For my first trip down memory lane, I thought I’d look back to last year when I made a trip back to my hometown Toronto, Canada. While most may not think of going home as a real tourist trip – I beg to differ. By this stage, I was living away from home for nearly 4 years so everytime I went back it felt less and less like home unfortunately.
The purpose of my trip last year was to actually go to a wedding of a close friend of mine. It was the first time I’d been back to Canada in August. Toronto is a great city but I’ve called it the city of extreme temperatures. As I’m sure you can imagine, in the winter it’s absolutely freezing (it can get down to -30 C with the wind chill factor in Jan/Feb). In the summer, against popular belief, it can be uncomfortably hot & humid around July/August time (with many days having smog alerts). Most Torontonians spend a large portion of their salaries either heating or air conditioning their homes as it’s unbearable otherwise. Weather-wise my favourite time of year in Toronto is the end of September/early October as the leaves start changing colours (which is very beautiful) or June. I just find these are lovely times where the temperatures are just right and it really brings out what this city is all about.
Let's go to the ex - oh baby!
But here I was in Toronto at the end of August – as humid as ever – not good for the hair or the skin but what can you do? On the positive side, one of the best things about being back home at this time is that I could visit an annual event like no other. Every year the Canadian National Exhibition (the CNE or “the Ex”) opens its doors to the masses for 18 days up to and including Labour Day.
The CNE grounds are located right downtown on the West side of the city on 192 acres of Lakefront property. It always amazed me that such a massive amount of land is only open for a few weeks every year. There are other events that get hosted in some of the buidlings there throughout the year but the overall land never gets used to its fullest capacity.
The CNE started all the way back in 1879 (!!) and is the largest fair in Canada and 5th largest in North America. Not too shabby!! It has so much to do – from buildings that house trade fairs with all your favourite infomercial goodies to the agricultural buildings where there are cows and horses to view. Boredom is not on the menu – there is a lot of fun to have while you’re there – there is a whole midway park with rides and games for kids & big kids (like me!), close to a 100 vendors at the food building to wet your appetite and even a casino that’s open from noon to 6am for those late night gamblers.
Agricultural building
Another thing I love about the CNE is all the free shows. They have this really cute Superdogs show that has dogs (with their owners) performing for the masses. The show runs 3 times a day and is definitely worth it – totally recommend! They also have fireworks sporadically throughout the 18 days and there are a number of other acrobatic and stunt shows spread around the grounds. In addition to these free shows, there are a whole slew of concerts – some free, some you need to pay for. Great entertainment though!
Last year, a friend and I went to the Ex and really lucked out with the weather. It was a lovely warm day so it was perfect to walk around and take our time. We spent quite a bit of time in the agricultural building looking at all the cows and horses. They are so sweet and I actually found it really interesting to understand the history behind a lot of them. During this little romp around the animals, we actually bumped into 2 good friends of mine – it was so nice! In such a big place like Toronto, this rarely happens so it felt really nice. This just wasn’t any friend either this was my closest friend in Canada – I was overjoyed!
Food building - yummm...Walkers crisps!
We parted ways and ended up heading to the midway to go on some rides – why not, hey? Guess what? We bumped into my friends again! So to make this more fun we decided to hang out with them for awhile – go on some rides and have a few laughs. It was great.
After all the socializing our last stop was some shopping. We ended up going into National Trade Building where there is a plethora of products from around the world and, my favourite, the infomercial zone. Yes, that’s right – all those products that you hear about on late night TV are all spotlighted here. Everything from the most absorbent rag to the best massager it’s all here. We spent a bit of time testing out this vibrating machine that all you had to do was stand on and apparently made you lose weight without doing much at all. Hmmm…I’m not too sure about that one. It was a good laugh though.
After a quick pop into the food building – we girls do have to eat – we decided to hit the road and call it a day. The Ex is so great but everytime I go I always remember that you just can’t expect to get it all in, in just one day.
Summers in Toronto are great as there are festivals galore – the CNE is one of them that I highly recommend.
Enjoy and remember – Let’s Go to The Ex!!!
From Matt:
What a cool guy in this picture!!