Across Canada At The Exhibition Grounds

Location: Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Address: 210 Princes' Blvd.
Date: September 2019
Website:  theex.com

    The Canadian National Exhibition takes place at the end of August each year and closes on Labour Day in September. When the Exhibition is not running, the grounds known as Exhibition Place are still open to vehicles and the public. If you are visiting Toronto from across Canada you can feel like you are back home thanks to the many streets that crisscross the grounds.

 We will start our journey from east to west.  All but one of Canada's provinces and territories are represented in the names of the streets.  The streets do not quite unfold as a map of Canada would, but we will show you one possible path you can take in order to visit them all.  We enter the Exhibition grounds from Fleet Street and find ourselves on Canada Boulevard.

 Canada Boulevard connects with Princes' Boulevard which is the main street that runs from the Princes' Gates (photo at top of blog) and through the grounds.

  The first provincial street we came across was Newfoundland Drive which also happens to be the easternmost of the provinces.  

Newfoundland Drive runs south from the Enercare Centre between the Automotive Building and Hotel X.

  The next road we pass is Nunavut Road.  This part of the road was formerly part of New Brunswick Way.  Much like the road, Nunavut the territory was formerly part of the Northwest Territories.  Sadly, Northwest Territories is the only unrepresented portion of Canada on these streets.  Hopefully at some point it will finally get included.

  Just a bit further along Prince's Boulevard, a road heads south.  This is the bottom portion of New Brunswick Way.  If you want to find a road sign for this street you will have to follow it through a parking lot and down to Lakeshore Blvd.  There you will find a traditional blue Toronto road sign instead of one of the fancier Exhibition Place signs.

If you head back up New Brunswick Way and take Nunavut Road north, you will end up on Nova Scotia Avenue.  As we mentioned before all the provinces are represented but they are all over the place as far as being presented in any sort of order.

We will take a left hand turn on Manitoba Drive and eventually we will end up at Princes' Boulevard again.

  Before we get to Princes' Boulevard we will pass Quebec Street.

   If we turn left at Princes' Boulevard we will pass the Princess Margaret Fountain.  

 Turn left again and you are on Prince Edward Island Crescent.  Despite being the smallest province in both size and population, it is almost as long as Ontario Drive.  

  After leaving Prince Edward Island Crescent turn left again and now you are on the road named after Canada's most populous province.  Take an Ontario drive along Ontario Drive as it curves back into Princes' Boulevard again.

   Heading past the Princess Margaret Fountain once more, now the road becomes Saskatchewan.

  While you can drive from Saskatchewan to British Columbia you can't do it without passing through Alberta first.  At the Exhibition grounds you can drive Saskatchewan Road and turn directly onto British Columbia Road.

  Don't worry, the next street is Alberta Circle.  Alberta was not left out.

  The last street we visit in order to complete our cross country journey is Yukon Place.  It wraps around the Liberty Grand (pictured below).  

There you have it.  Ten provinces and two territories later and we have visited most of Canada in one short trip.

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Map of Our World
Exhibition Place

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Post # 293

Schitt's Creek

Location: Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Address: 250 Front St W.
Date: February 2020
Website:  www.cbc.ca

  Canadian television show Shitt's Creek won a total of nine Emmys at the 2020 Emmy Awards Show.   This set a record for any comedy series and the wins were especially shocking for a Canadian show.  The show stars Catherine O'Hara and Eugene Levy of SCTV fame and various movie and television roles. The main cast also includes Eugene's son Daniel and actress Annie Murphy. They all went home with awards hand delivered to them during the socially distanced broadcast.  

Congratulations to you all! 

  Schitt's Creek is the story of a wealthy family that loses everything and is forced to live in a small town motel.  We were able to visit a part of that motel at CBC studios in Toronto.

   We were at the studios to watch the taping of a show that will never win an Emmy.  We were there to see Family Feud Canada.  In this version of Family Feud, Steve Harvey has been replaced by Canadian host Gerry Dee.  In order to qualify for an Emmy your show must be on an American network.  Schitt's Creek qualified since it was on Pop TV and Netflix.

   We waited in a huge lineup in order to enter the studio for our Family Feud Canada taping.  At the front of the line they were storing cellphones and other items before taking people up to the studio by elevator.  They take away your electronics in order to keep anyone from leaking any behind the scenes footage of the show.  While waiting in line we took turns exploring and we were able to take some behind the scenes footage of Casey's treehouse from Mr. Dressup.  Canadians of a certain age may fondly recall this show and enjoy a glimpse from behind the little blue door (above).

  CBC is also known for their Canadian sports coverage.  We particulary enjoyed their Olympic coverage with sportscaster Brian Williams.  In the foyer there were a couple of chairs made out of a wide variety of sporting equipment.

  On the other side of the foyer was the Rosebud Motel from Schitt's Creek.  The final season had finished filming and the prop motel sign had been brought to the studio for fans to view.  The real motel used for filming is about one hour's drive north of the CBC Studios in Orangeville, Ontario.

    With the added exposure brought to the show by it's Emmy Award sweep, we are sure a new wave of Schitt's Creek  fans will want to connect with the down on their luck Rose family.  If the prop is still at the studio they can do just that.  Family Feud Canada is airing its second season in October 2020 if you want to connect with other Canadian families hoping to increase their fortune by $10,000 dollars.

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Map of Our World
CBC Studios

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Post # 291

Immersive Van Gogh

Location: Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Address:  1 Yonge Street
Date:  August 2020
Website:  vangoghexhibit.ca

  Vincent van Gogh is one of the world's most famous painters.  His work is world renowned.  Now his paintings are part of an interesting exhibit where his work is dissected, animated and projected onto walls.  The artwork is accompanied by music which brings it all together.  We visited Immersive Van Gogh when it arrived in Toronto.  There is both a drive through and a walk through experience.  We took part in both experiences.

