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I so totally rock. Really. I do.
I decided on a whim to take Charlotte up to Toronto to see a concert. Beachfest, a huge free concert event that happens every Labor Day, sponsored by a local Toronto radio station. It's fun, but it's a little inaccessible because they hold it at a city waterfront beach park that's on the Metro line and really doesn't have any parking. So, I went online and found us a hotel room for the night that was within walking distance of Sunnyside Park. It was a little pricey (because it was a Sheraton right on the waterfront) but I figured it'd be a fun treat.
So, now Charlotte's home and today was her first day back at school. The real world closes back in. Soon she'll be sick of me asking her if her homework is done, and is she ready for that test, and clean your room already. But for now I'm the best mom in the world. ;-) That's good enough for me.
Oh! And! My mom gave me an early birthday present...a Dyson vacuum cleaner! OMG I've always wanted one...my Kirby is an antique and I vacuum every day, sometimes twice, because of the dog and the cat. Anyway I've been sucking hair up all over my house all day and playing with the attachments and it is SO NEAT. It doesn't smell like dust at all when I use it and it's so easy to empty...no more bags! And the hepa filter totally does the job. Usually I sneeze my ass off when I vacuum but not with the Dyson! That thing is made of awesome. Am I getting old because I plotz over vacuums? Ah heck, I don't care. It's very very cool. :-)
And the Chinese Lantern Festival has completely tweaked my dragon plaque idea muse yet again...sketches are happening at an incredible rate! I'll share soon.
I decided on a whim to take Charlotte up to Toronto to see a concert. Beachfest, a huge free concert event that happens every Labor Day, sponsored by a local Toronto radio station. It's fun, but it's a little inaccessible because they hold it at a city waterfront beach park that's on the Metro line and really doesn't have any parking. So, I went online and found us a hotel room for the night that was within walking distance of Sunnyside Park. It was a little pricey (because it was a Sheraton right on the waterfront) but I figured it'd be a fun treat.
So, after getting there and checking into our room (which was very nice with down comforters on the beds and a balcony overlooking Lake Ontario) we decided to head out for the evening and see the city. Toronto is a wonderful, big, clean city with a diverse population and a really awesome China Town and I knew Char would get a big kick out of it. However, we'd only gone a couple of miles along Lakeshore Blvd when we saw a giant display of Chinese lanterns which stopped us dead in our tracks. Unbeknownst to me, the CNE (Canadian National Exhibition) and Ontario Place were doing a limited exhibit called The Chinese Lantern Festival.
So we pulled into the parking lot (20 bucks) and bought tickets to the show (25 bucks each)...hooray for mom and the magic credit card! Oh well, you only live once. ;-) We were squealing like a couple of goofy otaku all the way to the front gate.
I took some pictures in the waning daylight, but unfortunately my battery died before it got dark...which is a shame because the colors at night when everything was lit up was incredible. Still , you can get an idea of how cool it was from these images below. All these structures were made of silk stretched over wooden frames and lit from the inside...some of these sculptures were hundreds of feet long! Most of them moved too.
This is what we saw from the road! Behind is the entrance to the ticket office.
Visions of "Twelve Kingdoms" were dancing in my head.
This was near the parking lot. It gives you an idea of scale (notice the cars in the foreground).
This bridge goes to the island that the lanterns were on. Ontario Place is a series of islands with an Imax cinema and amusement rides and nature trails and such. The dragons here are over a hundred feet long.
Here's Char just before we crossed the bridge. There were thousands of people there and when we were all tromping over that bridge you could feel it sort of...bouncing. It was a little disconcerting but she thought it was neat.
The island had marked "walking paths" all lit up with strings of lanterns like these...thousands of them. There were over 25 big displays with lit paths connecting everything and each lantern was a different shape and color. I have to say at this point that the ratio of Asian to Caucasian was like 100 to 1, which pleased Char immensely as she has a squealy fangirly thing for "Asian Kung Fu Boys". It was amusing.
Cute stuff everywhere!
Pandas too!
