{"id":1268,"date":"2011-09-01T20:10:21","date_gmt":"2011-09-02T03:10:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nerdhive.org\/glob\/?p=1268"},"modified":"2012-05-25T21:20:49","modified_gmt":"2012-05-26T04:20:49","slug":"toronto-day-7","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.soleillapierre.ca\/blog\/?p=1268","title":{"rendered":"Toronto day 7"},"content":{"rendered":"

2011\/08\/31<\/p>\n

Today had three things in it: Shopping, the ROM<\/a> and one last dinner with Nav.<\/p>\n

Shopping<\/h2>\n

Remember all those stores I was reminiscing about the other day<\/a>? I revisited a bunch of them today, without my camera bag so I could go inside.<\/p>\n

I’m happy to report that the World’s Biggest Bookstore is still pretty good – it hasn’t degenerated into a gift card store like Chapters has.\u00a0 Still two large floors packed with books, books, books.\u00a0 It definitely is one of the biggest brick-and-mortar new-book stores in Canada still.<\/p>\n

The Silver Snail is also still excellent.\u00a0 They’ve got a good selection of new and old comics and action figures, but the real highlight is the busts and statues they have on display – very expensive, but amazing.\u00a0 There were several variations on life-size Alien<\/a> heads, a cutaway Millennium Falcon to scale with the old Star Wars action figures (of which they had many for sale), and best of all, some of Dr. Grordbort`s<\/a> steampunk rayguns.<\/p>\n

Active Surplus is not as diminished as I had thought.\u00a0 They no longer have a storefront, but what they do have is stairs leading to a second-floor store that is still at least two thirds the size of what they used to have.\u00a0 Plus it`s much better organized, so they may actually have more stock now – and they also have a second location now on top of it.\u00a0 This store is an electronic nerd`s dream.\u00a0 I grabbed a basket and walked every aisle, tossing anything that looked interesting in my basket.\u00a0 I ended up spending well over $100 on random interesting junk, and could easily have spent more had I more time.<\/p>\n

I went to check out Toby`s Famous Eatery<\/a>, one of three restaurants claiming to inherit the mantle of my old favorite, Toby`s Good Eats. As a test, I had their Buster Brownie – the classic hot fudge brownie with ice cream dessert I love so much.\u00a0 It was good, but nowhere near as good as it used to be.<\/p>\n

I was going to go check out Bakka Books as well, but time was getting short so I skipped it.<\/p>\n

The Royal Ontario Museum<\/h2>\n

I`ve always loved the old stone building that houses the ROM. I was distressed to learn they have grown this ugly crystalline cancer on the north side of the building:<\/p>\n

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But thankfully they didn`t remove any of the old building – it`s all still there, including the old entrance on the east side:<\/p>\n

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Due to time constraints, I concentrated on the two most interesting exhibits – paleontology and minerology, but also took a quick pass through the rest.\u00a0 Assorted photos follow.<\/p>\n

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the paleo exhibit is really something – it gives a dramatic reminder of just how big some of these extinct critters really were.<\/p>\n

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Interesting headgear:<\/p>\n

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Armadillo the size of a VW bug:<\/p>\n

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Meow:<\/p>\n

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Check out these amethyst geodes. The first one is more than six feet tall.\u00a0 I`ve always dreamed of finding a geode, but finding something like this would be mindblowing:<\/p>\n

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Slice from the largest black mica crystal ever found – three meters by two meters (can`t recall the original thickness):<\/p>\n

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I like this art deco clock. Must make something like this:<\/p>\n

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Dinner<\/h2>\n

Got together with Navtej one last time, and he took me to his favorite Indian buffet – the Tandoori Flame<\/a> in Brampton.\u00a0 It was great.\u00a0 The food was at least as good as my favorite Indian place out west, and there was a much greater selection here.\u00a0 I tried a bunch of new things.\u00a0 Nav made me try their white pumpkin desert – it looks like an ice cube. Unbelievably sweet – I couldn`t finish a single bite without setting off my coma alert warnings.\u00a0 I don`t think I have ever tasted anything so sugary – not even pure sugar or honey comes close.<\/p>\n

Back on the road tomorrow. I`ve had a nice break from driving and am ready to resume my journey now, and I`ve done everything I wanted to do in Toronto.<\/p>\n

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2011\/08\/31 Today had three things in it: Shopping, the ROM and one last dinner with Nav. Shopping Remember all those stores I was reminiscing about the other day? I revisited a bunch of them today, without my camera bag so I could go inside. I’m happy to report that the World’s Biggest Bookstore is still […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,20,11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1268","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-foodreviews","category-history","category-sightseeing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.soleillapierre.ca\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1268","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.soleillapierre.ca\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.soleillapierre.ca\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.soleillapierre.ca\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.soleillapierre.ca\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1268"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.soleillapierre.ca\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1268\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2247,"href":"http:\/\/www.soleillapierre.ca\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1268\/revisions\/2247"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.soleillapierre.ca\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1268"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.soleillapierre.ca\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1268"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.soleillapierre.ca\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1268"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}