Canada Day 2013

This post is dedicated to all my friends and family who spent Canada Day overseas.



My original plan was to go see the SkyHawks parachuting gracefully down to Jacques Cartier Park before noon. That didn't happen. I woke up late despite my alarms. Woops. Mom, Andrew, and I headed for downtown via the OC Transpo. They were providing free service all day for once! We saw this car decked out in car flags on our way to the bus.




We arrived downtown around noon and found a spot to watch the Snowbirds make their traditional flyby near the Terry Fox statue. The Snowbirds, which are Canada's equivalent of the Blue Angels, flew by once before the anthem started. There was a CF 18 fighter jet that also flew by just south of Wellington Street. Because we were standing in the cover of a few trees, we only caught a glimpse of it as it screamed by. The noise was extraordinarily loud! Was there more than one? I was disappointed that the jet didn't circle around behind Parliament Hill.




Here's the final flyby. Andrew took the video using my phone while I got this image. I'll be uploading a few videos later. Keep an eye out for that.


We walked down Sparks Street afterwards and found ourselves on Elgin Street. Someone was playing the guitar insanely well. It happened to be Tom Ward. Just google "Tom Ward guitar" and you'll find a bunch of great clips. I'll see if I can get the clip that Andrew recorded on his phone.






As we kept walking towards the NAC, we found this large crowd watching a pair of dancers. When we got up the steps of the NAC, there was a wonderful sound of beating drums. It was the drummers from Burundi. Their energy was infectious! I wanted to stay until the end but there was still plenty to see.




I had to get one of these pictures. Look at all those people!


Andrew got hungry after walking around for a few hours. Mom suggested Dunn's.




We all shared a smoked meat poutine and a "Jumbo Smoked Meat Sandwich" aka the smoked meat sandwich platter.


After our late lunch, we ventured to Major's Hill Park and stumbled upon a McCafé truck. They were promoting their coffee by handing them out for free. Mmm... coffee after a meal. Ever since my Toronto trip, it just feels right to have coffee or tea to end a meal. Kind of like how some people have to have dessert or else their meal feels incomplete.


We went back to Parliament Hill to listen to some music.


And look, it's Commander Chris Hadfield! This was actually taken during their warmup around 6:15pm. Still cool.


We headed back to Major's Hill Park to watch the fireworks at 8:30pm. It just so happened to be after Carly Rae Jepsen finished performing. It was our first time watching the Canada Day fireworks up close.


Once the fireworks were over, we followed the crowd out of the park and walked through the Byward Market to get to Laurier Station. From there, we caught a bus and headed home.

It was quite an exhausting day. It was still worth going downtown to celebrate with everyone else.