The pandas at night were a little freaky 'cause with their black eyes and white faces they glowed like death-skulls...but in the daylight they were SO cute.
All the displays had signs explaining what they were. It was very informative and quite neat!
...and here are a few of those 100 birds (yes, we counted).
This was my favorite...the Porcelain Dragon. It's made of porecelain plates, tea cups, and spoons! The whole thing just glowed at night, plus the head moved, and it was covered in hundreds of tiny white lights. It was all along the waterfront on one side of the island and was over two hundred feet long!
Here's the head. If you look closely you can see the handles of the teacups and the spoons on the sides of the head. Those long drapes of dangly beard are made of tiny teacups wired together, and they all chimed and jangled as the head turned back and forth slowly...it was cool.
Another favorite! This wall was huge and at night the dragons all wagged their heads and tails and flailed their arms. The colors were intense!
There was traditional Chinese music piped in all over the place too, it really added to the atmosphere.
This one was truly awesome. Dragons Fighting Over Pearls. We counted over fourteen dragons. They all moved and at night the reflection in the water was breathtaking. This sculpture was huge, bigger than my house.
Char, in front of her Chinese zodiac sign. She was born in the year of the Rooster. I'm Snake, by the way. Which is wild because the description of the Snake is almost exactly like the description for Scorpio...my other sign. And they're both dead on! Not that I believe in that stuff...but it's fun anyway. :-)
And this is the last pic I took before the battery died. Crap! At least it shows how pretty and glowy the path lanterns were.
So! We walked around eating fried dumplings and Char thought every other guy looked like Hyde or Gackt and we bought tons of cute Chinese bling and generally had an awesome time. The Chinese Lantern Festival runs in Toronto at Ontario Place until October 1st, and if you have the time and the money I'd reccommend going to see it before it ends. We have every intention of going back there sometime this month.
So we pulled into the parking lot (20 bucks) and bought tickets to the show (25 bucks each)...hooray for mom and the magic credit card! Oh well, you only live once. ;-) We were squealing like a couple of goofy otaku all the way to the front gate.
I took some pictures in the waning daylight, but unfortunately my battery died before it got dark...which is a shame because the colors at night when everything was lit up was incredible. Still , you can get an idea of how cool it was from these images below. All these structures were made of silk stretched over wooden frames and lit from the inside...some of these sculptures were hundreds of feet long! Most of them moved too.
This is what we saw from the road! Behind is the entrance to the ticket office.
Visions of "Twelve Kingdoms" were dancing in my head.
This was near the parking lot. It gives you an idea of scale (notice the cars in the foreground).
This bridge goes to the island that the lanterns were on. Ontario Place is a series of islands with an Imax cinema and amusement rides and nature trails and such. The dragons here are over a hundred feet long.
Here's Char just before we crossed the bridge. There were thousands of people there and when we were all tromping over that bridge you could feel it sort of...bouncing. It was a little disconcerting but she thought it was neat.
The island had marked "walking paths" all lit up with strings of lanterns like these...thousands of them. There were over 25 big displays with lit paths connecting everything and each lantern was a different shape and color. I have to say at this point that the ratio of Asian to Caucasian was like 100 to 1, which pleased Char immensely as she has a squealy fangirly thing for "Asian Kung Fu Boys". It was amusing.
Cute stuff everywhere!
Pandas too!
The pandas at night were a little freaky 'cause with their black eyes and white faces they glowed like death-skulls...but in the daylight they were SO cute.
All the displays had signs explaining what they were. It was very informative and quite neat!
...and here are a few of those 100 birds (yes, we counted).
This was my favorite...the Porcelain Dragon. It's made of porecelain plates, tea cups, and spoons! The whole thing just glowed at night, plus the head moved, and it was covered in hundreds of tiny white lights. It was all along the waterfront on one side of the island and was over two hundred feet long!
Here's the head. If you look closely you can see the handles of the teacups and the spoons on the sides of the head. Those long drapes of dangly beard are made of tiny teacups wired together, and they all chimed and jangled as the head turned back and forth slowly...it was cool.
