The CNE is here!

The end of Summer in Ontario is usually marked by the start of the Canadian National Exhibition, also known as the CNE or The Ex. Its been over 10 years since I’ve been, but this weekend Garrett and I scored some free tickets so we headed down to check it out.

I always love entering through the the Prince’s Gates whenever I come down to the Exhibition Grounds. Many events are hosted here throughout the year, including the Royal Winter Fair and Winter Woofstock.

We happened to be there on Warriors Day and just missed the parade. However we did get to catch many different regiments in all their uniforms.

It was a little overcast that day but it didn’t seem to stop crowds from coming out to enjoy the midway.

He tossed with expert precision….and won! The best part – he had placed his bet on our anniversary month. What a sweet guy (I bet on my birthday, haha)

The whole place was full of amazing items from all over the world. Everywhere you turned there was something new to look at. We ended up picking up a few books and a couple of fun chocolate bars from England.

 
I also loved all the gorgeous colourful fabrics for sale. I could have bought them all!

 

There were also plenty of beautiful pieces already made and adorned with beading. This whole booth actually shimmered as you walked by.

Farther into the pavilion, we came across a display about all the hauntings that have been reported on the fairgrounds. There were some pretty creepy stories.

They also had beautiful artifacts from the history of The Ex, like this magic lantern which was used as an early projector.

It was great seeing how some of the old buildings used to look. Here is what used to be the Administration Building.

There are many year round buildings that get to show off their wares during the CNE, like this fire station. They had vintage fire trucks out for people to admire and if you look on the right you can see that they even let some little boys try out one of the fire hoses. I can just imagine how excited those little guys must have been.

All those little kids were excited about the firetrucks, but the big kids seemed to be most excited about the beer tents.

After a long walk around the grounds, we decided to stop in for a couple of beers ourselves.

We sat and enjoyed our brews while listening to a one man band do some interesting cover songs.

Ready for some more excitement, we headed over to see a Human Cannonball display. I’d never seen one of these and was intrigued to see what it was all about.

Using a gif maker and Garrett’s photos, I was able to make this up to show you guys what we saw. I think he did a pretty good job capturing this guy flying through the air. Can you believe that this guy does this for a living?

Speaking of interesting sights, we came across this street performer dressed up as robot. He was incredibly realistic and therefore very creepy. You could request any song and he would play it from speakers and a little screen on his chest. It was very impressive.

 
Another popular display was a military base set up for people to look into various vehicles and tents.

They even had a small obstacle course set up for the kids. It looked like fun!

Continuing on through the other pavilions, we saw quite a few amazing displays along the way, like this sand sculpture competition. Can you believe that is made out of sand?!?!

The home and garden area was filled with great finds like this small orchid.

Garrett really wanted to get some fudge while we were there too!

One of my favorite pavilions when I was growing up was the agriculture displays. This year they had it all set up for kids, with a tricycle obstacle course and a scavenger hunt for produce. If I’d been 15 years younger, I’d have been all over this!

But adults aren’t allowed to join 🙁 , so I stuck to looking at and petting all the beautiful barn animals.

It was great to get up close and personal with some farm animals in the city.

This sweet little calf reminded me of how my little Whiskey likes to sleep. So cute.

There were plenty of very odd animals there too, like these alpacas who had just been shorn.

This super cute baby llama was quite adorable too, curled up with his mama.

They had a big display about ostriches as well, including a few to watch.

This one was quite adventurous and came right up to us.

There was no way I was putting my fingers near that guy!

I preferred to take a peek at these little baby turkeys in the incubator.

Before long they’ll be getting big and fat for Thanksgiving.

Most of the agriculture displays were sponsored by Farmers Feed Cities, which is a great message to get out to the kids in the city who maybe aren’t so aware of where their food is from.

Bees! You could hear them buzzing when you came up to the display.

Busy making honey for me to drizzle on my greek yogurt 🙂

They were also busy making plenty of wax for candles. Beeswax candles are one of my favourites.

I ended up grabbing one of these sweet little pumpkins for Autumn.

I also got a great idea to make some tin lanterns this Christmas. Don’t these look great?

Last but surely not least, we made a final stop at Tiny Tom Donuts – a CNE tradition!

The little donuts are made by a machine that drops the dough circles into a small fryer and flips them over after a few minutes.

The machine scoops the donuts from the fryer and drops them onto a conveyor belt to be scooped up into a bag of a dozen donuts.

You get to chose between four flavour options: Icing Sugar, Cinnamon, Apple N’ Cinnamon and Chocolate.

Then you take the bag and give it a good shake to get all the warm little donuts covered in the sugar.

We ended up picking icing sugar, which perfectly melted over all the donuts. What a great way to end a wonderful afternoon at the CNE!