Cold Climate Christmas -- Imagine It in Toronto

 

This article appeared on the Huffington Post on Monday, December 5, 2011

How typical is it to go north for Christmas vacation unless you are a skier or snowmobiler? Not very.

Nevertheless, my husband and I recently went to Toronto for the holidays and were quite surprised by the quality of life in this metropolitan area of 4.4 million people.

As we walked the neighborhoods and streets, tried out ethnic restaurants and talked to local residents at an evening pot luck dinner, we discovered a whole new world free of distractions and the usual sightseeing repertoire and instead learned something about life in this popular Canadian city that is very appealing.

The most significant impression I had of Toronto is that its people are so civilized. Imagine that people in the fifth-most populated city in North America actually praise themselves for their tolerance of ethnic and racial differences, which are evident everywhere you go.

Imagine a place where over 100 languages are spoken and neighborhood utility poles don signs advertising language classes in Spanish -- as well as Persian, Urdu and Turkish. Street posters also declare that "Literacy is a right."

Tolerance for differences is exhibited in other ways. In the St. Lawrence Market you see Asian women making French crepes. Stores and shops are largely staffed by young immigrants. The bank ATMs include directions in Chinese characters. We ate a lovely meal in a Thai restaurant to the tunes of the Supremes' hit "Baby Love" and the "Dirty Dancing'" theme song, "Time of My Life."

While it's not unusual to hear other languages spoken in a major urban area, it is a delight as well as a shock to walk clean and litter-free streets.

Imagine seeing a man on a subway escalator accidentally drop a small wad of paper from his pocket and then pick it up.

Incidentally, trash baskets in public areas are separated into litter, recycled newspapers and recycled bottles and cans. And when the trash overflows, you see empty coffee cups neatly placed on the top of the container.

Recycling bins are everywhere, even next to people's front porches should their home not have a backyard.
Environmental and public health concerns abound in Toronto. Imagine a small fish market with a sign that not only recognizes an endangered species (in this case Chilean sea bass) but informs customers that it will not sell that fish.

Imagine holiday TV commercials with information about the World Wildlife Fund, improving your water IQ, joining Alcoholics Anonymous or considering police your best friends on New Year's Eve.

Smoking is not allowed in public buildings or in restaurants and bars. So those who do smoke do it as they walk or as they stand outside a building. I saw one woman in the celebrated Annex Neighborhood where we stayed sitting on her front porch at 10 p.m. without fear of thieves, murderers or terrorists! Instead, she watched other people walking down the street at night as she took her cigarette.

Actually, she wasn't the only one out at night as it appears to be a Toronto custom to sit on the patio during the winter (at home and at some pubs and grills) sipping drinks and talking to friends. Even the residents of a neighborhood senior citizens complex did it. (And that building was right in the middle of the neighborhood, not separated from the rest of the city.)

Imagine that 40 percent of the downtown population walks to work or that a clean, safe and efficient streetcar, bus and subway system moves 1.4 million passengers each work day. (Curious that there were not many obese people walking the streets either!)

Imagine a night-time window shopping excursion where people crowd the well-lit holiday-clad streets inspecting beautiful outdoor displays of fruits and vegetables, CDs, DVDs, clothes and housewares.

Restaurants are jammed with people and storefronts advertise yoga classes, palm reading, massage work and herbal medicine consulting.

Although I am describing Chinatown on Spadina Street, there are plenty of people out at night on the quirky Yonge Street strip, the Bloor Street upper-end commercial district and the eclectic Queen Street West area.

Torontonians recognize that street life is free entertainment as well as an essential part of vibrant urban life.

And imagine all this activity going on and it being relatively quiet. No boom boxes. No high fidelity-sound cars. No wild teenagers hanging out of cars jeering at passers-by. Just people walking outside, being a part of the scene, even if they are alone.

Imagine living in a city where there were only 59 homicides in 2010, 56 in 2009, 67 in 2008, 84 in 2007. So far, 2011 has only 41.

Toronto does have its downsides: the metro system breaks down all too frequently (it happened one time to us); the cost of living is high; the streets are a little dirtier than they should be; the downtown grates host several street people.

On the other hand, every resident, even the homeless, has access to health care.

The people of Toronto have obviously invested in their city, especially in their neighborhoods, and they are willing to pay the price for the services through taxes or special assessments. For example, some neighborhoods ensure their safety through the protection of private police. The sidewalks and streets of every neighborhood were all shoveled, free of snow to accommodate walking and bicycling.

