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Toronto Photo Walk Pt.4

Posted by THEJNSREPORT on December 8, 2014

Posted in: Image Gallery, Travel. Tagged: Canada, Christmas Tree, City Council, downtown Toronto, Dundas Street, Holidays, Image Gallery, Malls, Photo Walk, Reindeer, Rudolph, Santa, Sleigh, Street Performers, Toronto, Toronto Photo, travel. Leave a comment

Welcome to THEJNSREPORT’S: Toronto Photo Walk Pt.4

Press Play It was overcast and cool all day yet according to the lights going up the spire on the Canada Life Building the temperature outside was going up.Here we are outside the U.S Embassy.

The Great Seal of the U.S.A. At the U.S Embassy

Gimme the crown!

Across from the Skating rink is Toronto’s City Council building where they have city council meetings. The building design looks like something out of the Jetson’s.

Much like at Rockefeller Center. Canadians like the ice skate rink.

Absolutely love this shot! Catching the local news doing what they do.

From the skate rink we made our way to a pretty large mall and began to walk through.

Once inside we could see clearly things were already set for the Holiday Season as decorations were up throughout the mall.

Pretty cool decoration.

The reindeer above

From the reindeer to the “Christmas Tree”. I’d never seen a tree quite like this one. This was exceptional to see in person. And of course I had to get a closeup of what it looked like underneath.After stopping in a few stores we made our way to the rear of the mall towards Dundas Street.

Once outside we got a taste of Toronto’s version of Times Square.

Dundas Street definitely was certainly alive with lights, signs, plenty of people and foot traffic. If you look closely you can see Spiderman in the background on his cell. LOLWhen we spotted this guy we had to stop and check out his performance. We’d seen street performers like this back in the states but not sure they were as good as this guy.

I included a short video of his performance live. Check it out below.From here we crossed Dundas St and stumbled upon a street fair a little ways up Yonge street.

Street fairs are usually fun when one has the time to walk through and if the streets aren’t too crowded. Fortunately both things were true for us this day.

This street fair wasn’t too big or too small, I think it safe to say it was just right. 😉I don’t blame him for wearing something to cover the legs it was bit cold out.

This girl came strutting her stuff by & I was obliged to take her picture.

Queen and Beaver??? Nuff said LOL 😀Never heard of her before now but this woman can sing.

Look who came to the fair. Toronto’s “Frosty” The Snow Man. It was also pretty cool that they had ice sculptures for people to take pictures in, on and around.

It began to get dark pretty quickly and I not loving the cold as I don’t kept my behind far from the cold seat but I did snap a few shots of it as it changed colors as well as some of the other ice sculptures.

Here’s someone that was all about that throne.Check out this ice sculpture of a polar bear.

Lastly, I leave you with this shot of Santa in his sleigh lead by “Rudolph”. Well, this is where our Photo Walk ends. Toronto until next time (preferably during the summer). This has been THEJNSREPORTS: Toronto Photo Walk Pt.4

Toronto Photo Walk Pt. III

Posted by THEJNSREPORT on December 1, 2014

Posted in: Image Gallery, Travel. Tagged: Canada, Day tripping, Downtown, downtown Toronto, Flags, G8, Image Gallery, Overcast day, Photo Walk, Photography, Queens Park, Toronto, Toronto General Hospital, Toronto Photo, Tourism, University of Toronto. Leave a comment

Welcome to THEJNSREPORT’S: Toronto Photo Walk Pt.IIIPicking up where we last left off. We continued to walk the streets of downtown Toronto.The street car looks like a hybrid between a bus and a train car.TD bank is also seemingly the bank of Canada because I saw locations just about everywhere we went.

As we approached Queens Park I noticed this massive glass building looming in the distance. It looked pretty awesome with it’s curved shape.

Toronto General Hospital in the background.

Heading to class I guess.This statue is for a famous doctor of the university. His name escapes me but obviously he was important enough to have a statue erected for him by the medical school.

