underground shopping complex with 27 km (16 miles) of shopping arcades. It has 371,600 sq. metres (4 million sq. ft) of retail space. In fact, the retail space connected to PATH rivals the West Edmonton Mall in size."

"The approximate 1,200 shops and services, such as photocopy shops and shoe repairs, found in PATH, employ about 5,000 people. Once a year, businesses in PATH host the world's largest underground sidewalk sale."

"More than 50 buildings/office towers are connected through PATH. Twenty parking garages, five subway stations, two major department stores, six major hotels, and a railway terminal are also accessible through PATH. It also provides links to some of Toronto's major tourist and entertainment attractions such as: the Hockey Hall of Fame, Roy Thomson Hall, Air Canada Centre, Rogers Centre, and the CN Tower.

City Hall and Metro Hall are also connected through PATH."

A link to the PATH system and more facts...

http://www.toronto.ca/path/index.htm

Map of the PATH..(its in PDF)

http://www.toronto.ca/path/pdf/path_brochure.pdf

Some of us may be getting thirsty for an adult beverage, In Ontario that is a different process.
Other than Bars and restaurants, the only way to buy alcohol is through a government run store.
Well sort of, if you want wine or spirits, it is a government store.
If you want beer, it is actually run by the breweries. (great eh? A monopoly!)
And being Canadians, we came up with really original names for these stores.
You want beer, you go to ....The Beer Store of course...

If you want liquor...The Liquor Store!!! (or the LCBO..Liquor CONTROL Board of Ontario)

No corner stores or ABC here!!
Its the same price no matter where you go...expensive!!!

A link to our beer selection for those that are interested..
Hit "SUBMIT" without typing anything in the boxes..

http://www.thebeerstore.ca/Beers/Brandsearch.asp

And a link to the micro-breweries that we have that are going against the biggies...Molson's, Labatts, Coors, whoever owns what nowadays...

http://www.beerhunter.ca/








Now...








I have to ask....








I do not want to hog this thread and bore everyone.
I will continue with my tour if no one minds.
If not and we want to move on, I will just post a bunch of links to the rest.
Let me remind those right behind me, Justin, Marshay, and The Fleagles, that this could buy you more time to prepare....juuuuuust sayin...

There is still City Hall, the Toronto Zoo, The Eaton Centre, St. Lawrence Market, The Science Centre,(another of my Faves!), Ontario Place (really cool), The CNE, the Hockey Hall of Fame, Roy Thomson Hall, Air Canada Centre, and right near where I live (about 15 mins) is Canadas Paramount Wonderland, a small Disney, complete with Water Park (SplashWorks) but based on Hannah Barbera type cartoons.
Characters include Spongebob, Dora, Scooby Doo, Jimmy Neutron, Rugrats, and the JETSON"S!!!
My wife and kids get annual passes but I haven't been there (again) in years.

I am really enjoying opening up Toronto to y'all (teehee) and hope to kindle some thought into visiting us, I really do love my city, even if I do not get to SEE it much anymore!!!
I hope to be able to wrap up in another 2 posts, unless a brainstorm of ideas hit on stuff I have forgotten.

The few comments before about T.O (or "The Big Smoke") being cold and such, is far from the facts.
It is not uncommon to see the mid to high 90's, if not clipping 100, here in the summer (June-Aug).
On the other hand...winter can be a B***H!!!
If you like skiing, youre in!!!

Let me know how you feel.

 

[madbrad76]

I do not want to hog this thread and bore everyone.
I will continue with my tour if no one minds.
If not and we want to move on, I will just post a bunch of links to the rest.
Let me remind those right behind me, Justin, Marshay, and The Fleagles, that this could buy you more time to prepare....juuuuuust sayin...

There is still City Hall, the Toronto Zoo, The Eaton Centre, St. Lawrence Market, The Science Centre,(another of my Faves!), Ontario Place (really cool), The CNE, the Hockey Hall of Fame, Roy Thomson Hall, Air Canada Centre, and right near where I live (about 15 mins) is Canadas Paramount Wonderland, a small Disney, complete with Water Park (SplashWorks) but based on Hannah Barbera type cartoons.
Characters include Spongebob, Dora, Scooby Doo, Jimmy Neutron, Rugrats, and the JETSON"S!!!
My wife and kids get annual passes but I haven't been there (again) in years.

I am really enjoying opening up Toronto to y'all (teehee) and hope to kindle some thought into visiting us, I really do love my city, even if I do not get to SEE it much anymore!!!
I hope to be able to wrap up in another 2 posts, unless a brainstorm of ideas hit on stuff I have forgotten.

The few comments before about T.O (or "The Big Smoke") being cold and such, is far from the facts.
It is not uncommon to see the mid to high 90's, if not clipping 100, here in the summer (June-Aug).
On the other hand...winter can be a B***H!!!
If you like skiing, youre in!!!

