Favorite thing #26: Festivals (Part 1)

Its been awhile since I updated. Not out of a lack of exciting times in Nepperville, but moreso just from us being plain old being busy and enjoying life. Hard to believe summer is almost done and time is slowly creeping towards another school year (dare I count the days?). Our summer has included a trip out to Vancouver for a memorial for my Grandma and a time to reconnect with family and friends. Then we spent a few days basking in the Kelowna sunshine.  Beyond that little getaway, we made a point to stick around and enjoy a full Edmonton summer for once. Every other year that we have lived here, we have gone home to the Island for some portion of the summer, which in some ways is too bad as Edmonton summer's really are the highlight of the year. Or at least that's what we tend to think about, a lot, in the middle of the cold, long winters.

So this year we made a point to get out to as many Edmonton festivals as we could, especially ones we had not been to yet. Did you know that Edmonton is considered Canada's Festival City (or at least, that's how Edmonton refers to itself)? There seems to be something going on every single weekend of summer.

The first festival we went to was the Edmonton Street Performer's Festival. We only stayed for a short while, but there were so many different acts, all going on at the same time, there was definitely something for everyone. We happened to stumble upon this fellow. And him setting up and building this contraption seemed to actually be a part of his show, as people started to gather and watch and wait...

Once he was done, he came and sat down in the crowd and he said he loves this part now when people walk by and look into the centre to see what we are all sitting around staring at. Funny guy.

His big schtick? Catapulting a cabbage from his little contraption, onto his head. And this is how he makes his living. And yes, that's pretty darn impressive.

Ta da!!!

There were also stilt walkers strolling about, which was neat to watch and a hit with the kids. Although it was incredibly awkward to watch one of them fall over (not pictured). Seriously. Ouch.

The other big hit of the day was me getting the kids their first Sno Cones. Not that I'm actually much of a Sno Cone fan (I think the entire thing is just a big American conspiracy to make them look tasty, like American's actually enjoy them, all so they can sell more Sno Cones to the unsuspecting public), but it seemed like a significant milestone. So Mom bought and the kids enjoyed (and Mom tried hard to not think on all the flavoured corn syrup her children were ingesting).

A trip downtown is always fun and it was neat for the kids to see the water feature thing in front of City Hall. Sometimes people will wade in here, but on this day, it was surprisingly cold, so we just watched the fountains.

Our next big city event we went to was Pets in the Park which is held at Hawrelak Park. It was amazing to see all the people come out, in droves, along with their pets, which were mainly dogs, but we did happen to see the odd other creature, including these guinea pigs being strolled around in this little contraption.

The first thing we watched was a guy demonstrating his sheep herding Border Collie. Pretty impressive stuff. This dog was on it!

Next we went over to check out the Lure Coursing. Similar to the stuff you see on the racetrack where the dog is chasing the fake bunny (or whatever that thing is). They had some Greyhounds racing, which was really cool to watch, although anyone could pay $5 and have their dog give it a go. We figured why not? Pallie's fast. She likes to chase things. So here she is, waiting in line for her turn, nearly bursting from excitement (not that she knew she was racing, just the entire doggy-filled event had her wired).

Well, Pallie was perhaps a bit too excited because on the first turn, the "lure" went one way and she went the other. There were dogs all around the orange fencing, so she trotted off to say hello. Hehe. But when she did run, she did pretty good, but was terribly distracted.

After that we just strolled around and enjoying meeting all sorts of new dogs and visiting some of the booths. And of course, what's a festival without some good eats? So here is Gabe enjoying Mom's new favorite festival treat, a frozen banana on a stick dipped in chocolate. Genius! Frozen, yummy, but still fairly healthy.

All in all, it was a fun day and an event we will definitely go to again.

We thoroughly enjoyed both festivals and will likely return in years to come. And a highlight of both festivals? They were completely free! What a geat way to spend an afternoon. I still have a few more festivals up my blogging sleeve, but those will have to come another day.