Back to back street cars were approaching, reminding me of the good ole days of the MTA, where late off schedule, bus drivers put on their (Not in service/Next Bus Please) signs and sped off one after the other leaving many of us strap-hangers stranded.We began making our way back towards the way we came to Queens Park and the downtown financial district.

Nice play pen for the kids. From here, we encountered the flags of the G8 in Toronto. They are comprised of the 8 leading industrialized economies (Canada, United States, UK, Russia, Japan, France, Italy, Germany, & European Union).

I didn’t even know there was a Mount Sinai Hospital in Canada.We wanted to go up to the top of the space needle building here but alas we thought better of it and would plan that for another trip when the weather was more amenable.I have to say I really like the architecture of the buildings in Toronto. This city is pretty cool I must say.And then my attention was drawn towards something in the picture. I’m like what in the world???No he’s not like… “I’m about to go to sleep. I got my smoke on, now it’s nap time.” This isn’t uncommon in the states though. Especially NYC.

There’s something on its head.Right outside of a subway entrance I found something that reminds me of back home. Trash just dumped and left on the street. Toronto’s such a beautiful city you’d almost have to consider this a “beauty mark”.We continued making our way downtown as the temp got warmer.

Stay tuned for Toronto Photowalk Pt.4

Toronto Photo Walk 2014 Continued

Posted by THEJNSREPORT on November 30, 2014

Posted in: Food & Drinks, Image Gallery, Travel. Tagged: Canada, Cities, Food & Drinks, Giant Supermarkets, Hockey Arena, Image Gallery, Loblaws, Photgraphy, Sights and Sounds, Toronto, Tourism, travel. Leave a comment

Welcome to THEJNSREPORT’S: Toronto Photo Walk 2014 Continued…When we arrived in front I was tempted to stop in and try a burger but brunch had already satisfied the appetite. We continued mosey on down the road. However, I vowed next time in Toronto it’s going to be a battle of the burger joints visit to find out which burger joint in Toronto offers the best burgers especially when the name of your place is called “Hero Certified!”One would think a store with this name would be located in NYC.Having recently been to a day spa back home this too looked like a place to stop in but it wasn’t to be. There was much more to see.This building used to be a Hockey Arena but had been transformed into a Giant and I mean GIANT Mega Supermarket known as Loblaws. I mean, Good God!!! The sheer size of this place is enough to make you have several seats.

Inside Loblaws

They have their own Sushi section. Tells me they are serious about Sushi in Loblaws.The aisles in here extended as far as the eye could see.Uh yessum!I think I put on 5lbs just looking at the display case.

That little girl was mesmerized as was I.

They thought of everything didn’t they.

The Cakelets son!!!

We want cakes, we want cakes lol 😉 !!!Now I don’t know what they were trying to say here with those two between the Gingerbread men. LMAO!!! 😀 Loblaws ya’ll got some splaining to do.

This is absolutely cake heaven.At this point it was time to get out of this massive food tease and head for more sights and sounds of down town Toronto. We made our way out of the store and found an exit to the street.

Even in a city as clean as Toronto homelessness exists.

Crossing the street here in Toronto, you have to stick your finger in a hole in the light poles so that the signal will change. I’d really only ever seen this down south or in the mid-west back in the states. I think we need this in NYC.

Toronto: Photo Walk 2014

Posted by THEJNSREPORT on November 27, 2014

Posted in: Image Gallery, Nature - Environment. Tagged: 2014, Architecture, Canada, Church Street, downtown Toronto, Image Gallery, Photo Walk, Toronto, Touring. Leave a comment

Welcome to THEJNSREPORT’S: Toronto: Photo Walk 2014

It was overcast and chilly throughout the day but not as cold as the day before where temps were at -3 degrees Celsius.My friends and I were on our way to the metro heading toward downtown Toronto when we saw …Those are some pretty large nests.

Looks like we’re about to enter a portal ahead.

