Travel
GTA Tripping: Scenic Caves Nature Adventures
On the cooler side of the Niagara Escarpment and well outside the usual boundaries of this column there is a village called Blue Mountain. The first thing I'd like to say about Blue Mountain is that when you drive there from Toronto rather quickly, your windows gushing wind and your speakers blasting opera, the air all around you gradually becomes a finer, more delicate thing.The town overlooks Georgian Bay, and though it is famous mostly for being a skiing place, there is one more tourist attraction that people everywhere should consider, even if only by reading this story. The place is Scenic Caves Nature Adventures, a privately-owned piece of historically-significant mountain speckled with spelunkable caves, gifted with pause-causing vistas and bedazzled with a series of modern "light adventure" facilities allowing visitors to zip-line, "treetop canopy walk" and pass over a locally-famous suspension bridge to nowhere.
Travel
GTA Tripping: UFC Fighter Diego Sanchez Owes Me a Flex Down
"In the black trunks and weighing in at 155 pounds, Diego Sanchez: World-famous UFC mixed martial arts fighter with a record of twenty-one wins, two losses. Specializing in gaidojutsu, he is known to train in thunderstorms so as to absorb their energy!"In the dandy vest and weighing in at 155 (differently distributed) pounds, Christopher Reynolds: Guy!"
It's on, people.
Travel
GTA Tripping: Ooh, a Psychic!
Primary concerns when visiting a psychic for the first time:- Is this a lot of hooey?
- Am I going to be able to keep a straight face? But if it is not hooey but in fact the woman is a mysteriously visionful sage channeling otherworldly energies and interpreting signals from the cosmos.
- Is she going to tell me I'm going to die? Or worse, that I'm a jerk?
Travel
GTA Tripping: Shooting Guns
It's a pretty common value we all have: killing people is not cool. Strangely enough, I've recently found that playing with the tools to do so, on the other hand, most definitely is cool. Examples: lighting fires, blowing stuff up, driving too fast and juggling chainsaws -- and have you ever swung a mace? Neither have I, but like jetpacks, I don't have to experience it to know it's awesome. But also like jetpacks, if I had the opportunity to try it, I'd jump at it in a second. Which is why when the opportunity to try shooting guns came up, I promptly performed that usual emotional dance that I do before doing anything worthwhile: a moment of dizzying panic and then, "Yes!"
Travel
GTA Tripping: Medieval Times
Medieval Times is a no-brainer stimulation-fest for kids -- if you've got 'em, take 'em. But as we learned last Sunday evening, Medieval Times just might be a good time for everyone. As an example, we saw several groups of older tourists who were well into the unique combination of dinner and acrobatic theater. Also, there were various inexplicable groups of College Bros sipping sips from cups equipped with flashing lights, or shaped like golden armour helmets having a great time, their voices often drowning out those of the kids sitting around them. And even for us, a pair of cynical-but-wide-eyed explorers, Medieval Times was a thoroughly enjoyable trip. Where else in the city can you witness the art of falconry, eat half a chicken with your bare hands, shout "Wench!" or "Serf!" when you need a re-fill of your Pepsi and then watch six dudes on horses chop each other in half with swords and axes?
Travel
GTA Tripping: Speed Dating on Speed
Speed dating. "It's not really my thing, but I thought, Hey! Why not? Life is short!"The summer air is making us brave here at GTA Tripping. This week we're once again concerned not so much with the outer reaches of the TTC, but the outer reaches of our comfort zones.
Speed dating is something we all know about but probably haven't experienced. Like online dating and other matchmaking services, we think this sort of thing is for "other people". It turns out that this is everyone - everyone involved firmly believes it is out of character for him or her and that they would never normally do this sort of thing. We would put ourselves in this category as well, but like everyone else at Riva Supper Lounge last Wednesday evening, there we were...
