The Santa Claus Parade

 

Location: Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Address:  111 Queen's Park
Date:  November 2022
Website:  thesantaclausparade.com

  In 1904 Santa Claus walked from Union Station to the Eaton's store on Queen Street West. In 1905 there was a single float that carried Santa Claus to the Eaton's store.  The Santa Claus Parade was born.  Each year it marks the arrival of Santa Claus to Toronto.  Santa is here to find out what good children would like for Christmas.  We had not seen the parade in person for many years.  This year we headed downtown to join in the fun.

    Before the parade even starts, you can watch the Holly Jolly Fun Run.  Runners race along the same 5 km route as the parade, in order to raise money.  The majority of runners usually do the run dressed in holiday costumes.

     Finally, we caught sight of the parade coming down University Avenue.  The first to arrive were the Celebrity Clowns.  These clowns have all made a donation to help support the parade.  You never know who might be under all that makeup and wigs.

 

    The parade is made up of many floats towed behind vehicles.  One of the oldest floats is Mother Goose.  A Mother Goose float first appeared in the parade in 1917 and this year was no exception.

 

   The Toronto Police are always a big part of the parade.  Toronto Police do crowd control to keep the parade goers safe.  Sometimes the attendance at the parade can reach almost a half million people.  The Toronto Police also show off some of their classic vehicles like this 1957 Chevy in bright yellow.

    Our favourite Toronto Police car will always be Blinky.  Blinky used to be bright yellow, but when the car colours were changed to white with a red and blue stripe, so did Blinky.  Blinky also used to talk and of course blink those big eyes.

 

     The Toronto Police Mounted Unit also took part in the parade.

    With horses always comes the need for a clean-up crew.  Toronto's Mayor John Tory volunteered for the job.  There are lots of marching bands yet to come that don't need to be dodging road apples.

    Here comes one of the bands now.  The Ridley College Cadets are just one of the bands keeping the crowd moving to Christmas classics.  Bands come from all over Ontario for the honour of being part of the parade.

    Another parade float tells the creation story.  In the story, a flood takes over the land and a muskrat dives to the bottom of the water and grabs some earth.  The earth is then placed on the back of a turtle forming North America or what is also called Turtle Island.

    Other floats didn't have as quite a meaningful story behind them.  This one is simply a lion enjoying a toboggan ride.  Most floats have corporate sponsors who help keep the parade going each year.  This float was sponsored by Royal Bank of Canada.

    The majority of the floats have a holiday or winter theme.  The float above features two polar bears and a reindeer.

    This float features a few of Santa's reindeer in the horn section.

    The McDonald's float also featured some musical woodland creatures out in the snow.

    A few floats required a little more thought to see how they connect to Christmas.  How about this 123Dentist float?  All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth.  And of course the Tooth Fairy is a close personal friend of Santa Claus.

 

   How about this float full of creamy garlic and pizza?  Mele Kalikimaka is the thing to say on a bright Hawaiian Christmas day.  Especially for that grass skirt wearing pineapple pizza.  At St. Lawrence Market, where the parade ends, Pizza Pizza was giving out slices to all of the volunteers who braved the cold and helped make the parade a success.

    The volunteers walk the parade in all sorts of costumes like the pink octopus costumes above.

 

 

    There was a group of snowmen.  Don't worry the weather was below freezing on parade day.

 

     There was a flock of blue jays.  Some parade goers might have been disappointed that none of these blue jays were part Toronto's baseball team.

    A favourite costume is the upside down clowns, or this year upside down monkeys.  You try walking nearly five kilometres on your hands!

    Mrs. Claus is also a big part of the parade.  After seeing Mrs. Claus, we know it won't be very long until Santa arrives.  

 

 

    A Peanuts float featuring Charlie Brown and Snoopy was sponsored by Canada's Wonderland and their Winterfest event.  In 2020 and 2021 the parade took place at Wonderland.  This year the parade finally returned to the Toronto streets to perform live.

    The parade takes about an hour to an hour and a half in order to pass any particular spot.  We saw a float turn the corner and realized it was being led by a group of reindeer.   Santa had finally arrived!   We recommend the Toronto Santa Claus parade as one of the biggest and longest running parades in the world.  Just remember to dress warmly and keep moving.  Most importantly, no matter what age you actually are, we can all be kids at the parade. Merry Christmas everyone!

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Map of Our World
The Santa Claus Parade

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Post # 318

Tobermory Ferries

 

Location: Tobermory, Ontario, Canada
Address:  8 Eliza St
Date:  September 2022
Website:  www.ontarioferries.com

  There have been ferries travelling between Tobermory and South Baymouth, Ontario for over 100 years.  Tobermory is at the top of the Bruce Penninsula and sits between Lake Huron and Georgian Bay.  If you wish to travel further from here you will have to either take a boat or else head back and go the long way around.  On a trip from Sault Ste Marie, Ontario we travelled south by ferry to Tobermory.

   The ferry service started in the 1920s with the SS Hibou.  Later came the MS Normac which could hold up to 16 cars.  There were a couple of other ships before the SS Norisle came along in 1946.  You can still find the Norisle docked at Burns Wharf in Manitowaning on Manitoulin Island.

     The Norisle was capable of holding up to 46 cars as it made its journey from Manitoulin Island to Tobermory and back again.  In 1958 the Normac returned to help share the work load. When the Normac retired, the MS Norgoma joined the Norisle in making the 46 km voyage.

