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Showing posts with label Performances. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Performances. Show all posts

Wednesday 20 October 2021

Elephants of Toronto

Toronto Zoo Elephant

   In 2013 the last African elephants left the Toronto Zoo. They were headed to California to live out their days in a larger space away from cold Canadian winters. We miss the elephants when we visit the zoo.  But don't worry, if you know where to look you can still find elephants hidden around Toronto.  Below is a list of places to include on your search. If you know of any more, please let us know.

1 ) Toronto Zoo

Three Little Elephants Toronto Zoo

   A good place to start your search for elephants is at the Toronto Zoo.  The big elephants may be gone, but these three little ones still remain.  They are near the African Pavilion looking towards the old elephant exhibit.  The exhibit is now home to the zoo's Masai giraffes.

Savanna Snacks

  We also spotted a couple of elephants on the roof of the Savanna Snacks store.  This store is located near the African Zoomobile stop and the old home of the Masai giraffes.

2)  Commerce Court
Tembo Mother of Elephants Commerce Court Toronto

    If you are looking for bigger elephants around the city then Tembo is for you.  Tembo, Mother of Elephants stands in Commerce Court just north of Bay & Wellington. She is over nine feet tall.

Tembo Elephant Calves Toronto

  Behind Tembo are two little elephant calves following their mother.

Tembo Elephants Commerce Court Toronto

  These bronze sculptures bring some extra life and fun to Toronto's financial district.

Tembo Elephants Commerce Court Toronto

    Tembo is small compared to the towers of Toronto's downtown.  If you don't know where to look, you might just miss her.


3)  Toronto Police Museum

Elmer The Safety Elephant

  Elmer the elephant has been around since 1947 teaching school children about safety.  He has been helping keep children safe in playgrounds and on the roads.  This little Elmer (above) can be found in the Toronto Police Museum.  

Elmer Flag On A School In Toronto Canada

  Many schools around the city still fly the flag and participate in the Elmer school program today.

4)  Elephant & Castle

Elephant & Castle Logo

    The Elephant & Castle is the name of a group of pubs.  There used to be a couple of locations in the Toronto area.  The location at Yonge & Gerrard closed. This one (above) is located on King Street West near Roy Thomson Hall.

Elephant & Castle Logo

   The pub is named after an area of London, England.  The logo has an elephant with the turret of a castle on its back.

5)  Yarmouth Road

Elephant Yarmouth Road Toronto

   This next elephant stands on the front lawn of a private house on Yarmouth Road in Toronto.  When we visited it was hiding behind a tree.

6)  My Roti Place
My Roti Place Elephant Toronto

   The elephant painted on the wall of My Roti Place on Queen Street West looks ready to pull the crown right off of your head.  While you are there why not build your own meal served on Indian flatbread?

7)  Starbucks
Starbucks Kenyan Elephant

     A lot of people inside Starbucks don't notice anything besides their cellphone and their coffee.  We noticed this Kenyan elephant on the wall of a location near Leslie & Sheppard.  It was there to show where the different coffee beans come from.  There was also a Sumatran tiger and Guatemalan parrots.


  8)  Utility Boxes


Seaforth Road Utility Box With Elephants

   At the east end of Seaforth Avenue you can find this pair of pachyderms.  More and more utility boxes around the city are being painted by artists.  We liked the colours and style of this elephant pair.

Animal Covered Utility Box Sewells Road Scarborough

   Up on Sewells Road in Scarborough is a utility box that is just full of animals.  And yes, there is an elephant included.

9 ) Pearson Airport

Elephant Deicing Truck At Pearson Airport Toronto

   If you have ever found yourself departing from Toronto's Pearson International Airport in the winter, you may have been in the presence of another Toronto elephant.  These trucks are called elephants after the hoses that are mounted on a crane.  They are used to spray a glycol / water mix that looks like orange Kool-Aid.  The orange spray is de-icer.  Thanks to these elephants, planes are able to take off safely in even the coldest conditions.

10 ) York Cemetery

York Cemetery Elephant Toronto


     In the far back corner of York Cemetery in North York, we found another elephant.

