Hilary vs. the CN Tower

Scott vs. the CN Tower

Toronto is large eh?

World’s highest…

Windy?

1,400 feet in the air

Balance

Lady in red?

Red Scott!

Goodnight Toronto

As a part of Hilary’s birthday present, she and I took a day trip to visit our Canadian neighbours. The plan was to go see Body Worlds, an exhibit of plastinated human bodys at the Ontario Science Centre. More on that later.

Toronto is about a 2.5 hour ride from B-lo. A drive that we need to make more often. As we approached, I realized how huge the city actually is. Part of that realization is seeing this massive tower that rises above the city. The CN tower. Detour number one. I heard my coworker, Pete, in the back of my head telling me that we must go up to the top and see the city from the world’s highest man-made observation point. It’s scary when Pete becomes part of your conscience… Especially when that conscience is telling you to take yourself 447 meters up in the air (thats 1,466 feet for the non-metric).

As far as I’m concerned, the CN Tower exists for no other reason than to be a tourist attraction. Alongside tourist attractions come gift shops, photos with superimposed backgrounds, and my favorite — package deals. So I hate being “sold”. I don’t like sales people trying to sell me things that I don’t need. I don’t like being told to upgrade for a better value. Somebody had tourists in mind when they built the tower because naturally, the normal admission cost doesn’t get you to the top. To get to the top you have to buy the Sky Pod package. I wasn’t about to say that I went to the CN Tower without going all the way to the top, so we upgraded our travel package. This decision was by my own accord. I have no problem paying the extra 10CDN to send us all the way. Now, had the teller at the bottom tried to convince me that we should upgrade to the Sky Pod package, I can assure you that the answer would have been a swift no. For some unknown reason, I attribute this to my father… family - can you back me up on that?

Anyhow, we hopped in the elevator and rose to the top. I’m not a wordsmith. Trying to convey every detail of what it’s like to be that high up in the air wouldn’t do it justice. That’s why we have a camera. It was incredible though. Toronto is much larger than I imagined… really cool city. We had beautiful weather all day which made for a great view. We couldn’t see all the way to Rochester (they say you can on a clear day). Actually, being up there gave me a great feel for the layout of the city… helpful for later when we got “lost” looking for a place to eat.

After getting our fill of heights, testing our nerves by stepping on the glass floor, and fighting the winds outside the tower, we hopped back into the car and headed out on a lunch search. This little drive took us through the Toronto financial district and Chinatown. For whatever reason, we didn’t find anything to eat so we decided to continue on to the Science Centre in hopes that we’d see something tasty. Meanwhile, tempers flared. Neither of us are very good about our tempers when hunger is involved. Actually… it gets downright scary. The result? Canadia’s finest… Mr. Subb

Enter the Ontario Science Centre. Home of Body Worlds 2. This paragraph from the site sums it up pretty well. Read it twice for the idea to sink in.

BODY WORLDS 2 focuses on approx. 200 authentic specimens of human anatomy - individual organs, transparent vertical and horizontal slices of the body, and 25 artistically posed, whole-body plastinates. The exhibitions are structured in such a way that visitors can experience them as they would a three-dimensional textbook: anatomy as the foundation of the body is laid out in an educational and elucidating fashion.

The exhibit is self-guided and — speaking personally — took me through a range of emotions. There isn’t any sugar-coating of these bodies. You’re standing inches away from a person that once lived, donated their body to science, and has now had all liquid from within their cells replaced with plastic. The idea unto itself is incredible. The process involves (with lots of oversimplification) flooding a body with acetone, then replacing that acetone with a special plastic. Seeing it only brings on more questions. While the entire idea may sound a little revolting, there is a certain amount of reverence to the exhibit. Initially people were joking with eachother as they walked down the first hallway… skeletons hanging on the sides with a strip of bone-filled showcases down the center. As we moved, I think the idea of what you’re really looking at begins to settle and people begin to gaze in awe. Your brain is actually bigger than your fist and it fits in there pretty snugly. Those ear-bones? They’re TINY. At the end of the first hallway is an entire cross-section of a person, as if you’re staring at a full-body CT scan. It looks like a piece of person-shaped plexiglass with a map of organs and bones included.

The bodies themselves are posed in interesting positions. A ski-jumper, skateboarder, the thinking man, javelin toss, gymnasts. Around this time I realized that there was entire anatomy class being taught. The professor had his laser pointer out, showing his students different organs and asking them to name muscle groups. At that point it dawned on me that this sort of exhibit is a once in a lifetime experience in many ways. It may seem obvious but while I was walking around, I felt like I was drifting in an out of “normal”. Tough to describe. Most people don’t get to see this sort of thing without going through an anatomy class.

Personal highlights of the exhibit:

• A plastination of the head - made up of nothing but veins and arteries.
• Pregnant woman.
• Plastination of an entire camel.
• Exploded man - A 15-foot tall “exploded” view of all bones and organs a la an engineering diagram.
• Drawer man - A full body with “blocks” extruded in different areas
• A full body cross-section of an obese, 300lb. man vs. a “normal” 120lb. male. Ever wonder what the happens to the organs of an obese person?
• Lungs of a coal miner, smoker, non-smoker

All in all, this relates back to the idea of the CN Tower. The sights and experience are difficult to describe. With the Tower, we can at least show pictures. No photos are allowed in Body Worlds. It’s just one more reason that you need to check it out for yourself if you have the opportunity. It is, without a doubt, worth the time.

You can see the rest of the pictures from our trip on Hilary’s Flickr account

A must-see 3 minute video. I’ve paid money to see worse Christmas lights than this.