After a mere six questions at the Windsor border station we were in Canada. A couple hours later and a couple days on the heels of the G20 we were fighting for a parking space in downtown Toronto. We finally broke down and paid for a spot, something I always try my hardest to avoid. A few locals had been texted but were busy for the moment so we wandered for a couple hours, scouting construction sites and pointing lustful eyes at the many tower cranes. It was like Chicago had been five years ago. A high rise construction site around every corner, we were surrounded and loving it. A little before sunset we hooked up with HI-LITE and headed over to a topped out condo tower. There was no crane but security looked light-to-nil and pedestrian traffic around the perimeter was low.
Next door to the site was a more finished low rise building built by the same developer. The job site office into which I had seen a hardhat wearing dude walk earlier sat directly across from the open door to the high rise. But here there was no fence nor any signage. Feigning innocence we walked over and through the door. Where were the stairs? We needed to get higher and quick. We walked past a room with blueprints and somebody’s jacket hanging on the wall. Somebody else was here someplace. On the other side of the building was a door. HI-LITE said he had seen a set of stairs going up from that other side. We exited on the other side of the fence from the street, turned left and found the stairs.
The name of the game was silence. Obviously somebody was here somewhere. Maybe it had been the guy I had seen but maybe not. We quietly climbed the stairs the twenty or so levels and got to the roof while the sky still had some light in it. I looked down at the street and saw no sign of any disturbance. I was a bit paranoid over a story I’d heard of some kids getting busted by motion sensors at a construction site in town. I had even seen some bubble cameras on a site nearby. Must be a Canadian thing, I had never seen a site in the States that went to the trouble. But I had been watchful and was sure then that we were safe and sound and free to enjoy the view. I took a few minutes to strike a pose stolen from one Quantum-X and take some photos from the elevator hoist.
The wind started to kick up a bit and the temperature was dropping quick. It had been around 75 Fahrenheit in Detroit and I knew that we were a bit farther north but it was getting way colder than I had expected. I hadn’t brought anything warmer than a tee shirt and that was setting in pretty hard the colder it got. Looking around I noticed how many cranes were really up. In addition to seeming to have several skylines I counted over thirty tower cranes, and that was only the ones that were visible from that angle. Between our condo tower and the waterfront rose the Ritz-Carlton. A towering stack of glass topped off by a big white tower crane. I had to have it.
