My kind of town, Toronto is for fall events

   One-Tank Trip for Oct. 6/18

   (c) By Jim Fox

   However you say it – Tor-AWN-toe, Toronno, Toranna or just T.O. – Canada’s largest city can be your “kind of town.”

   “It continues to evolve with city changes, restaurants, exhibits and fall-focused experiences,” says Irene Knight of Tourism Toronto.

   She checks in with an extensive list of what’s new and happening in the big city.

Toronto’s CN Tower (Barbara Fox photo)

   New and improved

   - The CN Tower, Toronto’s iconic landmark, has a renovated main observation area, LookOut Level, for an “eye-opening, mind-blowing new perspective on the most spectacular views in Toronto.”

   In the $16-million upgrade, there’s a new glass floor directly above the original, providing a dramatic, two-tier vertical view.

   Floor-to-ceiling “window walls” across three sections of the observation level allow for near-seamless unobstructed panoramic views.

   - Ontario Place continues expanding with new park areas, restaurants and movie screenings at the world’s first permanent IMAX Theatre.

   There’s the remounting of the Winter Lights Exhibition uutilizing creativity, innovation, light and discovery.

   - Storm Crow Manor is a Victorian mansion in the Church-Wellesley village that will play host to Toronto’s nerdiest sports bar.

   When the Storm Crow Tavern opened in Vancouver in 2012 it was quickly called the “nerdiest bar in Canada.”

   Now the Toronto location is being called the “biggest and most insane with secret doors, alternate-reality hunting salons, post-apocalyptic lounges and mad scientist cocktail bars.”

   - St. Regis Hotels & Resorts arrives in Canada this winter with 65 stories downtown in the former Trump International Hotel and Tower.

   It’s operating now as Marriot’s Adelaide Hotel and undergoing an extensive facelift to create 124 luxury suites, redesigned lobby, bar and lounge, two-level spa and signature restaurant and bar.

   - Fairland Funhouse in the Kensington Market is the “lovechild of Toronto’s most imaginative visual and music artists.”

   They have transformed an old grocery store into an interactive two-storey adventure world.

   Six suites in the underground art maze are designed in collaboration with local artists and musicians partnered with visual creators.

A night-time panoramic view from atop the CN Tower.

    - The Museum of Illusions opens its first Canadian location with holograms, optical illusions, installations and unusual rooms in the St. Lawrence Market district.

   There will be up to 70 exhibits at the museum attracts more than one-million visitors annually at its worldwide locations.

   - The Museum of Contemporary Art has opened to “exhibit, research, collect and nurture innovative contemporary art and cultural practices that engage with and address issues and themes relevant to our times.”

   Keeping them down on the farm

   - The Royal Agricultural Winter Fair, a Toronto favourite for 96 years, brings the country to the city from Nov. 2 to 11.

   It’s the largest indoor agricultural and international equestrian competition in the world with “hundreds of things to do, see and eat.”

   There are animals galore, regal horse shows, food events, including the Country Music Culinary Festival, and Tim Hicks performing Nov. 1.

The St. Lawrence Market from 1803 is named among the best in the world. (Jim Fox photo)

   - St. Lawrence Market with 120 vendors, merchants and artisans since 1803 offers year-round special events and was named tops in the world by the National Geographic book Food Journeys of a Lifetime.

   Along with food and cooking events, there’s a tour of the Bike City exhibit about the biking culture followed by afternoon coffee on Oct. 27.

   - One Night in La Dolce Vita is a chance to “immerse yourself in a world of unexpected pleasures and culinary delights” held at Square One Shopping Centre on Oct. 17.

   Featuring culinary host Bobby Flay, it’s a “journey through the Grand Rotunda as your senses are transported across the Mediterranean with the sights, sounds and flavours of Italy.”

   - The Second City means improv is always in season with shows including She the People, The Best is Yet to Come Undone and The Best of the Second City.

   The cavernous St. Lawrence Market hosts special events year-round. (Jim Fox photo)

    - Mirvish Productions: The curtain rises for the Newfoundland tale Come from Away now through April and Ain’t Too Proud about the Temptations, coming Oct. 11.

   There’s also Bat Out of Hell; Friends: The Musical Parody; Charlie and the Chocolate Factory; and the School of Rock. For more details and events, visit SeeTorontoNow.com

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Jim Fox can be reached at onetanktrips@hotmail.com

For more One-Tank Trips: http://1tanktrips.blogspot.ca