already a month behind

Umm, I can't believe it's been a month since the Pride Parade and 104 Street Block Party. I had sort of promised some updates about that and never delivered. Better late than never, let's take a trip in the way back machine.

It seems like there is something going on every few days in the spring and summer. It's non-stop events throughout the summer, taking any sour feelings towards the city leftover from the winter, giving it a stinging slap across the face as if to shame you for ever having thought anything negative in the first place.

What do you mean there's nothing to do in Edmonton?

*slap

Why on Saturday (approx. a month ago) alone, (in a two block radius) there was the Farmer's Market, Pride Parade, Portuguese Festival, and the 2nd annual 104 street block party.

Sure there are plenty of outdoor events in the winter too, but I've never been to an event in the winter where I really felt like I was seeing the city differently (well, there was the Luminaria Festival at the Devonian Gardens, but that's not exactly Edmonton). There are never the same crowds of people dancing in the street or aromatic bbq smoke wafting above our heads. In the winter people's bodies are disguised in heavy woolen coats and their cheeks red with wind burn instead of warmed by the sun. Clearly my bias for the summer months is showing.

During the parade I met up with Lisa and we took turns holding Baby D so he could see his dad ride by with the other City Councillors and see the rest of the action of the pride parade (which seemed somehow shorter than last year).



My photos and video footage of the parade is lacking, since Baby D is a bit enamored with my camera and whenever I would take it out he would want to be right beside it. Meh. Not a big deal. It seemed like everyone and their dog had a camera out this year.

Following the parade Lisa and I wandered towards Churchill Square and City Hall, but the little guy was expiring (and so was I), so I made a brief return to the cool apartment so the baby could nap and I could recharge. Then reinforcements arrived. Sarah, Dave, and Don all appeared - and then together the five of us (four adults and baby made our way back to 104th Street).

I don't remember what I was doing last year during the first block party, but I remember wandering through by myself and the mood being entirely different. It wasn't nearly as lively or attended by so diverse a crowd. My favourite thing about the party though was just the ambiance provided by the light that streamed through the smoke coming from the Portuguese bbq. That alone made the event seem so much more festive. It filtered the light in such a way that it seemed like the event organizers had brought in smoke machines to add to the romanticism of it all.



How fitting then, that at one point a newly wedded couple made their way through the crowd, all dressed in their nuptial finery. I saw them a few minutes later, heading back in the opposite direction, iced coffees in hand. Clearly they were jonesing for some caffeine from Credo Coffee.