When you enter the station you can purchase tokens to enter the subway. These tokens are smaller than the ones the MTA used to use decades ago. One thing that stood out to me once inside the station was how clean it was as opposed to New York’s subways. The difference is night and day. It really shames NYC to be such a wealthy city and yet be so dirty compared to other large cities. The other thing I noticed was the width of the tracks and subway cars is larger than that here in NYC. Someone had foresight here and realized cramming many people into tight subway cars isn’t in the best interests of the riders.Once outside the metro we made our way through the streets in search of somewhere to have brunch.We ended up on the famous Church Street of Toronto the LGBT area of the city.

The first place we encountered that looked good for brunch was Lola’s Kitchen.There was a small wait once we got inside as this place seems quite popular for brunch.

The decor inside was interesting and had quite a bit of art work throughout.

Once we looked over what Lola offers we settled on our selections.

The margarita wasn’t that good to me. I guess I’m just used to getting more alcohol in the states. 😉 Once we finished brunch I decided to make a pit stop to the restroom before our photo walk continued. When I entered the restroom I was pleasantly surprised to see the stall door painted.Pretty cool I think. Anyway after paying our tab we ventured back out into the cold with full stomachs bidding Lola’s a fond farewell.As we walked further down Church Street we came across the Rainbow crosswalk.

Church has some pretty interesting things out on display.

Incredible public art displays were all over the place. Stay tuned for Toronto: Photo Walk continued…

Toronto: Canada Weekend Getaway

Posted by THEJNSREPORT on November 26, 2014

Posted in: Image Gallery, Travel. Tagged: Canada, Canadian Customs, Ipad, Leisure, lessons, North America, Photo Walk, Photography, Toronto, travel, Weekend Getaway. Leave a comment

Welcome to THEJNSREPORT’S: Toronto: Canada Weekend GetawaySo it’s been a while since I got the chance to get out of the country and the opportunity presented itself just before the heavily traveled Thanksgiving weekend. Having never been to Canada (unbelievable right) before now it was a great trip I thought I’d share.

Arriving at La Guardia airport bar before the gate, I was surprised to find Ipad’s for ordering anything you want to eat or drink. This meant the elimination of having to speak to a human being unless being served. This is the wave of the future in the service industry I believe.

Of course browsing the web while one waits for their order to arrive is a no-brainer. I decided to check out who was voting on the site’s latest poll question.When I arrived at Toronto’s Pearson International Airport I thought I’d get through customs fairly quickly. How wrong I was…lesson learned here.

When dealing with customs agents whether it be foreign customs or domestic the best course of action is to answer their questions absent any hint of “attitude” regardless of how ridiculous the question may seem or how many times they ask the same question.

It was my first time to Canada so when I ended up being sent to more customs agents for further grilling after the first customs agent I came across, I was shocked.

I’m thinking I’m an American citizen with a legit passport, no criminal background to speak of so what’s the hold up? Apparently the first custom agent didn’t like the tone of my response to her questioning the purpose of my trip and why I had chosen to travel to Canada this particular weekend? I realized this when I looked at how my customs declaration paper had been marked with a highlight marker.

In addition they wanted to know who I was coming to see, what I did for a living, where I worked, what brand of toothpaste I used, & the color of my underwear (kidding about the last two). The second customs agent told me to have a seat while he did a background check on me. I was like “great”. I left my sunglasses behind by mistake along with my passport at the agents station while I sat and waited.

Having realized that I had forgotten my sunglasses at the custom agents station I went back to retrieve them. As soon as I got to his station the custom agent asked me if I’d ever been arrested. I told him no and he seemed surprised almost as if he was expecting me to say yes. I relaxed my disposition and told him that I came for a mini vacation and couldn’t wait to take amazing pictures of Toronto.

In that same moment he replied that I looked like the Japanese tourists with my camera around my neck and immediately stamped my passport and I was on my way. Lesson learned.

Stay tuned for the following day’s photo walk in beautiful Toronto.