Monday turned out to be far more productive than anyone thought given the previous day’s festivities on the Fourth of July. We hopped in the car and headed East into Dubuque for lunch at the Dubuque Star Brewery.
Located along the Mississippi and heavily populated by mayflies (aka fishflies) the old brick building that once housed the brewery is now home to a restaurant, winery, bar, and offices. It was kind of like Milestones’ lobby meets Steamworks or Yaletown Brewing. While our server didn’t know the difference between a Stella and a local wheat ale, the food and brews were delicious.
From there we headed over to Eagle Point Park where you could sit for hours on the bluff watching Mississippi river traffic flow up and down through the locks. Continue reading this post ⟩⟩
We were fortunate enough to have Cole and Jakob from Nordica Photography approach us to do a couples photoshoot. After months of trying to connect we finally met up in the West End where John and I posed and smooched for what seemed to be our engagement photos (just 5 years later).
Continue reading this post ⟩⟩
GM Place is slated to be renamed today in an announcement coming at 2:00pm PT per an update from the Canucks media guy, TC Carling on Twitter today.
Photo credit:
kk on Flickr
CKNW confirmed shortly thereafter: “Canucks Sports and Entertainment and General Motors of Canada limited will announce a new sponsor partnership this afternoon.”
Currently nicknamed “The Garage”, General Motors Place has been the home of the Vancouver Canucks since 1995 and enjoyed a short stint as “Canada Hockey Place” during the Olympics.
This seems to b a trend lately in Vancouver as Nat Bailey Stadium was recently given the name “Scotiabank Field at Nat Bailey” and also Telus Wold of Science or Telusphere at Science World. Just last week there was talk that Stanley Park could be renamed.
I’ll post an update once the announcement has been made or you can follow @TC_carling or @VanCanucks on Twitter for updates.
Update According to Bob Mackin / 24 Hours the new name is Rogers Arena. He also said in a Tweet that it is a 10 year naming/sponsorship deal. General Motors was to have a full 20 year deal (until 2015) but cut ties early.
Update I just recieved an email from Rogers confirming the deal. They sent along a link to their blog post about the new sponsorship.
Blogathon is returning to Vancouver this year as I will once again be hosting an on-location event August 21st.
Kristi Ferguson from Fraser Valley Pulse will be heading up Blogathon Fraser Valley on the same day with another on-location event so we’ll have the region well-covered. Raul will also be helping me with the Vancouver event as we’ll be celebrating our 5th year of Blogathon’ing together.
How it works
Bloggers sign up to blog for 24 hours straight, publishing an original post every 30 minutes (think walk-a-thon or spell-a-thon etc.) They do this marathon blogging in order to raise funds for the charity of their choice. The collect donations online to help keep them going.
We will be arranging CanadaHelps donation pages for all registered Blogathon Vancouver & Blogathon Fraser Valley participants so that all donations go directly to the charities of choice automatically, online. The campaigns are a challenge but it’s absolutely worth the time to support a cause in which you truly believe — using your blog for social good.
History
Since 2000, Blogathon has been run during the month of July through an online community and pledge system on Blogathon.org. We’ve taken this model and customized it, creating the first on-location events (in Vancouver and the Fraser Valley) in 2009.
In 2006 I participated after seeing Alanah and Barbara (the only two participants in BC I knew of at the time). In 2007 I had my own campaign up and running alongside Raul’s. In 2008 we then had 11 local bloggers sign on for Blogathon and along with my friends Duane and Raul we raised $10,000 for our causes.
In 2009, the numbers grew to over 30 local participants and close to $20,000 raised by bloggers collectively for each of their causes.
I’m so excited to see how it’s caught on across the province over the years. In my first year I raised about $500 for the Surrey Food Bank and with my last 3 campaigns my generous readers have helped me raise about $15,000 for the Union Gospel Mission.
For 2010
This year we’re bumping Blogathon to August in order to hopefully have more participants (who won’t be on vacation) and more of an audience to help keep us going for 24 straight hours of blogging.
Our on-location events will have wifi, food (for sponsorship please contact us), and a community of bloggers all going through the same campaign — which helps when you start losing steam at 3:00am after blogging for 17 hours straight. Last year we were at Workspace and we enjoyed treats from various sponsors, visits from non-profits that were being supported, and even a private lightning-lit concert from Mojave.
This post is to serve as a “Save the Date” for August 21st so please stay tuned to BlogathonVancouver.com for updates and information. We will be posting information on how to sign up, how to get your donation page, and the venues for the on-location events (in Vancouver and the Fraser Valley) shortly.
The tag for the event will be #Blogathon10 (on Twitter or Flickr).
We hope you’ll join us and use your blog to help support the cause of your choice.
Update Please note Blogathon.org (the global event run by other bloggers) is NOT running this year. Blogathon Vancouver and Blogathon Fraser Valley ARE happening this year per this announcement. We’ll have a sign-up site available soon but please stay tuned to BlogathonVancouver.com for updates.
Yesterday I experienced my first Fourth of July in Iowa. The skies teased with raindrops every few minutes but luckily by noon, when the parade began, the sun had peeked its way through the grey blanket of clouds above.
We sat along the side of the road in John‘s hometown as other families with tarps, canopies, blankets, and lawn chairs lined the same route. Children ran outside with plastic bags that puffed up and danced in the wind. I was unclear of their purpose until the parade began to pass our way.
The Color Guard marched through first, firing off rounds of blanks as the crowd stood at attention. “These were hot items when I was little,” said John as he scooped up a bullet casing and presented it to me proudly as a souvenir.
Tractors, classic cars, ATVs, dirtbikes, and rollerblades carried proud business owners, sports teams, and elected officials in a loop around town that began and ended at the fairgrounds.
Every cub scout troupe, farmer, and “little miss” tossed out candy as they passed (except for the local dentist’s office that lofted toothbrushes into the crowd). Children scurried to pick up the Tootsie Rolls, bubble gum, licorice, mints, lollipops and chocolate coins from the road, loading up the bags which had been waiting anxiously in the breeze.
One farmer tossed out whole kernels of corn, while another handed out foil-wrapped pork sandwiches.
Restored tractors with placards announced the make, model, year and owner of the machines as they chugged by. Farmall, John Deere, New Holland, Ford. My brother-in-law asked me not to blog about the tractors but, how could I not?
Over in Bellevue, Iowa their parade was far less scenic as tragedy struck when two horses with a carriage went on a rampage. The news has since reached far an wide, prompting several people to message John and I to see if we’re okay.
Our parade lasted about an hour and on the tail end came the horses, which all seemed well-behaved. Braided tails, flag-covered saddles, and saddlebags stocked with chilled canned beverages.
Once the parade wrapped up it was time for food. John’s parents had visitors in from all over, from Iowa City to just down the block. Their house was a hub of activity with pot luck dishes, BBQ, margaritas and good cheer.
The rain decided to pick and festivities moved indoors. The evening fireworks were canceled due to the weather as we all hung out around the dining room table playing cards and catching up.
I know that we could have selected pretty much anywhere as our summertime vacation destination however we’ve always meant to come back either for the Fourth or for the county fair (which takes place at the end of July).
No matter how often he now says “eh” or quotes hockey scores, John’s an Iowan through and through. Spending time here, in the place where he grew up, only brings me closer to him and the proud and loving family whose name I am so lucky to bear.
Update Here are some of John’s photos from the Fourth of July.
You may view all photos from our trip in this set on Flickr
