Surprise holiday for us

We were both in need of doing some washing so our priority was to find a laundromat. Being Labour Day, we thought it would be wise to find it on our way out rather than cart all our dirty clothing there to find that it was closed. We found the laundomat easily and then proceeded to find the Budget Rent-a-car office which would be on the way to the subway station.

We didn’t have the same luck with the Budget office. The clock was ticking and Kim wanted to get to the CNE (Canadian National Exhibition) for the airshow which started at midday. We hopped on the subway and then the streetcar (changing at Union with a large crowd).

The entry to the CNE wasn’t too crowded. Kim pad for the CAD18 entry and we went through to find a good vantage point which wouldn’t be too exposed to the strong summer sun. The performances were pretty awesome with the F18 Hornet, Hercules C130, Harvard, Harvard II, the Breitling Team and other aerobatics.

Billy Bishop airport was just off the shore and several commercial Dash 8s lining up for their final approaches in between the airshow performances were spectacular too. They did low turns and appeared to crash between the trees as they landed.

The airshow itself was free but the CNE area and the public area near it provided good viewing. But having paid for the entrance, we grabbed some lunch (Vietnamese roll and prawn summer roll) then explored the various exhibits. None of them interested us greatly (eg. crafts, tacky crafts, sandcastles, moss bears, military). There were also some areas selling clearance clothing which were largely XXL.

Taking the street car back, we hopped off at the Harbour Centre before walking to Union Station. That gave us a little into to Toronto’s waterfront area.

Back on the metro the Bloor-Yonge station, we once again tried to find Budget. After great difficulty, we found it inside a mall and confirmed that we had a reservation that we could pick up from that office.

We walked back to our hotel for a short rest before going to the Laundromat. The walk took us through the highrise apartment areas where the residents weren’t very well off. Some had second-hand stuff (very low-value items like phone chargers) for sale on the grounds. It’s a reminder that we’re not in the best area of Toronto but there are worse areas; when we were looking for cheap accommodation some reviews mentioned plenty of homeless people.

We popped our dirty washing into the machines and found an Indian takeaway for a curry and tandoori. They had limited but adequate seating. We popped back to transfer our stuff into the dryer then grabbed an icecream.

Our day in Toronto wasn’t as planned; not that we had very much planned. The Labour Day CNE was a surprise. It showed us the cosmopolitan nature of the city; many businesses are operated by immigrants.