...then why do some people feel it necessary to spend millions on the house they live in? We went to Casa Loma today, a museum that was once the residence of Sir Henry Mill Pellatt, a financier that ironically lost the house by going broke. (Note to self, don't hire this guy.) It was HUGE. The biggest private residence in it's day, the dude spent $3.5 million on it, and Canadians were outraged. (Meanwhile, in the USA, the Rockefellers were spending about $11 on their crib...shhhhhh!)
Getting there was also an adventure - our first full day of navigation through Toronto's public transit system. Yesterday was the streetcars, today was the subway, the bus system, and the streetcars. At least it wasn't raining today - Wee!
We started off the day at Union Station (hey! we have one of those in DC!), where I fed my fascination with pigeons, and my nephew let the world know that "Aunt Mel is always taking pictures of those birds." (Thanks, dude. But aren't they fabulous?)
Union Station was quite a bit busier today compared to the ghost town it was yesterday since the train strike ended last night, and Louie finally got to ride his beloved train on the subway.
We took the train uptown to Dupont station (hey! we have one of those in DC!), and then realized we had to walk about another half a mile to get to the museum. o_O
The walk was great though - a lot of interesting stuff along the way, though the museum isn't downtown and is kind of tucked away in a residential neighborhood past the Archives. On a side note, I really like the architecture in Toronto - it's all over the place, and a ton of interesting buildings, sculptures, and edifices that are neat-o, just because.
Case in point - this door:
The other thing that I've noticed is that there is graffiti everywhere, but the majority of it seems to be artistic, and lovely. This was my favorite near Casa Loma:
...although I liked this little one too, hidden under a bridge and apropos of nothing:
I'm very sorry you're missing your Blue Jay. Would you like a pigeon, instead?
(On another side note - I love the street signs in Canada. We need these in the US.)
SQUEEEEEZE IT! SQUEEEZE IT OVAH!
Anyway, we made it to Casa Loma...which again, is HUGE...
...but has some neat rooms. The museum is something that my mom very much enjoyed - she's into that period decorating stuff - and though I found it a tad mind-numbing, there were some neat rooms that I enjoyed. I really liked the Conservatory - and I want one of these in my house.
The rest of the house, secret passageways included, was a bit staid for me, though Mom and Lou both had a great time. I got some good views from the top turret...
...but the $32 for two mediocre sandwiches in the cafeteria and the nine thousand children running around on school tours make it something that I would rather have skipped.
Behold my worst nightmare:
I was forced out into the gardens to escape the screaming hordes, and what a fortuitous escape it was. The gardens were lovely - meandering paths, secret nooks with benches, follies and gazebos everywhere you looked. My favorite was the Dragon Tree - I think it's no secret by now that I have an endless fascination with dragons, and this one was super neat, although it took me a minute to see the dragons. Check it out:
The explanation:
And the close-ups:
(Hairy Dragon Eye Ball)
So, while I didn't get to explore the whole 5 acres of garden - which I totally would if I lived in Toronto, but when you've got a list and a limited time frame, well, you know - we took off after I was done immortalizing the Dragon Tree in film.
Lou was in heaven, since this time we got to take the subway AND the bus. Oh, to be young again and see public transportation as an adventure, instead of a purgatory filled with yuppies who run over your feet with their strollers and crazy Indian ladies who smell like turmeric.
Next stop: Ontario Science Center. Home of some really neat stuff.
We spent HOURS here. HOURS. It pretty much ate up the rest of the afternoon, and if Mom hadn't had a raging migraine, we might have spent even more time. It was totally worth every penny, and not just for the kid, although right off the bat he was enthralled...
...super excited to run around chasing light rings with the other kids...
...and fascinated by the virtual koi pond.
(OK, I admit it, I was fascinated by the virtual koi pond too. It's only an image on the floor, but the "water" ripples when you walk across it, and the "fish" react to your presence. NEAT-O.)
There were a TON of things to do in this place. There was a Sport exhibit, where you could have wheelchair races, rock climbing tests, jumping feats that measured your reach - even a slalom course with a full sled and a virtual mountain!
Lou's favorite was the Spy School exhibit - a series of stations that taught you spy techniques, then tested to see if you could complete tasks without getting caught.
It was pretty cool, although we have now established that my nephew has not even one quarter ounce of the subtlety required for espionage.
The special exhibit on while we visited was the Lizards and Snakes Alive! exhibit, and though I've seen better in the Smithsonian Reptile House, I realize that I'm lucky to live within arm's reach of a national zoo. This was a decent exhibit for a traveling venue, and I got some good shots. This was by far my favorite part, but then again I am a sucker for anything involving animals.
I ran around for over an hour getting close-ups of all the reptiles, and had to seriously bite my tongue at all the parents that not allowed their children to bang on the glass enclosures, but some even actively encouraged them. Oh, how I wished to have a pit viper handy. This woman thought it was hysterical that her child wanted to kiss one of the most venomous snakes in the world, and the more agitated the snake got, the funnier she thought it was.
I really wanted to bash this kid's mother for encouraging him to suck face with a pit viper. I kind of hope one shows up in their yard and ends their contribution to the gene pool.
But anyway, after our tour of the reptiles, we took Lou through the space exhibit, which was cool, but much more geared toward the older kids. Lou could care less about the different spectrums of light, he just wants to crash a rocket ship into Mars.
By the time we got to Kidspark, Mom was exhausted and had a raging super migraine, so she sat out on the benches and napped while Lou and I ran around inside. I SO wish we had one of these near - I would take my nephew all the time! There were a million things to do, touch, taste, see, push, pull, play, etc. Some of them would only appeal to a 6 year old, like the machine that demonstrated sneezes by shooting out a watery mist when you opened the face "door"...(EW!)
...which of course my nephew LOVED, and proceeded to open the door about 15 times. Some of them, though, are cool for all ages, and I saw easily half of the parents absorbed in their own activities while their kids ran around. There was a really neat series of water tables that Lou loved, where you could build a series of locks and control the water flow, with deeper pools and sliding panels. Yes, he got soaked. I liked the giant pin panels, like the ones you find in the gag store and press your hand into, but HUGE. Lou and I both had a great time pressing our hands and bodies into those, then running around to the other side to see what they looked like.
It was just a really neat place.
Lou wanted to stay there forever, of course, but Mom ended up really not feeling well, and so we headed back to the hotel for an early night. We put Mom to bed, covered her eyes with a cool washcloth, and headed out to East Marios for dinner, where Lou proceeded to eat almost nothing but managed to almost cover the entire floor in grated cheese. Thank God the waiter was cool, and Lou was in funny man mode, with his inescapable kid logic about why he should get dessert without eating any dinner. O_O
It's nights like this that I realize how much I love my nephew, and how glad I am that I'm not a parent.
