Car Guese

The historic District of Distillery, sort of the like the District of Columbia, sits in the east side of downtown Toronto and keeps getting better with age (some call it the Distillery District). The condos bring more people into the area filling the many cafes and shops in the bricky neighbourhood. Here are some people (pictured above) with long poles cleaning windows. They are doing a lot of construction work on the east side of the District near Cherry Street for the Clear Spirit Condominium.

The large sculpture which I call the egg beaters near the centre of the District is up and you can see the installation being assembled beside the Pump House on my earlier post here. The sculpture is called "Still Dancing" by artist Dennis Oppenheim. You can also see more of the sculptures, some of them pretty wild and crazy, on this post. And who could forget the lovable plastic penguin with his little red hat that could be found outside on the streets, I haven't seen him for awhile, I hope he is not lost.

This great little area will play host to some of the Nuite Blanche works on October 2, 2010. Next time you are close stop by the Brick Street Bakery and enjoy some refreshments and the relaxing atmosphere or consider the Mill Street Brewpub or the Pure Spirits Oyster House & Grill (seen below).

When I went to Detroit I was surprised to see their Flatiron building was one of the boarded up, abandoned buildings that litter the street-scape of the motor city. Toronto's Flatiron building was constructed in 1891 which was before the 1899 Detroit building and even before the more famous New York Flatiron building. Seeing it's lonely, triangular shape made me want to visit Ontario's version again. Beside the unusual shape the colour and texture of the building is what makes it such a nice landmark.

TO's building is in the heart of the vibrant St. Lawrence Market and the iconic structure is further enhanced by the  large art installation of, funnily enough, the side view of a building which can be seen from the Berczy Park side. It is also a favourite of tourists and tours as many of the yellow and red tourist buses stop, empty out their passengers who point their cameras at the red and green triangle. In fact I felt like I got swarmed when one group moved across the street to my location and started taking pictures.

As part of the Detroit airshow - Thunder over Michigan, military re-enactors played a big part in the show. On Friday night they held a parade in Belleville where I met Sinful who is a beautiful biker chick helping to lead the parade. Sinful had quite the dazzling helmet. I forgot to ask why she is sinful. (Shout out to Sinful who called and said she read my blog - Hi Sinful!). Here is a member of the police honour guard.

Speaking of bikers I will be heading over to Port Dover for the upcoming Friday the 13th motorcycle rally. This is Ontario's answer to the annual Sturgis event in the states where a million bikers are expected to attend. While Sturgis is 70 years old the Port Dover event only started in 1981 and I hope it will be as wild as the stories say. I am getting my chaps ready for the day.

The World War II military re-enactors represented several different countries and everyone battled the Germans during the airshow. I believe the Nazis lost this battle.