Another favorite! This wall was huge and at night the dragons all wagged their heads and tails and flailed their arms. The colors were intense!
There was traditional Chinese music piped in all over the place too, it really added to the atmosphere.
This one was truly awesome. Dragons Fighting Over Pearls. We counted over fourteen dragons. They all moved and at night the reflection in the water was breathtaking. This sculpture was huge, bigger than my house.
Char, in front of her Chinese zodiac sign. She was born in the year of the Rooster. I'm Snake, by the way. Which is wild because the description of the Snake is almost exactly like the description for Scorpio...my other sign. And they're both dead on! Not that I believe in that stuff...but it's fun anyway. :-)
And this is the last pic I took before the battery died. Crap! At least it shows how pretty and glowy the path lanterns were.
So! We walked around eating fried dumplings and Char thought every other guy looked like Hyde or Gackt and we bought tons of cute Chinese bling and generally had an awesome time. The Chinese Lantern Festival runs in Toronto at Ontario Place until October 1st, and if you have the time and the money I'd reccommend going to see it before it ends. We have every intention of going back there sometime this month.
The next day we were footsore but chipper ('cause we slept like rocks on those pillowtop beds!), and packed our picnic blanket and sweatshirts for the day at the concert. The walk was pleasant; Sunnyside Park is charming and Lake Ontario was just lovely, with swans everywhere and OMG BIKE PATHS!! Just incredible bike paths...multiple paths that lead every which way... I SO have to go back there with my bike.
Anyway the concert was a blast. We had a lovely time...it was cloudy but not rainy and as an added bonus there was an airshow going on at the same time so we were constantly entertained.
Char and I are crazy for a band from Nova Scotia called "The Trews" and they did the third set. They really rock, we just love them. Afterwards, before Stabilo came out, I noticed people milling about with posters that said "Beachfest" and had all the bands listed. I was curious so I left Char at the blanket to go wandering in search of a poster for her. I found them being passed out for free...right next to the autograph tent!! And who was there but Jack I-Forget-His-Last-Name who is the cute young bass player for The Trews, signing autographs! He's Char's favorite guy...she always goes all goofy when she sees him (he is kinda cute). So of course I grab a poster and have him sign it "To Charlotte with love...Jack".
I walked back to Char grinning like a loon. "How hard does your mom rock?"
"Uh oh, what did you do??" She said. So when she saw the poster she flipped and headed back to the autograph tent! I didn't think she'd be brave enough to do it, but she asked Jack to sign her book (I bought her a pretty journal at the festival the night before and she'd been writing in it about our crazy trip to Toronto). She also geeked out and told him "Umm...I love you!" which he found flattering. I told her it was okay. I once completely geeked out when I met Trace Beaulieu (who was Crow and Dr Forrester on Mystery Science Theater 3000) so, you know...we've all been there.
Coming home we had dinner at the nicest restaurant near St Catherines, a place called The Lake House. Right on...guess what...the lake! Lovely place with awesome gourmet food. I had a warm portobello mushroom salad with baby spinach that was out of this world, and Char had the vegetable risotto, and we BOTH ate all the bread 'cause it was fresh-baked and incredible. Mmm.
Anyway the concert was a blast. We had a lovely time...it was cloudy but not rainy and as an added bonus there was an airshow going on at the same time so we were constantly entertained.
Char and I are crazy for a band from Nova Scotia called "The Trews" and they did the third set. They really rock, we just love them. Afterwards, before Stabilo came out, I noticed people milling about with posters that said "Beachfest" and had all the bands listed. I was curious so I left Char at the blanket to go wandering in search of a poster for her. I found them being passed out for free...right next to the autograph tent!! And who was there but Jack I-Forget-His-Last-Name who is the cute young bass player for The Trews, signing autographs! He's Char's favorite guy...she always goes all goofy when she sees him (he is kinda cute). So of course I grab a poster and have him sign it "To Charlotte with love...Jack".
I walked back to Char grinning like a loon. "How hard does your mom rock?"