   For the drive through experience we waited on the street outside.  When it was our turn we were directed up to a receiving ramp.  We drove into a white walled room and followed the staff diections to park our car.  It wasn't long until the lights dimmed and the show began.

The music began and the works of Van Gogh started to come to life.  A bright yellow sun moved across the sky.

The sky changed colour in front of us as the day passed by. 

  Van Gogh painted many windmills that he saw in Monmartre, Paris.  During our immersive experience we could see the blades of the windmills turning in the wind.  This is very different from a regular art gallery where you interpret one frozen moment captured in the art.

  During the drive through experience our car was surrounded by the art.  There was Van Gogh on the passenger side.

    There was Van Gogh to be viewed through the front windshield.

    There was Van Gogh out the driver side window too.  We could see it between the parked cars.

    The exhibit features some of Van Gogh's most famous paintings.  Vincent Van Gogh only painted for a period of about 10 years before committing suicide at the age of 37.  In that time he painted over 850 oil paintings.  Some of the best known are The Bedroom (above) and The Sunflowers (top of blog).

    Van Gogh's most famous painting of all is The Starry Night.

 

    We were lucky to see the priceless original hanging in the Museum of Modern Art in New York City.

 

    Eventually the music and animation stopped and credits rolled up the walls.  The lights turned on and we were guided out into the streets.  We really enjoyed seeing the works of Van Gogh come to life around us.  We would be back again soon as our tickets also included a walk through experience. 

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Map of Our World
Immersive Van Gogh
Museum of Modern Art

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Post # 290

Soper Creek Wildlife Rescue

Location: Bowmanville, Ontario, Canada
Address:  2440 Durham Regional Hwy 2
Date:  November 2019
Website:  sopercreekwildlife.com

  The Garnet B. Rickard Recreation Complex held a wildlife education event called Heroes for Wildlife. We attended and got to meet a few native Ontario creatures up close presented by different groups. We also were introduced to Soper Creek Wildlife Rescue and ended our day by making a donation which included a tour of their facilities at a later date.

  The skunk above is just one of the animals that we had a chance to meet at the event.  Soper Creek is lucky to also have a great team of volunteers. 

  We also got to see a type of red fox known as a cross fox.  It has different colouring on its face and fur including a darker cross on its back.  All red foxes have white on the very tips of their tails.  We eventually had to say goodbye to everyone and  looked forward to our future tour.

  Finally, the day of our tour arrived.  We were a little bit early so we waited in the parking lot.  A cardinal kept flying back and forth and was checking himself out in the car mirrors.  He would take a good look and then fly towards the mirror and land on top of it.  He would take off again and then return and repeat the process.  We are not sure if he knew it was just himself in the mirror's reflection, or thought it was a rival male.  Perhaps it was time to check himself in to the Soper Creek rehab.

   Our tour started and the first animal we visited was Minnie the porcupine.  She was on a special diet of no produce.  While we visited she slept sprawled out over a rock.  Minnie shared her enclosure with a sparrow recovering from an injury, several pigeons and a starling whose wing never quite formed properly.  There was also a group of sneaky chipmunks who would rush into the enclosure and tip over the bowls of bird feed as they tried to sneak off with a mouthful.

  The next animal ambassador we met was Stella the opossum.  Opossums have been slowly moving further north and they are becoming more common in Ontario.  Just a couple of the reasons that opossums are unusual are that they are the only marsupial in North America as well as having the most teeth (50) of any land animal in North America.

  Most marsupials are found in Australia.   The next animals we encountered were from down under as well.  They are New Guinea Singing Dogs and are closely related to the dingo.  Their names were Mario and Luigi.  As we fed them a small snack they entertained us with a chorus or two.

  A couple of crows were in another enclosure.  One of them of was called Russell.  We think the Toronto Zoo also has a crow named Russell.  It is a very common crow name especially since the successful Gladiator movie.

  We had seen a skunk at the Heroes For Wildlife event. No two skunks have the same stripe pattern so it is easy to tell them apart.  Based on the stripes on this skunk we knew that we had met Persephone both times.

  The next enclosures housed all kinds of foxes.  Actually only two kinds, but with different fur variations.  The photo above is of a red fox with traditional orange fur.

  There were the cross red foxes which we had seen at the Heroes For Wildlife event.  One of the cross foxes only had three legs.

  There were several silver foxes which are the melanistic form of the red fox. Again remember that all red foxes have white on the tip of their tail.

  Soper Creek has red foxes and also arctic foxes.  The Arctic fox normally has a white coat of fur to hide in the winter snow and a darker coat for the summer.  These foxes were rescued from the fur trade so the white one had been bred to remain white all year round.

  In one pen was a badger who wasn't quite so happy to see people. We took a quick look and the badger stomped around and got rather agressive.  It could have been some bugs or something else disturbing it, but it did throw us a serious look or two so we got the message and moved on.

  The last enclosure we went into was the bobcats. These two bobcats liked to spray and let us know this was their territory. Despite their relatively small size, bobcats can jump up to 10 feet high and take down a deer all by themselves. Just to prove this point one of them effortlessly jumped up onto one of our shoulders. A quick shoulder shrug brought it back down again. Thank you for the leaping demonstration and for skipping the taking down larger prey demonstration.  Thank you also to Soper Creek for helping so many wild animals in need and for giving us the chance to connect with some of these wonderful creatures.

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Map of Our World
Heroes For Wildlife

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Post # 289