Old houses are beautifully decorated and well-maintained, an indicator of the citizens' pride in themselves, their neighborhoods and their past. Downtown buildings sport this same sentiment, as the old Victorian brick edifices sit comfortably next to modern office and condo skyscrapers.

Toronto serves as both a model and an inspiration for American cities because it illustrates that what it takes to "make a village" is for the people who live there to summon the political will -- and tax dollars -- to make urban life what it can and should be.

 

 

This article appeared in the Huffington Post on Saturday, July 7

Our annual pilgrimage to the Stratford Shakespeare Festival stimulated the thought once again about what it’s like to be in a community that devotes itself to beauty.  That beauty matters in a town of Stratford’s size and geography is not only unusual these days, but it summons a reflection about what beauty entails and why it is important for our lives.

Beauty is about having a sense of place.

Stratford, population 30,000, is located in the southern Ontario 90 miles west of the Toronto metropolis.  It sits in the heart of the agricultural belt where farms raise corn, squash, melons, pumpkins, strawberries and pork while industries make products in advanced manufacturing, aerospace, automotive, high tech and financial services.  This strong economic base helps support the Festival and the farms that dot Route 7 thus making the drive there pleasant and picturesque.

 

The Festival has utilized the town’s name as a replica of the original theatre of Stratford on Avon in England.  For 60 years it has offered not only the very best in repertory theatre (including Shakespearean classics, American Broadway musicals, French and British farces, ancient Greek tragedies and native Canadian plays), but the very finest in art, cuisine, gardening and architecture. 

A touch of English haute couture pervades the town partly because of Canada’s historical alliance with England but also because of the number of British Isles nationals who have migrated there.  Locals are low-key, unpretentious and anxious to share their town and its amenities with visitors who soon discover that they are appreciated for their company and interest in art and culture and not just for the money they spend.  In this way, theatre-goers become an integral part of the Stratford community, and look forward to annual return visits during the April to November season. 

Beauty is also about enhancing the interplay between the natural world and the urban environment.

Because Stratford is small, it is easy to get around town by walking.  This factor allows visitors to see and appreciate the clean, flower-lined streets, tidy shops and vibrant neighborhoods firsthand. 

The townspeople have also taken full advantage of the Avon River, which provides a natural setting for leisurely strolls amid the old, leafy trees that line the shore or a paddleboat or pontoon ride on the calm waters.  Visitors mingle among young parents out with their babies, youngsters riding their bikes to soccer practice, and retirees with their grandchildren feeding the ducks, geese, gulls and swans with corn seed, not bread!    

A fanciful, little, wooden bridge connects the mainland to an island in the middle of the river where a modest but reverent plaque to the Festival’s founder, Tom Patterson, has been placed.  

Upriver is the Gallery Stratford, an architecturally quaint building that formerly served as the city’s water pump station.  This small gallery usually features one exhibit on contemporary art and the other on Stratford theatre art.  Outside the gallery is yet another display of the city’s bountiful flowerbeds and a rock garden with a gurgling waterfall surrounded by tall, fragrant pine trees. 

On the way back downtown a walk through the town’s neighborhoods presents a variety of vintage red and yellow brick houses with manicured lawns and lovely wildflower gardens.

The downtown commercial district offers all the cultural accoutrements a visitor could imagine:  oriental rugs, books, china, antiques, Inuit art, Scottish-ware, Canadian winter-proof clothes, restaurants, pubs, pastry shops, cafés, a chocolatier, juice bars and gift shops.  Incidentally, all of these shops are locally-owned and managed so the money stays in town.

Beauty is about paying attention to details. 

The Festival’s fashion artists research and design the actors’ elaborate costumes for historical integrity while a full-time wardrobe staff custom fits each actor’s outfit by hand.  Master craftsmen carefully construct every table, bowl of fruit, spear, and wagon.  Shoemakers cobble all footwear with “mufflers” on the soles to minimize unwanted sounds on the stage.  Choreographers carefully plan battle scenes while musicians compose and perform original works with period instruments. 

These preparations augment the work of the actors who move across the stage with the poise and grace as they masterfully portray their characters.  This repertory theatre emphasizes acting and staging rather than the usual diet of special effects. 

 Restaurants throughout town offer a variety of specialties and price ranges, however, the gourmet venue available in Stratford is particularly spectacular.  Taste, quality and presentation abound in each exquisite dish.  There’s even a gourmet French fries shop!  Stratford’s secret is its Chefs School where many local restaurateurs teach and then practice what they preach in their own establishments. 

