Travelsmartplanet

Notice the water streams of the fountain are projecting out of about a dozen dogs. Dog sculptures are in this cute park in downtown Toronto.

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The Hockey Hall of Fame is dedicated to all things hockey including the history of ice hockey, and exhibits about players, teams, National Hockey League records, memorabilia and NHL trophies, including, of course the Stanley Cup.

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How would your town (population of only about 10,000) handle it if 38 planes with 6,579 passengers landed on your doorstep unexpectedly? In Newfoundland, they have a local expression about visitors – they call them “the come from aways” – so that’s how the hit Broadway Show Come From Away got its name.

David Hein and Irene Sakoff, Canadian husband and wife librettists and composer-lyricists, took the thousands of stories of passengers and residents on that infamous day, September 11, 2001, when those jets landed in Gander Newfoundland, and turned them into a heartwarming award-winning Broadway musical.

The 90-minute show is drawn from real people’s experiences in Gander on Sept. 11 and on the subsequent days, and  turned them into 12  composite characters: American Airlines Captain Beverley Bass – the first woman captain in the airline’s history, gays, an anxious passenger worried about a missing relative, a man ignored because he looked Mid-Eastern, Southerners, Northerners and foreigners,  These terrified passengers are set down by frightening unexpected circumstances in an unfamiliar land, and are forced to depend on the kindness of strangers.

One can’t even imagine the needs of so many people, besides language, religious and cultural barriers on top of it. Cultures clash and nerves run high, but uneasiness turned into trust when the Newfoundlanders came through with untold hospitality, opening their hearts, their homes, their schools and their stores. When a volunteer went to round up supplies at the town pharmacy, the manager simply said “Take whatever you need off the shelves”.

The dozen in the cast are marvelous, and they somehow 3-D print themselves into a community of people. It’s truly an ensemble, all equally acting and singing their hearts out. To me the superlatives have to go to the set designer, as I’ve never seen chairs star in a show before. Bob Verini of Variety wrote, “passengers and officials…, shuffling set designer Beowulf Boritt’s furniture pieces into a range of evocative public and private spaces”.

Come From Away is now the longest-running Canadian musical in Broadway history. Producer Corey Brunish said, “It’s about how people respond to tragedy.” It shows, he said, that “there’s hope in the world, there’s hope for us as a human race.” “I can’t imagine a musical we need more right now”, Entertainment reported.

Now that eighteen years have passed, you can google the story and learn that the gratitude grew into enduring friendships, and how the passengers paid it forward.

Come From Away is “celebration best of humankind, and an uplifting piece of art for all our times” said The Daily Beast. Go see it and uplift your life.

Location: Elgin Winter Garden Theatre
Address: 189 Yonge St, Toronto, ON
Dates: til September 29, 2019
www.mirvish.com

The CN Tower and a reflection of the Tower in an office building nearby, The tower held the record for the world’s tallest free-standing structure for 32 years until 2007 when it was surpassed by the Burj Khalifa. It still remains the tallest free-standing structure in the Western Hemisphere.

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Until 2009, The CN Tower was the world’s tallest tower but in that year the Canton Tower was built and surpassed it. It’s still in the top 10 free-standing structures in the world, coming in at #9.

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The CN Tower in Toronto, completed in 1976, is 147 stories high. You can go up and look out on the observation deck on the 114th floor. CN stands for the Canadian National Railway, since the tower was built by the company and is located on former railway land. It remains the signature icon of Toronto’s skyline, with more than 2,000,000 visitors zipping up it every year.

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Sightseeing double-decker Toronto tourist bus offers indoor-outdoor live commentary and does the full circuit of Toronto’s sites; A harbor cruise is even included in your ticket.

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High tech telephones can be found in most of the rooms (even his bathroom) of Sir Henry Pellatt’s castle-like home, Casa Loma – and this was in 1913! 

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The home of Sir Henry Pellatt was one of the first in America to have recessed lighting installed in the domes of some rooms creating glowing ceilings.

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The famous Oak Room of the splendid Edwardian era home of Sir Henry Pellatt. The finished panels fruit, flowers, ribbons and birds took 3 years to carve and were so exquisite that in 1913 when they arrived they were first exhibited in Montreal’s Musee des Beaux Arts before being installed in Casa Loma. 

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