The Big T.O.

No, I'm not talking about that asshole Terrell Owens. I'm talking about Toronto, my hometown, the place I was raised, and where Danny and I visited recently to celebrate my wonderful middle sister's expectation of her new little bundle of joy. More on that later.

Although Danny had accompanied me two years ago to witness said sister's nuptials, he had not seen much of the city itself. Most of what he saw were the insides of various family members' houses. This time, I vowed to give him a much more detailed tour of the city I called home for much of my life until the year 2000.

Because we were on a time crunch, I took him around a driving tour of downtown. I showed him the massive building I used to work at. The office tower that my sisters currently work in. The Eaton Centre, a mall so huge that there is a subway stop on each end of it. Yonge Street, the world's longest street, and the main strip for downtown Toronto. And so on. But a visit could not be complete without a trip up the CN Tower.

Located in the heart of downtown, the CN Tower is currently the world's tallest building. While it may soon be surpassed by another tower reportedly under construction in Dubai, it is still an a amazing feat of engineering. It defines the Toronto cityscape with its impressive profile.



The domed structure beside it is the Rogers Centre (I hate that name), formerly known as Skydome.

The large round portion of the CN Tower contains a restaurant, a fenced balcony that you can walk around and view the city, and.... a glass floor. Yes, that's right, a GLASS FLOOR.

Here is the view from the balcony, at a height of over 1,300 feet:




And here is the view from the (scary as hell, OMG my palms are sweating, holy SHIT we're high up) glass floor:



Those tiny little white things on the road ? Those are 18-wheeler transport trucks. Just to give you an idea. Now you can see why my hands were quivering while taking this picture.

Some people sitting on the glass floor got so scared that they were crawling off of it in haste. I didn't even attempt to sit on it. Just looking down from the edge was making me dizzy.

Toronto is an awesome, vibrant city, and it has been said that it has a "masculine" feel to it. How was that conclusion reached, you ask ? How is it possible that a city can be distinctly male ? A second look at the skyline tells it all:




And rotated, for the clearest visual possible:



Heh. This town rocks.