Beauty is about hospitality and good conversation.

Stratford accommodations include hotels and motels in and around town as well as cottages and campgrounds.  However, a stay at a bed & breakfast provides a unique experience. 

Stratford has become a magnet for retired Canadians who buy an old Edwardian or Queen Anne house, restore it, and rent out rooms for theatre guests.  B&B hosts are warm and welcoming and visitors often make repeat stays.  Over the years both host and visitor get to know each other and spend time catching up on the year’s events.  Of course, B&Bs also offer visitors enriching conversations with their fellow travelers about the plays and restaurants, and for those interested in politics, an opportunity to compare notes between Canadians and Americans—and other Americans.

Beauty is about leisure.

Taking time away from the regular work and home routine is a state of mind that enables individuals to do the things they like to do without guilt or fear.  Leisure also tends to have a slowing down effect that allows one to be comfortable spending time alone or with another.  As a result, visitors at Stratford can easily indulge themselves in contemplation and quiet reflection without the noisy distractions of modern life. 

Finally, beauty is about feeling safe. 

In this post-9/11 era where security is tantamount to breathing, it soon becomes apparent in Stratford that anyone can walk down the street at any time of the day or night without the fear of being attacked or surveiled.  For Americans, such a feeling is a refreshing luxury and becoming almost a forgotten memory.

All of these elements work together to illustrate that beauty DOES make a difference in people’s lives even if it only entails a visit to a special place like Stratford.  We need such reminders.  Even more, we need to bring such examples of good living to our own cities and towns so that we can have them to ourselves all year long!

Information about the Stratford Festival is available at http://www.stratfordfestival.ca/. 

 

A bentonite hill, which is made up of ash layers from ancient volcanoes
 at Capitol Reef National Park

all photos by Olga Bonfiglio except those marked

This article appeared in the Huffington Post on Tuesday, May 1

Utah is no place for the faint of heart whether plant, animal, or human.  In this land of weathered rock amid sagebrush, yucca, cactus, juniper, cottonwoods and pinyon pine, travelers gain a new appreciation for wind and water’s role in shaping the landscape.

The majestic landforms of the Colorado Plateau will set your imagination on fire—along with the 100-degree dry heat—in Zion, Bryce Canyon and Capitol Reef National Parks. 

These parks offer visitors an uncanny beauty and an experience of nature’s “sculptures” that result from tremendous geological changes dating back 2 billion years ago—and counting.  

Rivers, seas and desert winds have shaped this land and you can witness the different geological eras at the canyons’ and cliffs’ outcroppings. 

The Colorado Plateau is a 130,000 square-mile swath covering the intersection of Utah, Colorado, New Mexico and Arizona.  Sixty-five million years ago the region experienced uplift, tilting, and erosion of rock layers to form the Grand Staircase, a series of colorful cliffs stretching from the Grand Canyon to Bryce Canyon and including the Waterpocket Fold in Capitol Reef.

But the landscape of the parks and surrounding areas, which are not crowded at all, will look familiar.  Of course, this was the land of the cowboys that you saw in the movies.  Walk on the land and you hear and feel the crunch of the scrubby plants underfoot, endless dust, the winding paths around the sweet-smelling sagebrush and haunting rock formations that used to be good hiding places for outlaws. 

But the desolation and silence of the desert also allow you to witness its majesty and enchantment as well as to feel an eerie connection to the Western pioneers, Native Americans, and prehistoric peoples who once settled or traversed this land.  It’s really much the same as they saw it.

The national parks in southern Utah preserve this natural landscape for you and millions of visitors, as they have been doing for about 100 years.

Zion National Park
 

Observation Point -- photo by Zion National Park

The area that became Zion National Park was largely ignored until 1908 when Leo A. Snow, a U.S. deputy surveyor from St. George, Utah, did a general land survey and suggested that the land here be set aside and preserved as a sanctuary for wildlife and natural and cultural resources found nowhere else on earth.  In 1919 Zion became a national park with the Kolob section added in 1937. 

This place got its name, meaning “place of refuge,” from Mormon pioneers who sought sanctuary after being kicked out of Illinois, Ohio and Missouri because of their “strange” religious beliefs.  The Children of Israel are an “Old Testament people,” says author Wallace Stegner, “inheritors of the blessings of the tribe of Joseph.”  Inspired by their prophet, Joseph Smith, and led by Brigham Young in 1846, they moved and settled in this “land that nobody wanted.”