Asian Sculptures In York Cemetery North York

   The elephant was in a section with dragons, sheep, birds and more.  It appeared they were still waiting for the humans that would eventually join them.

11 ) Beechwood Cemetery

Beechwood Cemetery Elephants

    Our last elephants can be found at Beechwood Cemetery.  This mother and baby are located a little bit outside of Toronto just north of Jane & Steeles.   We could have stopped our list at ten but we thought it should go to elephan.


Map of Our World
Post # 304

Friday 25 December 2020

Winterfest

Winterfest Canada's Wonderland

Location: Vaughan, Ontario, Canada
Address: 9580 Jane Street
Date: Dec 2019
Website: www.canadaswonderland.com

  Canada's Wonderland amusement park started out as the summer place to go for rides and thrills.  When the kids went back to school in the fall, the season ended.  Next they started operating later and later in order to stay open with reduced hours up until Halloween.  In 2018 they realized, "Why is the park closed during the most wonderful time of the year?", and Winterfest was born.  Now being in Canada in the winter means it is too cold and snowy for most of the rides to operate, but that didn't stop them from turning the park into a winter Wonderland.

Winter Wonder Mountain At Canada's Wonderland

  The centrepiece of the park is Wonder Mountain.  In the summer it has flowing waterfalls and cliff divers.  In the winter a cascade of twinkling lights flows down the mountain. Everything was the same but with a wintery twist.

Festive Funnel Cakes.

  A must have treat when visiting Wonderland is the funnel cakes.  You can't go wrong with some deep fried batter topped with strawberries and ice cream.  Festive funnel cakes let you enjoy new flavours like Eggnog Gingerbread and Candy Cane.

Medieval Fare Transformed into Elf Village At Canada's Wonderland

  We entered Medieval Fare which was temporarily being called Elf Village.

Tinker's Toy Factory At Canada's Wonderland.

  One of the many shows was called Tinker's Toy Factory.  It was good to get inside the theatre and watch a show as well as for a chance to warm up.

Winterfest Mug

   Another way to keep warm was with unlimited hot chocolate refills in our Winterfest mug.  All you had to do was line up at one of the many stations across the park and get your mug topped up again and again.

Candy Cane Lane At Canada's Wonderland.

   Every section of the park was decorated and covered in lights and Christmas delights.  We walked down Candy Cane Lane where Snoopy and Woodstock rode their sled across a rainbow.

Charlie Brown's Tree Lot.

  We came across a line-up going into a group of Christmas trees.  We couldn't see through the trees to see what was going on.  We decided to join the line and find out what awaited us at the end.

Peppermint Patty & The Charlie Brown Christmas Tree.

  It turned out that this was Charlie Brown's Tree Lot and everyone was lined up to have their picture taken with Peppermint Patty and a thin little tree with only one ornament.  As we know, that little tree is full of Christmas spirit.

Wonderland Christmas Tree

There were also giant Christmas trees filled with lights.

Christmas Lights At Canada's Wonderland.

Just about every tree in the park was draped in glowing bulbs.  It really was an impressive display.

Giant Christmas Lights

We wouldn't even dare to count how many lights might have been used to light up the park.  We would say for Wonderland to expect an oversized electric bill, nuch like these oversized lights.

Canada's Wonderland Poutine

 We started getting hungry again so what better to eat than some Christmas Veggie Poutine.

Elf On A Reindeer Penguin At Canada's Wonderland

Around the park were many Christmas characters.  There were elves and reindeer and even elves on reindeer.  There were also some penguins dressed for the cold.

Gingerbread Man Canada's WOnderlandSnowman Canada's Wonderland

There were men made of both snow and gingerbread.

Present Of Lights Canada's Wonderland

   There was a giant present made of lights.

Snowball Toss Game At Canada's Wonderland 
 
Even the games were themed for Christmas.  The Milk Can game was renamed the Snowball Toss.  If you won you might go home with your very own bouncing Abominable Snowmonster from the Rudolph Christmas classic. 

Llama Decorations Canada's Wonderland

  If you didn't win a prize, you could still go home with some Christmas decorations from the shops.  We liked the Fa La La La Llama ornament.

Reindeer Canada's Wonderland.

