Let’s Go to The Ex!

Pictured above are the Princes’ Gates, entrance to the Canadian National Exhibition, better known as the CNE or, more fondly, The Ex, Canada’s largest fair. It began in 1878 as an agricultural fair, with 100,000 people attending for the admission price of 25 cents.

Today an estimated 1.3 million people visit the CNE, generating more than $50 million in revenue for Toronto, and over $70 million for the Province of Ontario.

It's held for 18 days at the end of August. It covers 192 acres along Toronto’s waterfront and features shopping areas, exhibits, live entertainment, a casino, and of course the midway with a plethora of games, rides and food. There’s also the Kid Zone, which features entertainment for children as well as scaled down rides and games.

I’m not sure how old the daughter was when we first started going to The Ex, but it became an annual ritual for the two of us. It always seemed like the perfect way to end the summer. Then the daughter started on her road to higher education and string of trips to The Ex was broken.

This year seemed like a good idea at the time for the whole family to celebrate the end of summer with a trip to The Ex. So on the weekend we drove to Oshawa, then boarded the GO train to Exhibition Place.

The crowds were absolutely insane.

The above picture as taken before the crowds got bad. None of us were comfortable with the crowds, especially on the midway. And the lines for anything were also insane.

However, we’re nothing if not a family of troopers. We started in the Enercare building, which featured a display of garden gnomes:

A seaworld exhibit created with roses:

And a video gaming area:

We rested our tired feet by sitting on the bleachers provided for viewing some robot wars:

And later stood in the most incredibly long line I’ve ever seen to see the Super Dogs. In fact, we were more than twice as long in the line as we were watching the show.

While the hubby and I checked out the Craft and Hobby building, the daughter and son-in-law took the granddaughter to the kid zone. Overhead the U.S. Blue Angels and the Canadian Snow Birds made sure there was no napping on the job. Those jets passing overhead were LOUD!

While it was wonderful to spend the day together as a family, I have to be honest and say that none of us were sorry to board the train back to Oshawa. I would love to go on another family adventure, but maybe something a little less people-y. And maybe indoors. With air conditioning.

The Ex has certainly changed a lot since the daughter and I used to go. That it’s more expensive is a given – everything’s more expensive since the pandemic. And there doesn’t seem to be as much to see.

Would I go again? I’d probably give it another try. But I think I’d suck it up and drive all the way there – our travel time was way too long. And never again on a weekend.

Mournival Monday

mournival ~ set of four things

I’m not sure whether I should be saying happy Labour Day, or holy crap it’s Labour Day already!

I don’t know about you, but September never fails to take me by surprise. One day we’re experiencing August’s dog days of summer, and the next day it’s fall.

If you live in Ontario, Canada, as I do, the traditional way to end summer is a visit to the Canadian National Exhibition. It opens the second last week of August and closes at the end of Labour Day.

When the daughter was little we used to go to the CNE as a mommy/daughter thing. However, we did not go for the midway or the games, we went for the shopping. Then she started growing up and discovered boys and we came to an important realization – boys are great for carrying our stuff! LOL

This year we went on a week day, which was far less crowded than the weekend, and it was a rainy weekday at that which further reduced the crowds. It was awesome!

Considering we arrived late in the morning and left again around supper time, we sure packed a lot into our day, starting with the grandbaby meeting Chase from the Paw Patrol:

This took place in the Kid Zone, an area of the fairgrounds set aside for kids activities. So naturally she got to play a few games and go on a few of the kid-sized rides:

While she and her parents were doing that, the hubby and I checked out the arts and crafts building and we all met up again at the food pavilion for lunch. It was pouring rain by the time we were done, but that was okay because it was time for shopping in the international market and that was in another big building.

We also wandered through the Legends of the Silk Road exhibit, which featured fairy tale scenarios like this one:

The hubby and I needed a break from all that walking, so we sat with the grandbaby to watch a group of African singing acrobats perform. By the time this was over it had stopped raining long enough for us to go out onto the midway to try our luck at some of the games. Please note you aren’t seeing a picture of one of the large stuffed animals any of us won. LOL

We hurried back inside to catch Abracadabark – the show put on by the President’s Choice SuperDogs. The grandbaby even got to meet a couple of her favourites.

After that it was time to head for home – tired and broke, but happy. As it should be.

Malacoid Monday

malacoid ~ made of a soft or fleshy substance

Wow, hard to believe it’s September already. Just last week it still seemed so far away, but here we are, Labour Day weekend. The last long weekend of summer.

Not that we really had much summer this year. It was mostly wet. Sometimes it was cool and wet, sometimes it was hot and wet - and there were only a handful of days that it was hot enough to complain about. While I could have lived without the excessive rain over the summer, the cooler temperatures were quite nice.

As has been my tradition for most of my adult life, the end of summer wouldn’t be complete without a trip to the Canadian National Exhibition. Or as most people call it, The Ex. When the daughter was little it was our mommy/daughter thing - the highlight of the summer.