Zion National Park

The biblical names in the park reflect the Mormon influence:  Court of the Patriarchs, the grotto at Angels Landing, Watchman Trail, Mt. Carmel Highway.  But whatever your religion, you’ll marvel at the wondrously high cliffs and deep valleys which have been cut by the slow-moving Virgin River—and God’s hand in nature. 

A single road through Zion’s canyons takes you on numerous switchbacks and a long dark tunnel through a mountain.  You’ll see yellow, red, white and green striped mesas (flat-topped mountain tops), long fingered rock formations, summits, and cathedrals.  Slickrock, huge blocks of smooth-surfaced, flat sedimentary rock (sandstone, mudstone, and siltstone), comprises the high cliffs and deliciously cool overhangs that shield you from the hot sun.  This rock is so soft you can rub it off with your finger.  Large, weather-beaten boulders will tickle your imagination into seeing animal and human shapes. 

Zion National Park

Indeed, human habitation on the Colorado Plateau has been sparse.  The earliest records of human life go back 10,000 years when the Paleo-Archaic Indians roamed this land.  The Anasazi People, the first permanent settlers here 2,000 years ago, lived in small, scattered farmsteads but left around 1300.  The land was not occupied until the Paiute People came 800 years ago.  On July 24, 1847, Brigham Young and the Mormons arrived

To get an overview of the park, take the road leading through it or the free shuttle that takes visitors on a 90-minute scenic tour stopping at trailheads, the Museum of Human History, Zion Lodge.  The shuttle goes in some places where cars may not go.

Bryce Canyon National Park 

Hoodoos at Bryce Canyon

In mountainous areas you generally look up at the scenery.  At Bryce Canyon, you look down—at the hoodoos, those pillars of rock that look like whimsical earthen obelisks. 

Sculpted by wind and nightly freezing desert temperatures, the hoodoos got their name from Native American lore where the coyote turned the evil people to stone.  The “painted” pink, white and red (iron), purple (manganese), and white (limestone) “faces” serve as evidence of the myth.

Hoodoo of Queen Victoria on the Queen's Way

Geologists say that 10 million years ago forces within the earth created and then moved the Table Cliffs and Papunsaugunt Plateaus.  Ancient rivers carved the colorful Claron limestones, sandstones and mudstones into thousands of spires, fins, pinnacles and mazes, and exposed the edges of these blocks creating the Paria Valley. 

Walk the Queen’s Way and you instantly get an idea of how the eroding winds work as you cover you eyes and close your mouth to protect yourself against the swirling airborne sandstone. 

Get tickets for a horse or mule ride through the canyon at the park’s lodge or two-hour or half-day tours through the various levels of the canyon floor and among these giant sand castles. 

I only stopped at Bryce Canyon on the way from Zion to Torrey, but you will want to spend more time at this incredible showcase.

Grand Staircase/Escalante

If you haven’t already gotten a sense of gigantism in southern Utah, you will if you take the blue highways from Zion to Bryce Canyon to Capitol Reef National Park.  Around the town of Escalante, this 200-mile trek winds through country that either looks like the Flintstone’s village or a huge rock garden. 

Boulders mix sparingly with vegetation and the mesas resemble altars to the gods.  You’ll suddenly notice that there are few traces of humanity in these parts except for a single power line or the road you’re driving.  You’ll feel humbled by your own smallness amid these open and desolate spaces and realize that Western-style individualism has been greatly mythologized.  No one could have survived these lands unless they worked together, which is what the Mormons did. 

Grand Staircase -- Escalante

Construction engineers who built these winding roads over immense expanses of sedimentary rock, must have marveled at these mountainous scenes, too.  (Some roads climb 300 feet at 6- to 8-degree grades.)  They have left a few scenic turnouts for travelers to stop and gaze at the yellow rock that looks like a moonscape with trees and sagebrush.

Huge stone piled onto stone offers a vista of endless scenery, one view more beautiful and more magnificent than the other.  Halfway to Torrey, you’ll see what look like gray beehives.  No, these landforms are not the origin of the state’s nickname, the symbol of the industrious Mormons.  These landforms are part of the Grand Staircase/Escalante, named after Fray Silvestre Velez de Escalante, a Spanish priest who accompanied Fray Francisco Atanasia Dominguez.  They traversed southwestern Utah in 1776 searching for a passable trail to Monterey, California. 

Grand Staircase -- Escalante

Drive further north and you see one more surprise:  Dixie National Forest.  This area features unusual green vegetation nestled among the yellow rock mountains.  You’ll see ranches with wire fences for cows and horses as well as signs for uniquely Western-style names:  Hell’s Backbone, Salt Gulch, Circle Cliffs, and Burr Trail. 