  As we headed out of the park we thought we heard a clatter.  Was it the hooves of reindeer landing on a roof?  Maybe it was the clickety clank of people being pulled to the top of a roller coaster?  Either way Wonderland had provided us with some thrills for yet another season.


Map of Our World
Canada's Wonderland
Post # 294

Friday 30 October 2020

Monsters Mummies & Mayhem

Monsters Mummies & Mayhem AT Hollywood Museum


Location:
Hollywood, California, USA
Address: 1660 N Highland Ave.
Date: June 2019
Website:  thehollywoodmuseum.com/

    The Hollywood Museum in Los Angeles has so many movie props and memorabilia that they fill every nook and cranny.  Since it is the Halloween season we thought we would revisit their basement and a few classic horror movie icons.

Frankenstein At Hollywood Museum

  First off is an old classic, Frankenstein. While the novel was written in 1818, we are talking movies here. This Frankenstein was played by Boris Karloff in the 1931 film and is seen above with his bride from the 1935 film Bride of Frankenstein.

Bela Legosi's Face At Hollywwod MuseumBoris Karloff Face At Hollywood Museum

  There were life masks of Boris Karloff and Bela Legosi. Bela Legosi had played Dracula and along with Boris was part of Universal Studio's classic monster movies.

King Kong Hollywood Museum

   Another early creature that scared audiences was the great ape, King Kong.  The original King Kong was a stop motion model.  The museum had various King Kongs on display.

The Birds At Hollywood Museum

  Flying ahead a few decades there were some birds from Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds.  We are not sure if these were just props or former movie stars preserved for future generations.

Elvira At The Hollywood Museum

  While not a movie monster herself, Elvira became very popular in the 1980s as a host presenting B grade horror movies.  Horror movies had never really gone away, but the 80s saw a group of classic horror villains rise to stardom and appear in numerous sequels.

Michael Meyers At Hollywood Museum

  Michael Meyers changed Haloween night forever and gained his place as one of the greatest characters in slasher film history.  Michael escapes from a sanitarium and visits his hometown for a night of fright and murder.  Jamie Lee Curtis stars as a babysitter that Michael is stalking while wearing a plain white mask.  So far there have been eleven Halloween films.

Friday The 13th Jason At The Hollywood Museum

   The next mask wearer to terrorize teenagers is Jason Voorhees from the Friday The 13th movies.  He drowned as a boy and is best known for wearing his hockey mask while slashing his way through twelve (or is it only eleven?) movies.  This franchise just has to make Friday The 13th: The 13th.

A Nightmare On Elm Street At The Hollywood Museum

  The next horror franchise to arrive in the 1980s started with A Nightmare On Elm Street.  This movie starred Freddy Krueger who terrorized teenagers in their dreams.  Johnny Depp's Hollywood dreams came true after being one of Freddy's victims.  There have only been nine movies in this series but there was a Freddy vs Jason cross-over movie made.

Chucky At The Hollywood Museum

  In the late 80s came Chucky.  He was a psychotic, knife wielding doll from the Child's Play movies.  Only 8 movies made so far.  He did find love in Bride of Chucky just like Frankenstein did over 60 years before himIf you have ever seen videos of dogs wearing costumes, and we know you have, the Chucky costume is one of the best.

Blair Witch Project At Hollywood Museum

  The museum is crammed with movie props and costumes from many other films.  There was this stick figure from The Blair Witch Project. The Blair Witch Project grossed almost 250 million dollars on a budget of less than 500 thousand.  It's shaky hand held camera work caused as much tension and fear as it did nausea.

Sweeny Todd Costume At The Hollywood Museum

   After having a role in A Nightmare On Elm Street, Johnny Depp spent a lot of time making movies with a Halloween feel to them thanks to director Tim Burton.  Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas is both a Halloween and a Christmas classic.  Johnny's Sweeney Todd costume was on display. 

Monsters Inc. At Hollywood Museum

   We headed upstairs again to escape from the horrors we had seen in the basement.  We did spot a couple more monsters up in a corner.  Mike Wazowski and Sulley from Monsters Inc. are a little less creepy than the hundereds of items you can find in The Hollywood Museum's dungeon.


Map of Our World
The Hollywood Museum

Post # 292