I tried to take a few pictures on the way there of traffic volume and the drive along Lakeshore Blvd which is like driving through a tunnel with all the roads criss-crossing above it, but my phone updated the day before we went and my settings got all messed up. By the time I got it working again we were already at the Princess Gates.

Actually, considering it was the Friday of the holiday weekend, traffic wasn’t too bad at all. And going home the traffic was even lighter - almost unheard of when driving in Toronto. After wandering around the main building for a bit, we decided to get something to eat, and as we made our way across the top edge of the midway, who should we run into but my sister and her family. They’d already eaten so we made plans to hook up for supper (although they tired out quicker than us so by that time they'd packed it in to head for home).

Some of the sights we enjoyed were an amazing sand sculpture exhibit:

If you’re on my Facebook page there are more pictures of the sand sculptures. And there was Rock Valley:

It’s amazing watching the artist stack those rocks with such precision. Unfortunately this was his last year for it. And we got to see the impressive Quilt of Belonging:

This quilt was so big I couldn’t quite fit it all in one picture. It’s 10 ½ feet high and 120 feet long, made up of 263 quilt blocks. It was designed to portray the cultural legacy of Canada’s First Peoples, and it does so in an amazing way. If you’d like to learn more about it, go HERE .

And my personal tradition when going to the CNE is to buy one completely frivolous item. Past purchases include embroidered kimonos, a silk skirt, a witch ball, a didgeridoo, a carved wooden chest, and a large rain stick. This year’s purchase just might top them all, a plasma light dragon:

By the time supper time rolled around we’d pretty much seen everything there was to see. Sadly, the CNE just isn’t what it used to be. The International Marketplace has shrunk down so that it fits into the same building as the domestic market, along with the outlet shopping. You used to be able to walk across the avenue in the grounds to the Automotive building to see the cars on display and A Taste of Country, but that’s no longer there. And they no longer have the horse show in the indoor arena - the daughter and I loved to get our food and sit to watch the horses.

Being a week day the crowds weren’t bad, but they were bad enough, and people were rude! And the noise was pretty bad too - it was almost impossible to carry on a conversation outside of the buildings. To be honest, I don’t know how eager I am to go again, unless it’s with the grandbaby.

Maybe I’m just getting old. :-D

Miosis Monday

miosis ~ abnormal contraction of the pupil of the eye

Welcome Monday, I can use the break! I only did two things on the weekend, but they were both exhausting things.

First, I cleaned a closet. Now maybe that might not sound like a big thing, but this was the closet in the upstairs landing with the sliding mirror doors. And the reason I wanted to go through the stuff in that closet was I've lost a bit of weight and I wanted to check for clothes that fit. Sometimes it pays to refuse to part with clothing - I have a multitude of sizes.

Anyway, inside the closet is one of those metal organizing units and a chest of drawers, both filled with clothes. So hubby took the sliding doors off the closet for me (the doors are too wide for it and overlap enough that you can't open the dresser). Then I started pulling stuff off the shelves of the organizing unit, including a huge duffle bag from the top shelf. Upon investigation, it held my you-don't-have-a-prayer-of-fitting-into-these-clothes-but-miracles-do-happen stash of clothing, which made me wonder what was in the big bin on the dresser in the closet in the guest room.

Next thing you know, I'm pulling stuff out of the that dresser and checking out the bin. I think the idea at this point was to organize by size groupings. The bin held my yeah-there's-a-chance-but-you've-still-got-some-work-to-do stash. And somewhere in there I had the bright idea of cleaning out my closet and dresser as well.

Anyway, to make a long story short, I have five pairs of pants that will fit if I take them in, four pairs that are way too big and are getting donated, three pairs of pants (and an assortment of tops) that are almost there, and a single pair of jeans that actually fit. I also had two big recycling bags full of clothes to donate to charity, as well as a bag full of garbage.

All in all, quite the day's work.

The second thing I did over the weekend was go to the CNE.

Quite a while back I had the bright idea that we should take the daughter and her family to the CNE as our birthday present to the son-in-law. So we left bright and early and just to add some excitement to the day, after we left the safety of the 401 highway to make our way through the City of Toronto, the car stalled. And it did it again the next time we had to stop for a traffic light. So then the hubby had to pretty much drive the rest of the way to the fairgrounds with one foot on the gas and one on the brakes.

But we made it, and in one piece too, that's the main thing. It was a great day with lots to see and do, but I was reminded why when the daughter and I used to do this together we always went on a week day -- weekends at the CNE are insanely busy. I mean, it was busy when we arrived, but by mid-afternoon the crowds were horrendous.

When the daughter and I used to go we would stick to shopping in the various buildings - we never went on the rides and the only game we'd play would be the Birthday Game where the best we could hope for was a stuffed snake. This time we played a few games and while the daughter ended up paying an extra $5 to buy a stuffed unicorn for the granddaughter, together we won a respectably sized dragon for her playing a darts game.

We were all pretty much done in by the time we left, and the car behaved itself all the way home until we got to the first stoplight in our town.

All in all it was a good day and a weekend well spent.