July 31, 2017 -- going home from Toronto

.

We didn't spot this hotel portrait in the hotel until the very end of our trip.  This is different from the poster of the hotel I included in my first post (that section on the right is missing from the poster....).

Our room was actually here, in the smaller U shaped section, rather than in the same position in the larger U where I marked it before........................

And here it is, in person, from the train.

I presume this is an apartment building, from the train.  Some of the people in this building have great lake views.

Graffiti on an old train car.

And that's the end of the Toronto trip.

.

July 30, 2017 -- aquarium

.

Visiting the aquarium in Toronto.

Whale skeleton.

They have more kinds of jellies than I'd seen in one place.  Australian spotted jelly.

Moon jelly.

Pacific sea nettle.  These were big.  Feet long, including tentacles.

Closer crop.

Lots of aquariums have critters you can touch.  Rays,  Sharks.  Starfish.

I remember having my hand in the freezing water at the aquarium in Seward, Alaska, and watching a sea anemone reach for my hand.  I had my hand out of there in a flash.  We were told that kind of anemone couldn't hurt a human, but I didn't put my hand back in there........  It was creepy to watch a critter that big move toward my flesh with Intention.....

In Chicago's aquarium I touched a sturgeon.  Sturgeons have inhabited our planet since the time when dinos began.......  Touching someone whose ancestors knew dinos.................  Wow.

In Toronto the aquarium has scarlet cleaner shrimp.  I have seen video of fish being cleaned of parasites and dead skin by fancy little shrimp.  In Toronto you can stick your hand in the water with this sort of shrimp, and get a cleaning.

They were basically interested in what was under my fingernails.  It felt like very gentle poking.  What a cool thing to get to do.  No pics -- with one hand elbow deep in water, I didn't use a camera with the other hand......

Google knows where to find a lot of images of scarlet cleaner shrimp.

Pipe fish.

I can count six pipe fish in the next image.

I think these are real plants with the pipe fish, but I'm not sure.  Love all the curls.......

Sea horse.

The Toronto aquarium has a tunnel you can walk through.

Their big tank has green sawfish.  These can grow to 24' long.  The ones here were maybe half that long.  They apparently like to drape themselves over the top of the tunnel.  I saw two different ones doing this.

Looking up at the stomach side of the fish.  (Many people with cameras.....)

Did you know fish have nostrils?  I did not.................  I was wondering what those holes were, toward the front of the fish from the mouth.  Nostrils, is what they are.  !!!

"Paired nostrils, or nares, in fish are used to detect odors in water and can be quite sensitive." -- Fish Anatomy - Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission



A closer look at the rostrum.  I bet this was about a yard long.  I read that the toothy bits are specialized scales.  So many are broken -- I bet they grow them back after they are damaged.......

The aquarium has a lot of anemones.

Many different colors.

Many different shapes.  This one's bottom was stuck to the glass.

One last look at critters in the aquarium.

The sky was amazing.

Clouds, the moon, and a sea gull.

It looked like clouds were spinning around the top of the CN tower.....

 
.

July 29, 2017 -- AGO

.

There are underground passages lined with stores beneath some of the streets of Toronto.  From the lower level of the Royal York one can venture into the shopping areas.

I was able to buy kleenex without going very far.  This was a good thing -- I needed lots, and I needed the kind that doesn't shred your nose when you have to use it early and often, all day, for several days.

July 29, 2017 was not a bridge day.  I thought maybe I was feeling up to venturing farther than the convenience store, so we tried again to go to the Art Gallery of Ontario.  It was a nice day.

The AGO had a nice exhibit of Georgia O'Keeffe's work.  They showed some of her early work, as well as her later work.  It was a good show.  Unfortunately, they weren't allowing any photography.



The AGO has a fabulous staircase designed by Frank Gehry.  If you google AGO staircase, and look at the images, you can see a lot of pics.  I neglected to get pics when I wasn't standing on it.  Others did, and they are well worth seeing.

These are images of what you see as you climb the stairs..............

The AGO has a lot of contemporary work.  Someone spent a long time drawing marks on snow with some sort of vehicle.  Then they took pics of deer crossing the marks.  (I'm presuming they used a drone to get the camera up there.)

While I think this result is cool, and I bet it was exhilarating to draw these huge marks, I am not down with wasting irreplaceable fossil fuels (not to mention polluting the landscape with fumes, particulates, and NOISE) to make the marks, nor to collect images of the marks and deer..............................  Sigh.



The Textile Museum is near the AGO.  We went over there and had a look.  It is a tiny museum, with some nice work.  Japanese kimono.

North American quilt.  I do think a textile museum ought to concentrate on work by women.  I think this is the only piece I noticed which was made in North America by a woman.........

Texture outside the museum.  The stones are cool.  The cigarette butts are decidedly NOT cool.............

Looking south toward the lake.  Note CN tower.

Nice variety of colors and textures in the planter.

Remember a couple of days ago I talked about Chicago, and about the urban sketcher conference going on in Chicago?

I was tickled to spot this urban sketcher in Toronto.  I tried to talk to the artist, but unfortunately he and I did not share a language.  He indicated it was fine if I took a pic of his excellent sketch, but I was unable to ask his name or to talk to him about the community of urban sketchers in Chicago as he sketched in Toronto......

Here's the view he was looking at.  The light was cool.....

Dominion Building, with the sort of planters one sees in Chicago.

.