Capt. Mondo's World o' Mondo-ness

CNE Redux
A return trip to the CNE, this time to deliberately go and see the things we missed last time. I also wanted to take some pics of various sites on the grounds for an article on Wikipedia about the CNE that I am slowly crafting.

We started out in the Farm and Food display in the Automotive Building which had been renamed the Automoo-tive Building, complete with a 20ft inflatable cow in front. Had a good look at all of the farm animals, including pigs, sheep, chickens, cows, horses and even a couple of ostriches. There was also the butter sculptures, which was apparently a revival of a previous type of oddball display seen at the CNE in the 1960s (pics showed a woman clad in 60s attire gawping at The Beatles made out of cold butter).

Then across the street to the Convention Centre, to briefly return to the retrospective display, where the kids happily did some colouring, climbed aboard a car from the old Flyer and watched a movie of what it was like to ride the rickety old wooden ride. We arrived in time for a performance by the Harmonicats, apparently an old act that had appeared at previous CNEs in its heyday. I know them only from an appearance on SCTV many years ago. Blue haired ladies and octogenarians in wheelchairs flocked around the performance. It was pleasant to listen to them play in the background while I had a closer look at some of the displays, making me think of bygone times of visiting the CNE as a kid with my parents seemingly eons ago.

A brief stopover at the Food Building for an ice cream cone and then on to the Better Living Centre to take a slightly longer look. In between the scuba and BMX demos were endless stalls of cheap sporting wears, so there wasn't a lot to hold our interest. One thing did grab Vanessa's attention before we left: a judo demonstration. Am not sure, but I think it's dance-like qualities appealed to her, so we stuck around for a bit to watch.

Deliberately left through the south exit, as it led to a part of the grounds I had never been to myself before. We walked through the virtually abandoned but expansive formal rose garden, the girls rushing from flower to flower to see which ones smelled best, giggling and chasing each other. Just next to that was the Shrine peace fountain, and then the obelisk marking the spot where Fort Rouille, the original French "Fort Toronto" once was. Took plenty of pics. By this point the girls were having a great time tumbling around and playing tag on the expansive park-like area, and also climbing on top of the mid-19th century British cannons placed (somewhat ironically) around the monument to the French fort.

An elderly lady dressed in 19th Century period pioneer costume came over to us, and invited us over to Scadding Cabin immediately east of the monument. So we went over and had a chat with the two ladies there who told us all about the building, which is the oldest in Toronto. Made a small donation to the Pioneer organization that runs the cabin, bought a small booklet detailing the history of the place for a couple of bucks, and then headed over to look at the herb garden planted around the building. All in all, the area is a remote and seemingly little frequented part of the CNE grounds, a good place to retreat to when the crowds and noise elsewhere on the grounds becomes too much.

Then we walked over to the base of the windmill power station, pass the giant flagpole, the Bandshell, the carillon, and then to the rough deco statuary of various mythical creatures the girls happily climbed on, clambered around and jumped off of.

By this time the batteries on my camera had packed in, but not before I was able to coax a couple more shots out of it – one as the sun was setting behind the Dufferin Gates, while the girls played in the adjacent playground.

Took the girls over to the kiddie rides shortly afterwards, and then slowly made our way back to the Princes' Gates. The evening ended with a "bang" as we watched the human cannonball launch himself a hundred yards or so across the bottom of Princes' Boulevard. Then to a taxi, then home.