     In 1974 the Chi-Cheemaun arrived and replaced both the Norisle and the Norgoma.  The Chi-Cheemaun can hold 143 vehicles and over 600 passengers and it is still running to this day. 

 

   The Chi-Cheemaun can also hold large transport trucks like the truck full of livestock in the photo above.  You can get an idea of the size of the Chi-Cheemaun as it prepares to dock.

  Like the Norisle and Norgoma that came before it, the Chi-Cheemaun was built in Collingwood, Ontario.

     The beautiful indigenous art, like the turtle pictured above, gives the Chi-Cheemaun a bright colourful look. 

    The sides of the ship also feature birds and fish. 

    In South Baymouth we entered the ship through the stern.  We first had to wait for the vehicles that had arrived from Tobermory to leave from the same opening at the back of the ship.

    Upon arrival in Tobermory, the bow of the ship flips up to allow the vehicles to exit and a new group to enter.  If you see the Chi-Cheemaun in the harbour with its front flipped up you have not yet missed your ferry, but you better hurry.

    It was a beautiful, clear day when our ferry left South Baymouth to head south to Tobermory.

 

    The Ontario flag at the front of the ship blew in the breeze as we started our one hour and 45 minute journey.

    The Chi-Cheemaun passses by the famous Flowerpot Island.  The flowerpot formations made from the rocks are shown in the mural above. Unfortunately as the Chi-Cheemaun passes, these rocks are on the other side of the island.

    The ferry does pass Cove Island and you can get a good view of its lighthouse.

    At some points during the journey you can see nothing but water as you look from the deck of the Chi-Cheemaun.

 

   Before we knew it, the time came for us to head back down to our vehicles and get ready to drive through the Chi-Cheemaun and out into the town of Tobermory.  Just like the artwork that graces the sides of the ship, a voyage on the Chi-Cheemaun will brighten your day.

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Map of Our World
Chi-Cheemaun Ferry
SS Norisle

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Post # 317

Canadian Tire Turns 100

Location: Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Address:  169 Bastedo Avenue
Date:  July 2022
Website:  www.canadiantire.ca

  This year Canadian Tire is celebrating their 100 year anniversary.  Canadian Tire stores sell more than just tires and have been providing automotive, hardware, houseware and sporting good needs to Canadians for a century.  As part of the celebrations, they worked with local residents in order to turn a Toronto street into a giant beach party for the Canada Day weekend.  Up and down Bastedo Avenue there were giant inflatable pool floats on every front lawn.

   We are not sure how the theme for each yard was chosen.  Did the homeowners help set up the displays or did Canadian Tire send in a team?  There were lots of yards with flamingo filled displays.

     Some of the flamingoes were more chill than the others.  The flamingoes above were taking part in a yoga session. 

     Another popular theme was dinosaurs.  In the corporate world some may say that Canadian Tire is a dinosuar.  Meaning that the company is old, not that it is no longer relevant.

 

  Canadian Tire is far from extinct.  Despite being one hundred years old, their website boasts over 500 stores and that 90 % of all Canadians are only 15 minutes away from a Canadian Tire store.

  Parked up and down the street were some brightly painted pickup trucks.  This blue truck was full of ice cream.

    This pink truck was carrying a load of Canadian Tire beach balls.

    There was a yellow truck carrying a flamingo, a pineapple and a pair of crocodiles.

    Seeing a unicorn was not an unsual thing on Bastedo Avenue that day.  The largest unicorn floaties were up to 16 feet long and could hold about 5 adults.  One of them would take up the whole pool and leave no room for little Johnnie to test out his water wings.

    One of the yards had a nice display with a single peacock in front of their bushes.

 

    Other yards did not subscribe to the theory that less is more.  This yard had quite the flock and variety of birds.  If Canadian Tire is offering you free lawn ornaments why say no?

 

    Another yard had a whale and a variety of umbrellas.  Luckily the weather was perfect all weekend or this display may have been picked clean by people needing to "borrow" an umbrella.

    We started to get a bit hungry as we walked past donuts that were half eaten by grazing llamas.

    We started to feel like we needed some refreshment after looking at all these displays of watermelons, pineapples and pink lemonade coloured flamingoes.  

    Thankfully at the top of Bastedo Avenue you can find Gelato On The Danny which can stop hunger and provide refreshment all in one shot.  With gelato cups in hand we headed back south through the beach party once more.

   A sign beside a giant snail told us to walk slow.  Not a problem now as we worked on eating spoonfulls of our gelato.  We were wondering how these floaties stayed upright and if you just kind of hung through the snail shell.  Then we checked the Canadian Tire website and realized these are actually sprinkler snails.  You hook it up to your hose and jump through the hoop to beat the summer heat.

    There was one yard where a group of inflatable cows had been properly fenced in.  Much safer than the flamingoes, unicorns and dinosaurs allowed to just roam free in other front yards.

    One driveway had a different approach.  Someone has drawn a 3D chalk drawing of a canoe headed over a tall waterfall.  These types of drawings mess with your perspective and trick your mind.  We are not sure if the chalk was donated by Canadian Tire.

    There was a yard which had killer whales inside canoes and on a floatation device.  We are not sure why these intelligent creatures would need this mode of transport when they are such excellent swimmers.  Most likely they had just recently displaced the human occupants.

     Canadian Tire has called this their Summer Of The Century Celebration.  We hope they have more events like this across Canada so everyone gets a chance to help them ring in their one hundreth year.

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Map of Our World
Summer Of The Century Celebration

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Post # 313