Lepard in Toronto: June 2005

My Fabulous Gay Parade!

A busy weekend, saturday we had a wine and cheese in the evening..of course we had to spend the whole day cleaning, Kim did most of the cooking and she definetly outdid herself. Some of the highlights were various homemade phylo pastry appetizers, crepes, and a pavlova! YUM!
A fair number of work people had weddings to attend and couldn't make it, it was kinda small and intimate...but a fun time had by all. With lots of yummy wine, including:
Cono Sur a Pinot Noir from Chile, an excellent summer wine.
Alexandra and Neil brought Ikka...Amy, Jaggy, and Peter showed up as well. And we can't forget Lil.
Saturday night, after everyone left Amy said there was a concert downstairs in the Gay Village...just one block down.
So we wandered up and down church for abit, listen to several stages and mostly people watching...at least it was mostly the good looking guys, without any flab that decided to wear only small amounts of leather.
I had an interesting encounter with a person wearing a very realisitc animal costume, including tail and full head mask. Being part of the pride celebrations it reminded me of the episode in CSI with "furries".

Sunday was the parade. A hot and sticky day, but lots of people still made it out. The people at the front of the parade were great, dancing and laughing..many drag queens, water guns, and built shirtless guys. But towards then end, waiting to go on in the hot weather, were the more scary groups, old men wearing only a sock...shudder!
The water guns were the best part, even the police officers were happy to be soaked. We passed on the expensive, crappy icecream and found giant freezies for 50c...those brought back memories...the best way to cool off.

the aftermath...

yikes!!

bell...the better view

fabulous dahling!

a view down yonge street, close to 1 million people view the parade during its 15 block route

silver and flamenco..late for the parade

Weekend in Ottawa

Kim and I took the train to Ottawa to visit her friend, Eddie. Rawan, a friend from work, just moved there as well...but she was in Toronto that weekend (stupid planning, but it's another reason to go back).
It's a five hour trip, but its very cool to see the Ontario countryside. Very different from BC, its relatively flat with lots of farms so you can see the dome of the sky much better. Much better in the summer with all the greenery too.
We spent some time playing mini-golf, always a fun little game except for the bit of rain. I don't think I'll ever be able to golf but I can have fun trying to get through the silly obstacles.
We ran into a groundhog who had made one of the holes home. I stalked him a bit to get a good picture, but it was fun.
Next, off to downtown to see the parliment buildings. Very different from Washington D.C., not quite as imperialistic but very Canadian.
What I also loved was the Cattery, its on the side of a hill...right across from the main building but outside the gates. It's been there for several decades, has a "pride?" of 22 stray cats (who self regulate the size), and receives no support from the government. It's all run by volunteers who come out and feed them..even in -35C weather.
I like the fact that, in D.C. nothing like this would be allowed to exist...everything was very orderlyin the Mall and around the hill, but in Canada the MPs come out and feed new litters.
We also had dinner at Cafe Paradiso, delicious encrusted lamb with a very nice Cab-Sav/Shiraz. And live jazz as well. I have forgotten how well good food, good wine, and jazz go together. I'm going to have to go to the Montreal Bistro again.

On Sunday morning they shutdown the street beside the Rideau Canal for rollerbladers and bikers. Its a seven Km paved track through some very beautiful/wild parkland, to downtown...you end up right by the Parliment buildings. I think Ottawa wouldn't be too bad a place to live...in the summer :)
After that we went to the DiefenBunker, Canada's Cold War Museum. Its actual nuclear shelter for the federal government. Four stories of conrete and huge amounts of rebar. It was built in the 60's and severed as a CF signals station until 94 when it was decommissioned (everything was ripped, even useless old computers). It was turned into a museum around 2000 and they put it back together to simulate how it would look in the 60s.
It was very cool to walk around inside, experience some of the Cold War nostalgia and paranoia. It's amazing to think that the government was preaching "duck and cover" for the civilians and making huge underground bunkers for the government to survive.
Needless to say, lots of cool, old military stories.

Inside the DiefenBunker, for the military enthusiast in me it was a very cool day. The long tunnel was to along blast winds to pass through the bunker without damage.

The outside of the DiefenBunker, Canada's Cold War Museum. Under the manmade hill is a four story concrete and steel bunker for Canada's Government during a nuclear crisis.

roller blading along the rideau canal. a beautiful piece of nature that leads right downtown.

Parliment hill....and some picasa effects

the cattery on parliment hill, 22 cats...no help from the government, other than freedom to be and its been around for 25+years.

An unusual site, the eternal/peace flame...out

Our ground hog friend from the mini-golf course, he had quite a set of tunnels around the course

Kim, trying her hand at mini golf...in a stylish rain hat :)

Yuki, modelling Kims knitting handiwork

Fireworks off CityHall

Me in the kitchen...maple glazed cornish hen

Toronto Zoo

We rented a car for the weekend, did some much needed large item shopping on saturday...and sunday Jaggy, Amy, and Mason joined us in a trip to the Toronto Zoo.

Its a very large, well kept zoo in far away Scarborough. We had a great time, despite it being a frigid spring day. (We had organized and booked the car when the weather was 20+...and of course that weekend the weather changed back to winter)

Kitties!!!

Africa vs Canadian Geese

Lake Victoria Chiclids

New York! New York!

Kim has a friend from France taking an english course in New York for a few months. So we took off friday and monday and went down to see him.

It's a crazy metropolis. You never get tired of looking up and being amazed by the skyscrapers.
Traffic is of course nuts, with people honking...pedestrians not looking or caring...and cars not moving. I can't believe people take taxis there...it must cost so much to move so little, but then the money there is definetly on display.

We did a large amount of walking, too many museums ( I don't think I need to see anymore natural history museums ).

I definetly don't get modern art.

Ground Zero was interesting, a good opportunity to see an important piece of current events...Kim had been up the twin towers a year or two before, I can't imagine how long time new yorkers feel looking up and not seeing it.

Other than that we did the usual tourist stuff, Staten Island Ferry, Empirt State, Central Park.

A good place to vist, 4 days was more than enough...we spent monday with sore feet, walking a few blocks and then relaxing in one of the many small green parks they have there ( amazing! )

But I wouldn't want to live there.