Nearing the 9,400-foot summit, you pass pine, spruce, Douglas fir and aspen trees and get an overview of the “staircase.”  So much greenery after all that rocky wilderness even inspires a few bicyclists to brave the steep heights.

Capitol Reef National Park

"Dome" formations look like U.S. Capitol Building -- photo by Planetware

Capitol Reef allows you to interact with millions of years of geologic history and thousands of years of human history at the same time. 

The 100-mile long Waterpocket Fold formed when the Pacific Ocean plate bumped into the North American continent about 65 million years ago and created the Rocky Mountains.  About 200 million years ago, the ocean layed down red and later gray sediments. 

Other remnants of geologic activity are the black boulders scattered over the land 20 to 30 million years ago.  They came from the lava flows of the volcanic Boulder Mountain 50 miles away.  Glaciers later eroded them. 

Round holes of many sizes line the rock walls.  This “honeycomb weathering” formed by the circular motion of tidal flats, sometimes gouged out caves due to the uneven density of the rock. 

The park features layered multi-hued cliffs, soaring spires, twisting canyons, graceful arches and stark monoliths that inspired the Native Americans to call this area the “Land of the Sleeping Rainbow.”  The white sandstone domes (prehistoric sand dunes) resemble the dome of the Capitol Building in Washington.  Hence, the park’s name

Temple of the Moon (L) and the Sun (R) in Cathedral Valley of Capitol Reef

The geologic history of Capitol Reef provides an unforgettable experience of the land.  However, to gather the unique spiritual quality of this place, take the unpaved road to Cathedral Valley where you’ll find the Temples of the Sun and Moon.  These stately, stone monoliths give you a feeling of permanence in much the same way cathedrals do in a city.  Their awesome power amid the dense quiet of the desert puts you in an altered state of mind as you gaze on the dry and dusty world around you.  The bumpy road to get there allows you to move only 20 miles an hour and requires a high-clearance or a four-wheel-drive vehicle.  Tours on the road are available in Torrey.

Dinosaurs once roamed this area and you can easily find traces of them in the gastropods scattered around the Morrison rock.  Gastroliths are smooth, round rocks the dinosaurs ingested and excreted much like the chickens do with their gizzard stones. 

You will find Devil’s toenails, too, which provide more evidence of the ocean that once covered the land.  The “toenails” are petrified seashells much like fossils only without the rock around them.  However, park rangers ask that souvenir hunters pick up these geological gems only outside the park.  And there’s plenty of them.

Pictographs at Capitol Reef National Park

One exciting link to the human history at Capitol Reef is through the petroglyphs (etched) and the pictographs (painted) on canyon walls.  They give you a glimpse of the Fremont People who lived here from 700 to 1250 A.D.  Their mainstay was bighorn sheep, which they proudly displayed with trapezoid-like images of themselves.  The park provides free interpretive tours of this ancient artwork but make friends with the locals who can take you to see other groups of them outside the park.

“Hobbit Land” is another place outside the park that the locals can show you.  In sight of Boulder Mountain, the largest flat-topped mountain in the United States, these globular red rocks are good for climbing for experts and novices alike.  Moving about them invites you to “commune” with the land by becoming a part of it—literally.  Wear your old clothes, though, when you climb these rocks.  The soft Entrada sandstone that rubs off on you is impossible to remove.

Capitol Reef also features a look into the Mormon culture that was established in 1879 along the Fremont River (also called the Dirty Devil).  First known as Junction and nicknamed “the Eden of Wayne County,” the Fruita settlement flourished through irrigation of sorghum (for syrup and molasses), vegetables and alfalfa.  The orchards which were famous a hundred years ago still stand today with a variety of apples, apricots, peaches, pears, plums, English and black walnuts and almonds.  Eight to 10 large families sustained this community until the late 1960s when the Park Service purchased Fruita property.   

Travelers can visit Fruita’s one-room schoolhouse, which also served as a town hall and church from 1884 until 1941.  In 1900 the public schools adopted the building until it closed in 1941 due to lack of students. 

If you go:

You can best get to Utah’s national parks by flying to Las Vegas or Salt Lake City and renting a car. 

Warning:  Drink a lot of water, bring sun block and wear a hat.  There is little cloud cover in Utah, which provides protection from the hot sun.  The mornings and evenings are cool enough for a light jacket.