Electric Radial Museum in Guelph

One of my favourite places to go is to visit historical sites.   I don't really have a particular interest in historical transportation - though you would know that considering the fact that this blog began a decade ago while traveling through Toronto on the TTC and blogging every station!  Still I do have a particular love for nostalgia and anything that reminds me of my childhood and in the advancement of modern civilization.

It's nice that there are museums like this that give new generations the opportunity to see how buses and rail trains once looked so that they too can have a glimpse into the past.

It was on a rainy Sunday early evening when we passed through the County of Halton when I first saw this working museum of electric streetcars, buses and trolleybuses.  It was too late in the day to make it a decent visit, so we didn’t buy tickets.  Though we did show up when one of the trolleys went by along the radial tracks that once provided the right of way in Guelph. 

The museum is open to the public – the focus is primarily on the Toronto Transit Commission (TTC), with rides on many of its now retired vehicles. It is located in the town of Guelph in Ontario, Canada.  If you happen to pass through it might be fun for you to step in to a little piece of history and take a trip yourself.

 

Ripley's Aquarium - Toronto Canada

Just down by the water of Lake Ontario at 288 Bremner Blvd which has become quite the hub of Toronto's tourism is the Ripleys Aquarium.

It situates itself somewhere between Toronto's iconic CN Tower and the Rogers Centre home of the NBA champions and has always been the least intriguing attraction to me since it's opening in  October of 2013.

Particularly because I have a strong belief like most of us that aquatic animals should not be held in captivity (or any animals for that matter, unless of course they are already domesticated).  This belief was about to change though -- well not for Marineland but for at least here.



You will love Ripley's - you will see everything from sharks to swimming green sea turtles and jelly fishes to eels and the most beautiful colourful tropical fishes and marine life you'll ever get a chance to see otherwise unless of course you have thousands to spend visiting the tropics.
 

I can't imagine a more beautiful home than here for these critters.  Designers and engineers have painstaking designed every aquatic aquarium tailored to the marine life here.  Either fresh water or ocean floors making sure the surrounding were like home to the animals right down to the temperature of the water as well as the water's content.

The aquariums are spotless clear and cleaned and are monitored by computers and high-compression drums and gauges by skilled employees in marine biology.  There is even a section where you are able to view this for yourself.

Here swims, floats and flutters any species of the underground world you can imagine and they all get along perfectly respecting one another space.  They clearly are all being fed well or you would see a much different picture in the water.

 

Some highlights are the blue lobster!  In fact they are so rare, a BBC news article, dated may 26, 2016 (cited: https://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-36369687, BBC News: How rare are bright blue lobsters?) notes how rare they really are.

 

I also loved the touch and feel tanks where you can immerse your hand in shrimp tanks where little shrimps will crawl over to take little pieces of dead skin from your hand (you might not know they are there, but they do!) and I found it so cute and it tickles!  The other highlight was to put your hand in a very large tank of stingrays and they will sense your heart beat and swim by you so you can pet them.  As you might have thought they feel very slippery and smooth.  I also petted the top of a baby shark and a giant eel.  

I was so happy to see how well they are living and looked after, although it was very costly getting indoors, we went after 7:00 at night, which is called 'Sharks After Dark',  you can stay as long as you like up until 11:00.  It is $7 cheaper than the usual price but you can still see all the exhibits so it's worth it.

If you go, I would love to hear about your experiences too in a comment below!