Canada Day!

What an absolutely perfect day! Despite having gone to sleep after midnight, I woke up to the lovely "I'm hungry" howling of cat #1 at 8:30-ish. Despite not leaving the house until about 10am, we managed to get to Parliament Hill by about 11am. (We had intended to be there an hour earlier, but unlike my speedy husband, it takes me forever to get ready in the morning.) Despite the forecast for showers, it did not rain.

Every Canada Day, lots of streets downtown are blocked to vehicular traffic, so that many people rely on public transportation. We drove to the Baseline Park & Ride and rode the 95 to Slater & Bank. After picking our way around all the barricades and through the crowds, we caught the tail end(s) of the RCMP Musical Ride. I've heard it said that the olfactory sense is the most immediate for memory. Well, there's something about the smell of horses......it instantly takes me back to the Morris Stampede grounds. And the woman heedlessly smoking a cigarette two rows in front of us rendered the feeling that much more authentic. Once the clean-up crew had raked up the horse turds--"golden oranges of dung" Al Purdy describes them as in "The Cariboo Horses" (thank you & RIP, Dr. Helen Molitor, for including that particular poem on your English 4.126 syllabus; I recall that particular line gave you immense pleasure to speak aloud)--we plunked down our garbage bag and sat down for a picnic lunch as we waited for Prime Minister Harper and Governor General Jean to kick off the afternoon's celebrations.

For the next two hours we were entertained. The PM commenced with a speech in which there was a pause so the Snowbirds could fly through. Then the performers: first up, Sarah McLaclan. Next, some muscle-bound shirtless guy with amazing abs, because he grasped a pole with his arms and was suspended there, perpendicular to the pole! Then he proceeded to simulate walking up stairs, again still while suspended perpendicularly, followed by other cool moves. Now that's what I'd call a pole dance. (Celina, you would have been impressed.) The Snowbirds did more fly-bys. Alex Wells hoop danced. There were a number of others (see above link for the full roster). We saw some video greetings from troops in Afghanistan. The GG spoke about the importance of youth in the future of Canada. And then we disbanded--or tried to. Sometime during the VIPs' arrival, we were barricaded into the square that had been used for the musical ride. We had to wait maybe 15-20 minutes before security started letting us through. For the record, I do not like being trapped. To put it in perspective, however, the claustrophobia I felt at Bluesfest's White Stripes concert two years ago was a thousand times worse. Still, when I'm ready to go, I want out.

We got back to Baseline in reasonably quick fashion, headed home for an hour and a half, and then it was off to join Dave & Ci and Nicole for a BBQ at their place. We had a great time visiting, and 4 out of 5 individuals present wore red in honor of Canada Day.

Since we have to be up early tomorrow, we decided to skip the fireworks. Although we did take a walk down Chapman Mills at 10:30pm to see if we could glimpse the Barrhaven fireworks at Clarke Fields. We couldn't, but we did see a few backyard/park flares, and we heard the crackle-pops of many more we didn't see.

All in all, a most excellent day! Now let's see if the 4th of July can compare.

Oh, and Happy Anniversary to Shirley & Dave!