This afternoon we attended the Vancouver Pride Parade along with about 700,000 other people. One of the largest pride parades in North America, I remarked earlier that I hadn’t seen this much joy and high-fiving since the Olympics were in town. The following photos were all taken by John Bollwitt.
One of my favourite floats was the Vancouver Queer Film Festival who re-created the float/parade scene from Ferris Bueller’s Day Off.
Complete with enough beads to go around, the crowd loved TD Bank’s high-energy float.
You can view the rest of John’s photos in his Flickr set and please feel free to add your own to the Miss604 Flickr group.
Last night’s finale was a tribute to China, the country who won the Celebration of Light fireworks contest last year. While it was announced that team Spain won the title this year with their impressive performance and near-perfect timing, a team of Canadians put together the show that capped off another season of the fireworks in English Bay.
Going through our photos I realized that I haven’t yet posted about some of the concerts and live music I’ve experienced this month.
Ryan Dahle at the Biltmore Familia and the Manvils played a showcase the other night celebrating Ryan Dahle‘s current album, Irrational Anthems. Dahle also produced the Manvils’ latest album.
It was great to see Ryan Dahle on stage again since I was a big Limblifter and Age of Electric fan back in the day. You can pick up his album (available in record form) and preview some tunes on his website.
Blake Shelton at Tulalip
I admit, I’m not a country fan however I’m enough of a music fan to know live shows are almost always a good time, no matter the genre.
The outdoor amphitheatre at Tulalip is a great setting with a lawn, full service washrooms, VIP tents, and beer service. Headliner Blake Shelton saw one of my tweets about being in attendance and gave a shout out to “Canadians” on stage. Once the show was over the opening act, Chance McKinney headed inside the resort to play at the cabaret – a more intimate setting.
Wil at ShoreFest ShoreFest is a free concert series at English Bay that has been presented every fireworks night this summer. We had the chance to see a few acts such as Wil, Kuba Oms and Spirit of the West.
Tonight ShoreFest presents Jim Cuddy (8:00pm), Patrick Brealey (7:00pm), Yukon Blonde (6:00pm) on the main stage. While over on the Rogue Sunset Beach stage tonight there’s Jim Byrnes (4:45pm), Barney Bentall, Tom Taylor, Shari Ulrich (3:45pm), and Headwater (3:00pm). The both Shore stages open at 12:00pm.
During my stay at Tulalip Resort my group was shuttled over to the Port of Everett where we boarded the Hat Island Ferry for a tour around Tulalip Bay.
When you’re driving down the I-5 toward Seattle, the Port of Everett would be on your left. It looks rather industrial and is home to a US navy station however it is becoming a destination for the community by hosting a farmers market, concert series, kite-boarding, and harbour tours.
The Jetty Island ferry carries beach-goers and kite-boarders across a small channel to the sandy spit where there are dozens of eagles nests resting precariously on top of pilings. The sandy beach is a draw for picnics and sunny afternoon recreation.
The Hat Island passenger ferry operates just a few days out of the week and the rest of the time it can be chartered for tours like ours.
We set out from the Port of Everett, past Hat Island, and into Tulalip Bay. From the water we could see some of the mountains in the Cascade Range (including the snow-capped Mount Baker) peeking up from behind the Tulalip on the shore.
Heading south down the I-5 from Vancouver you end up missing quite a bit of the Washington state coastline. I recommend heading down Chuckanut Drive just after Bellingham then making your way to Everett or Mukilteo to see what you can get up to on the water. Disregarding border wait times, you’ll be down there in about 2 hours with plenty of time to explore. If you have your own boat, the Port of Everett has plenty of guest moorage available.
Summer drive-in movies will be presented every Wednesday in August in the Coquitlam Centre parking lot outside H&M and Zellers (just off Pinetree Way).
August 11th – Action/Thriller Night: Iron Man
August 18th – Date Night: The Notebook
August 25th – Family Night: How to Train Your Dragon
Admission is by donation to SHARE Family and Community Services and you can book a “preferred” parking spot for $10 in advance from Coquitlam Centre Guest Services. All funds raised by donations and preferred parking passes will go directly to SHARE. In 2009 alone, SHARE served 8,175 individuals, out of which 1,110 were children under 6 years old and 3,330 were children under 18 years old. Currently, SHARE is providing a minimum of 800 households with food relief every two weeks and forty five percent of the recipients are children.
Full details on preferred parking passes are available on the Coquitlam Centre website. The parking lot will be open for general admission cars at 8:00pm each movie night or 6:00pm for those cars with passes.
