Canada Day - the longer version

O Canada!

Canada Day celebrations are for our family!

For many, many years now, I’ve pushed strollers to town with our children to attend Canada Day festivities in our local area. It’s no secret that I simply love to attend a parade! I’m like a big kid who revels in marching bands, firemen squirting hoses, kids with decorated bicycles, clowns, and those red and white Canadian flags floating everywhere. I always ensure we have plenty of water, our own flags to wave, temporary Canadian flag tattoos to wear, and the works! This year we had fun hats to enhance our attire.

On parade day we begin our journey early to find a location curbside for the perfect viewpoint on the parade route. With sunscreen plastered on, hats on our heads, water bottles nearby, we are more than ready when the parade commences and heads towards us. Wahoo! I get misty eyed when a great marching band or musical float slowly works its way past, our country’s anthem blaring out for all to hear. This is what it means to celebrate our country’s birthday, and this year Canada turned 140 years old.

We were thrown off last year to read in the local eastern newspapers where smaller out of the way villages and towns were having their very own Canada Day events one week earlier than the scheduled day on our calendars. Therefore there are double celebrations in the east to partake in, parades in all locations. Gotta love it!

I was so excited to have our Canadian flag perched on our barn at long last, flying high and proud, ready for the approaching festive date.

This year we missed the festivities because they conflicted with our Sunday morning obligations to attend church. However, knowing this in advance, we decided on something special in the evening; dinner out (Italian pizza) and a three hour boat cruise, with the final resting place being a front row seating for viewing the fantastic fireworks show in the Bay.

The children had never attended or embarked on such a journey into the late evening when darkness appeared, and the weather co-operated just fine with the only exception being a strong wind creeping up towards us on the upper deck of the boat. Thankfully I grabbed a blanket stored in the vehicle, and thought ahead to bring along items for snacking and drinking.

Somebody is becoming quite a clown for photographers, evidence divulged below for all to see;

It was a long and wonderful evening to remember. It was quite late and very dark when arriving home after the fireworks, but truly a very lovely way to celebrate and say;

I am Canadian!

The gift of the sea!