Let me know how you feel.

WE WANT MORE! WE WANT MORE! WE WANT MORE!

At least I do anyway!

More time ... yes ... I need more time!!!

 

[DISgeeksfromDC]

WE WANT MORE! WE WANT MORE! WE WANT MORE!

I'll second that! (I vote for the extended tour from 3guys!) If I didn't know better, I'd think that 3guys was trying to educate those silly Americans to the South about his country!

Also, it looks like we'll be doing a speedy drive-through (and a wave "hello" ) when we reach Pittsburgh.

I believe that Justin is a bit slammed for time right now. ('Can't imagine why!?! )

'Lemme post an updated itinerary to reflect the most recent change...

 

[DISgeeksfromDC]

Here's the latest version of our Virtual Road Trip "Itinerary":

Note: Revised to remove Justin M from the "itinerary."

VIRTUAL ROAD-TRIP ITINERARY:

1 (a.) – DISgeeksfromDC (Gaithersburg, MD)
1 (b.) – Mr. DISgeeksfromDC (Gaithersburg, MD)
2 – HaunteMansionFan (Taunton, MA)
3 – 3guysandagal (Richmond Hill, Ontario, CA)
4 – Marshay (Ashburn, Virginia)
5 (a.) – Mrs. fleagle (Yorktown, VA)
5 (b.) – fleagle (Yorktown, VA)
6 – AnnDisneyFan (Charlotte, NC)
7 - BigThunderMtn (Atlanta, GA)
8 – JenniferAtl (Atlanta, GA)
9 – KigerKat (Atlanta, GA)
10 – madbrad76 (Florence, AL)
11 - Disneymommom (Dry Prong, LA)
12 – Suz D (Bloomington, IN)
13 – tothesea (Oklahoma City, OK)
14 – spreadingpixiedust (Tyler, TX)
15 – catotigger (Bryan, TX)
16 – swwaake (Austin, TX)
17 – calliaz (Tempe, AZ)
18 – Disneyfalcon (Colorado Springs, CO)
19 – FirstTimeCaller (Freeland, WA)
20 – circusgirl (Seattle, WA)
21 (a.) - mrs autopia driver (Bremerton, WA)
21 (b.) - wotruba-disney/Mr. Autotopia (Bremerton, WA)
22 - DSNY4ever (Folsom, CA)
23 – CalDisneyFamily (California)
24 - Disneyland (Anaheim, CA)
25 - Miss Stitch (Leeds, England)
26 - disneyhockeymad (Kent, England)
27 - Disneyland Resort Paris

 

[catotigger]

I agree! More from Toronto!

This is great 3guys - you've put a lot into this - and we sooooo appreciate it!

 

[Marshay]

3Guys -- feel free to post more since it seems like many of us (including me) are not familiar with Canada. I'm enjoying it greatly and you are doing a wonderful job.

I need to post by Friday since I leave on Saturday morning.

Mrs. Fleagle My Northern Virginia tour will be just a one-day'er so we'll be heading down to Yorktown by Saturday.

 

[HauntedMansionFan]

I say keep going 3guys.... I'm totally fascinated by Toronto.... it looks so cool and vibrant. Like I said earlier, I never had it pegged as place to visit... but after seeing the pics and all... that is definitely changing.

 

[Disneyfalcon]

Yes, keep going!! I love all these pictures!

 

[Mrs. Fleagle]

3Guys -- feel free to post more since it seems like many of us (including me) are not familiar with Canada. I'm enjoying it greatly and you are doing a wonderful job.

I need to post by Friday since I leave on Saturday morning.

Mrs. Fleagle My Northern Virginia tour will be just a one-day'er so we'll be heading down to Yorktown by Saturday.

I'm all prepared......ready when you are!


KEEP GOING 3GUYS!

 

[DSNY4ever]

Loving the road trip! Haha, I have to admit that after I read all of these I look up how much it would cost to fly there (just in case there is a deal)...I hope this thread stays on here forever so that I can reference it for future trips!

Great job everyone!

 

[BigThunderMtn]

We interrupt this Virtual Road Trip for a very important bulletin. Ben & Jerry's is giving away free ice cream cones today only from 12-8pm (I think). Click on the image above to find the closest store to you that is participating. Hopefully the RV is near one so everyone can make one trip.

In closing...please vote again today for my shopping bag design.
Vote more than once using different PC's.

 

[Miss Stitch]

Toronto looks really cool, a great mix of old and modern, and lots of beautiful architecture.

HTM - Have just voted on your bag design and will try to remember to vote once a day. Good luck. If you do get your design onto a bag, will someone bring one over when you come to the UK, I doubt I will be able to get hold of one here.

Hope we do manage to get the RV near to a B&J. I could really do with some, in fact I am nearly drooling now

 

[wotruba-disney]

3Guys- please continue. I very much enjoy your tour. More please!