Canada Day 2023

Canada Day 2023

My first Canada Day as a Canadian citizen after 50 years in the country! How about that?

I have not often joined in Canada Day celebrations in my entire 50 years in this country. I’m not much of a crowd person and I generally would not go alone.

A few times perhaps I saw some of it with different friends, when persuaded, as listed here:

*Twice, with different friends, I perused a car show, which is a favourite thing for me to do. I love old cars.

*Once I went to pancake breakfast with a friend.

*With a friend, I occasionally watched the carvers create from donated logs, or viewed the finished product.

*Once I saw the fireworks show with a friend, from a hill.

*Twice I saw the parade, I think, or parts of it. I love the bagpipes, so that was special.

My visits were sporadic and few and far between. Crowds and heat are not my favourite combination, and I lack motivation to do things solo.

This year, my nephew told me the day before the event that he wanted to see the carvings, and he has no transport, so I decided I would take him out for that, since I very much enjoy seeing them myself. I got a newspaper from the lobby and looked for the event schedule. Was there anything else I might want to do, I wondered?

I had the urge to participate a little more as a new citizen, so I decided to do some of the events throughout the day and figured out how the timing would work out. I could make a day of it!

For a senior, I’m late to bed and late to rise. However, I got up early enough next morning to get us to Frank James Park in Willow Point in time to eat a sausage and pancake breakfast, which was delicious and very welcome after my 15 and a half hour fast! It was cooked and served by the local fire department and eaten in the transformed car park next to the carving area.

It was an easy transition into observing the carvers at work. It’s amazing how they produce something meaningful or even fanciful out of a chunk of wood.

Great imaginations and a lot of skill! I took a few pics and some video, but the pieces were’t that accessible behind a bright orange safety fence.

Fortunately, I found people with good pics from a later day. I’m posting some here with credits to their photos.

I appreciated all the carvings (so many!) but I found this next piece interesting. It was up for sale, just called Torso…..

I called another friend to join us, so now we were three! This was fun! We found a shaded spot and waited for the pipe band to arrive in the parking lot. Met quite a few friends in that area, which was very nice!

When the pipe band arrived, I was treated to various music ftom my home country…tunes I had known and played on my accordion many times in an accordion band in Scotland. Lovely!

After the pipe band left, it was time for some local First Nations culture. The dances, and the explanation of each dance was interesting. It was lovely to see young and old dancing in their regalia.

After the performance, we went downtown to find the salmon barbecue lunch put on by the city firemen, which, though on the expensive side for my low income budget, was quite delicious and worth the splurge for the treat. It was very hot, so I took off my light jacket. Phew!

When we finished our lunch we tidied our place and left to explore the two markets. I found a few inexpensive things to put away as gifts. Fun!

After satisfactorily perusing the markets, my friend wanted to treat Sal and I to an ice cream at the pier, a good walk from the markets. It was a breezy walk along the shoreline after being out in the heat downtown, and I suddenly realized I didn’t have my jacket! Ugh! I had left it on the chair!

We raced back in time to the barbecue area only to see that the tables and chairs had been cleaned up and mostly removed but we found a fireman we could ask about my jacket. He said yes, it was there and went to get it, but it had gone with the previous load of tables and chairs! He instructed me to call at the fire station to pick it up, which I was able to do later. Great!

So, we continued on to the pier and had an absolutely huge bowl of ice cream! Lovely treat! But more than a bit naughty for my current diet! Enjoyed the decadence thoroughly before the long walk back to our vehicles.

The parade was in full swing where my car was parked, but I had no energy left and neither did my nephew, so we left my friend to his own devices at the parade and went home for the evening! I know there was still music and fireworks to go, but maybe next time! I’ve watched other people’s videos instead!

So that was my FIRST Canada Day as a citizen!

Fun! Glad I did that!

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Note, December 22, 2023

I’m posting this LONG after the event! It has sat in my draft folder for far too long and I cannot remember why, except that I had no pics added, so I just did that and I’m publishing it before the year is out!

Ann