Christmas is for kids and pandas

Christmas is tomorrow and all through the house we cleaned and cooked. Friends and family gather together to enjoy the holidays and as an excuse to meet, sometimes only for this one day a year. The excitement and wonder of Christmas is best enjoyed by the young and pandas. These kids were helping to welcome everyone to the Doors Open 2010 event on top of the new green deck at City Hall.

Actually, I am not really sure if pandas celebrate Christmas, but hang loose and enjoy the season. I also hope yesterday's Festivus for the Rest of Us was all that it could have been; airing of grievances, feats of strengths and that someone ended up getting pinned. That Seinfeld was a Festivus Miracle.

DOTO: Doors Open Toronto - City Hall

I went to a couple of places in City Hall that I have never been to before - up on the Podium Green Roof terrace, into the Mayor's office, the Council Chambers and to the top of the building on the observation deck, during the 2010 Toronto Doors Open event.



The green roof terrace opens space that was previously closed to the public right beside the council chambers. Green stuff came alive with two alien green things wandering the terrace - they might have been undercover security in advance of the G20.



Mayor David Miller joined others for the official opening of the green roof that looks down on Nathan Phillips Square. He has a nice office in City Hall with a decorating motif in his office suite.




There were also a few kids dressed on stilts and in costumes like a butterfly and a swan.



On top of City Hall the observation deck is on the 27th floor and provides a nice view of downtown Toronto. Also Below are two of the friendly Doors Open volunteers helping to keep things running smoothly during the event.

Toronto International Airport - Pearson Doors Open

Toronto International Airport joined the Doors Open event and showed off some of their emergency services staff and equipment at the Fire and Emergency Services Training Institute (FESTI)area within the Airport.

There are a number of plane mockups and one actual plane that they use to practice emergency response and firefighting. The planes are torched and the fires put out by there large pumper trucks. You can see the powerful spray starting to spray the airplane in the photo below.




To add to the realism and as a reminder of the importance of their training there are several objects made of metal or fire hose that stand in for human casualties, including this hose construction that looks like a baby.



Several demonstrations were put on for the public including allowing the children to use a hose to aim water at a target, a rescue high abouve the ground using rescue ropes and a tactical police unit and their amoured car. Some raptors from Falcon Environmental Services were also shown with their hoods on and off. They help to keep the other large birds off the runways and away from planes taking off and landing.

Doors Open - Horse Palace

Doors Open Toronto (May 23 & 24, 2009) is a weekend event celebrating a milestone birthday. While I did not see any birthday cakes I did see lots of families out enjoying the free entertainment and access to some of the 175 buildings.

It is amazing that the concept, started in France in 1984, has spread around the world. Apparantly Toronto became the first North American City to adopt the event and many citys, towns and provinces have since started their own Doors Open programs.

Some venues are only open to the public at this event and many of the buildings or attractions usually have an entrance fee which is waived during this weekend. Kudos to all the buildings that opened their doors wide.

I decide to check out the exhibition grounds and the Horse Palace with the Riding Academy, the Toronto Police Mounted Unit and the Toronto Animal Services. We watched the police constables and their rides compete in an obstacle course. Some of these horses did not want to do some of the obstacles even after a few tries (especially the water obstacle).




The Toronto Animal Services had some cats, kittens and bunny rabits looking for good homes.