Capt. Mondo's World o' Mondo-ness

An Unplanned Trip to the Fair
Another Dad-only weekend. After taking the girls to the East York Gym Club we had plans to go visit Browser's Den in order to get a couple of tricks and be entertained by the usual free mini-magic shows that happen there. But on the bus ride heading to Coxwell station we were diverted around the East York General Hospital area, as they had the streets blocked off for what turned out to be a 30th Anniversary fair. So we ditched the idea of heading to the magic shop, got off the bus and headed off to the fair grounds.

The grounds were dominated by a Ferris wheel planted in the entrance drive to the hospital. Both Vanessa and Annie said "no way" to that, but both were keen to go on the merry-go-round. In the adjacent park I could see a bouncing castle, an inflatable slide, even a pony ride. So I bought a bunch of tickets and got into the first of several line-ups for the things to do there.

First place of call was the merry-go-round. I managed to get the girls on adjacent horses. Vanessa played the fetching princess on her horse, and mugged for the camera I luckily had with me. Annie kept shouting "giddy-up, horsy" gleefully and then giggled. Next we headed over to the park and got in line to get into a bouncing castle. It was there I learned that the tickets I had had just bought were only for the rides and games in the laneway - the ones operated in the park were from a different vendor and they used their own tickets. A kind woman behind me in line offered me more than enough tickets for the girls to get on the ride, and would take nothing in return, as she said that after this she was done for the day. I told her I would "pay it forward" and thanked her for the gift. Both girls loved bouncing in the castle.

After that we headed over to the stands on the fringes of the park, where Vanessa had spied a set of "groovy girl" dolls she wanted to check out. It was at one of the stalls that we ran into Debbie K., who we hadn't seen for the better part of a year. She was selling cards featuring her photography, small bags of candy and bee royal jelly (what is that stuff used for?), apparently as part of a project to fund a new TV out of her own pocket. We chatted for a little while and I gave her most of my remaining tickets, as my girls were suddenly beginning to look very tired. I also bought a couple of packages of candy from Debbie before starting to make our way out.

On the way we stopped to watch a doctor get repeatedly dunked in a water dunking tank. Best part was when another doctor nonchalantly ambled pass and casually bopped the target, dunking his colleague when he wasn't expecting it. We also saw a trio of musicians who were dressed up in red pinstripe shirts and straw hats, one of whom was local musician Lenny Graf better known to the girls as the child entertainer who is a staple performer at the annual Lion's Club Xmas Tree lighting in the Beach. around Xmas-time It turns out he also plays a mean clarinet. With the few remaining tickets I had left I treated the girls to a ball-toss game. Neither of them could get the basketball in the hoop (Annie could barely throw the ball, but was full of giggles every time she threw the ball) and they were given a small plush animal anyways.

I took the kids home, happy and exhausted.