PANCAKES AND PARADES!

HAPPY CANADA DAY!

Today, my happy friends, is Canada Day! Way better than the Fourth of July, because apparently it involves PANCAKES (my fave)! In honour of this great day, I will liberally sprinkle in some "Eh"s into today's post, so you boys and girls south of the border (this border, not the one leading to guacamole and tacos) will feel like you're part of this grand celebration, ok? I mean...eh? If you would like to read this post with a Canadian accent and would like a bit of training, click here.

All you non-Canadians, please take a gander at what the Canadian flag looks like. Simple, bold, graphic and chic and not over-accessorized with many starry doo-dads:

Pretty nice, eh?

For the record, I wish Robin were here. She would have gone nuts for Canada Day.

Captain Canada (?). Just some guy dressed up to make people smile.

PANCAKES

I woke up extra early to walk down to the Grand Parade where they were serving up free pancakes. Never one to refuse a free meal, much less one that I didn't have to prepare, I took a slightly wet walk down there. I really wanted to get there early to watch the Tattoo band and the flag raising, but my roommate Kim was like "wait for me!" and then ended up not coming. ugh. Oh well. Pancakes still yummy. Eh?

This guy was there

There were tons of people there and the line was pretty long. I was surprised since it was really early in the morning and raining (as usual). The pancakes were being made by a few military people. Couldn't see what branch. It was a nice spread with pancakes, juice, and coffee. We were being served by what I thought were just volunteers.
Notice the lady in the red shirt in the middle. I was wearing my Georgia Law hoodie and she noticed it and asked if I was a graduate and I said that I was just a second year. She said she had graduated from Dal Law (Dalhousie is one of the local universities here and pretty much one of the best law schools in the country). I explained that I was up here working for the summer with the Supreme Court and joked with her for a few moments. I was going to ask her what firm she worked for, but I had to move on. Remember this woman. She returns to our story in a bit...

mmmmm... everyone enjoying their pancakes, eh?


"Look, Mom! Pancakes make me strong!"


...or maybe not... this picture makes me laugh every time I see it. She was trying SO hard

mmm pancakes. I'll try to save you some.

whoops... sorry. just way too good.

Have no fear, though, you can always have a McLobster!

PARADE

I went home for a bit and tried to convince my roommates to come to the parade with me, but Kayla had to work and Josh went back to sleep. Last night Josh's cat mauled Kayla's cat. I have no sympathy for Kayla's cat. He's always trying to instigate. Anyway, I just went on my own...

So the parade was mostly populated with acts from the Tattoo that's in town. I have tickets to the Tattoo tomorow. No, the Tattoo is not a place to get some rad ink. It's like a military drum corp show. I'm pretty excited. The acts are military bands from around the world as well as international singers, gymnasts, and other performers. So the parade was a really neat preview of my adventures tomorrow night!

Hey guy. The parade's the other way.


Mounties opening the show

I love shoes, eh!

Beaver on a Segway in a Mountie uniform. Clearly Canadian.


I think Brits. Cheerio!

"We're going this way." I particularly like the guy rocking the animal print. Tres chic.

TUBA-TASTIC!

All the way from Massachussetts. Pipe and drum band! Halifax has a pretty close connection with Boston, so I would be more surprised if there wasn't something here from Massachussetts.

These guys were a great hit:

Do you think he knows he's backwards?

Was not expecting the guy with the sidecart to go up on two wheels.

There were also a lot of Canadian Military in the parade.

We're a bilingual nation. Armee= Army in French. I'm sure you are all jealous of our superior cultural diversity. Eh?


GOOOOOO NAVY! Notice the seal says "Ready Aye Ready." I like the "Aye" part. They were handing out little Navy/Marine bracelets, but I let the kiddies have them. I would have changed it to "Ready Eh Ready" but I guess that doesn't sound too tough. They wouldn't be taken seriously on the playground.

There were other things in the parade. Here's a sampling:

There were these cute old men all dressed up with capes and cool hats and they all wore different colours. Have no earthly idea who or what they are. This guy was my fave.

He's pretty cute too, eh?

Little kids in the parade. Not to sure about why they're dressed as cowboys?

Thanks for the flag. Notice the cute plaid skirt of the girl handing out flags. There was a group of highland dancers there. Close to Irish dancers, but not quite. They did a hornpipe for us while there was a delay in the road.

"What's next?" this girl asks:

Well, my miniature friend, these guys are!!!

I love shoes (still)!

They closed the parade. Next, I made my way to the Citadel for the official Canada Day celebation. But I'm on my way to fireworks, so that'll have to come later. I would close with a witty phrase in French, but like most Canadians, I learned most of my French from the back of cereal boxes, so:

"La bonne saveur du blé entier"
(which I think means "Good whole wheat flavour")