Thea was not really excited about Casa Loma. She said that she would rather spend her last day at Saks Fifth Avenue and rest at the hotel afterwards. I think that the prospect of climbing the Baldwin Steps was just too much for her. She charged me to take pictures for her.
At first blush, I kinda thought that this would be a waste of a trip. It doesn’t seem especially big from the outside. But it is. And it’s full. And there’s even more outside. And that’s without any of the gardens being in bloom. In fact every time I thought I knew what I was getting, I got surprised around the next corner. There was a room dedicated to eight (?) superb colored-glass vases. There was the whole “Camp X” story. The entire third floor is dedicated to the military history of the Casa Loma families and so it is chock full of bling. I’ve got pictures of that but it seemed like overkill. So I’m presenting here only about half of the story. The view that you get from the ability to go up into the towers. The adventure of the underground passage to the carriage house and the antique car collection. And of course the grandeur of the rooms. One thing that struck me was that every mantle had a clock on it. In fact, most tables had clocks on them and every sitting room had not only a grandfather clock but its own piano. And how more plainly can you say ‘excess’ than for each bedroom to have its own cannon.