"Uh oh, what did you do??" She said. So when she saw the poster she flipped and headed back to the autograph tent! I didn't think she'd be brave enough to do it, but she asked Jack to sign her book (I bought her a pretty journal at the festival the night before and she'd been writing in it about our crazy trip to Toronto). She also geeked out and told him "Umm...I love you!" which he found flattering. I told her it was okay. I once completely geeked out when I met Trace Beaulieu (who was Crow and Dr Forrester on Mystery Science Theater 3000) so, you know...we've all been there.
Coming home we had dinner at the nicest restaurant near St Catherines, a place called The Lake House. Right on...guess what...the lake! Lovely place with awesome gourmet food. I had a warm portobello mushroom salad with baby spinach that was out of this world, and Char had the vegetable risotto, and we BOTH ate all the bread 'cause it was fresh-baked and incredible. Mmm.
So, now Charlotte's home and today was her first day back at school. The real world closes back in. Soon she'll be sick of me asking her if her homework is done, and is she ready for that test, and clean your room already. But for now I'm the best mom in the world. ;-) That's good enough for me.
Oh! And! My mom gave me an early birthday present...a Dyson vacuum cleaner! OMG I've always wanted one...my Kirby is an antique and I vacuum every day, sometimes twice, because of the dog and the cat. Anyway I've been sucking hair up all over my house all day and playing with the attachments and it is SO NEAT. It doesn't smell like dust at all when I use it and it's so easy to empty...no more bags! And the hepa filter totally does the job. Usually I sneeze my ass off when I vacuum but not with the Dyson! That thing is made of awesome. Am I getting old because I plotz over vacuums? Ah heck, I don't care. It's very very cool. :-)
And the Chinese Lantern Festival has completely tweaked my dragon plaque idea muse yet again...sketches are happening at an incredible rate! I'll share soon.
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From:
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That lantern festival was incredibly beautiful...you and your friend Cat should make the trip to see it! Toronto's not that far from you, is it? I'd totally meet you up there...it'd be fun!
From:
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I might go to TO with Cats sometime :) We keep intending to go someplace together for a weekend but we never get around to it...she never has any time, and I never have any money. (Too bad we can't split the difference.) Plus, I get exhausted really quickly...just going to Ottawa for the day with my mother renders me half-dead the next day, even if we're just shopping. Sounds so pathetic! But sometime we'll probably go down to do SOMEthing. How far away are you, travel-wise?
I noticed the lanterns in the fifth picture and didn't realize there was a close-up at the end until later. I've always loved lanterns, whether glass or paper. I want to fill the outer edges of my bedroom with them :)
From:
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I'm only about 140km from TO...it takes a little more than an hour to drive there. Buffalo is convenient to a lot of places; you just pick a direction and go and sooner or later you bump into something interesting.
They were selling those lanterns in the gift shop too (well, not ~those~ but ones that looked like them, just slightly smaller), made of silk and hand-painted. I bought Char a string of tiny round white paper ones that were the most clever little things...they hang from a strand of white x-mas lights. She wanted something cute but sort of plain to hang above her bed and these were perfect. In her red Asian-themed room they look really adorable.
You can find large paper lanterns at Pier One...(is there a Pier One near you?) but I think they're expensive and a bit plain. There's much better stuff to be found on E-bay that looks prettier and costs less.
From:
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So...driving isn't possible :) The idea of me going to Toronto is great in some ways...but it'll probably never happen. There's just too much against it. No money, no time. If my parents decided to go down and I went with them, that'd be about the only way.
I WAS SO GOING TO DO THAT XMAS LIGHT THING. Wasn't it you...oh, no. I mentioned it to Sleepy, that I wanted to make little glass lanterns and hang them from xmas light strings to put around the top of the room. I hate when someone else is using an idea I came up with myself, lol, especially if they got around to doing it first. *pout* That always happens to me. Making the glass parts would have been so much work that I never got around to it, and now that I hear someone else is already making them, it kind of takes the desire out. That may sound weird, but...well, I'm weird...I have no excuse. :)
There are Pier Ones in Ottawa. At least 3 I know of. I think I did see lanterns there...coloured, but just one colour, I think...solid paper-type.