Ten Images from the 2023 Hyack Parade

My small city of 85,000 people in the center of the Metro-Vancouver region was able to throw our annual International Hyack Parade again!  

We were happy to see the floats and participants from neighboring Washington and Oregon states again.  Some old familiar guests appeared, such as Levenworth, Winachee, and even Spokane.  This made this year's event feel as though we've finally thrown off the shackles imposed by those depressing pandemic summers.  Although Canadians already had our long-weekend as Victoria Day, the US Memorial Day weekend gives us a chance to host the first-of-the-summer, local parade for the Pacific Northwest region.  This year's parade was more than an hour.  Still, we missed some of the usual participants such as the WA and OR high school marching bands.  I missed some usual New Westminster and local area groups too!

The weather turned sunny about four hours too late for the 11:00 am start but at least there was no rain today.

What Species?

I'm not much of a birder. In fact, I would need to figure out where to begin to identify a species of bird.  Someone with a little birding experience could tell me instantly.  I only had my phone but I captured this image.

   

Whatever it is, I liked it. It was industriously picking in the space between the cement sidewalk sections.  

Okay, I decided to use 'reverse Google image' and it pointed to sites with similar birds called Northern Flickers.  However, the red patch was in a different place on the websites.  So, I'm still a little unsure.  Yet, it called them a type of woodpecker which would explain this one's behavior.

 

In The South of France Next Week

Jay and I have just three more nights at home before flying to Frankfurt and then onward to our destination in Nice. I was trying to recall details of our previous time in the country of France. 

We spent six nights in Paris in 2005. We arrived there on Saturday, September 17th by train from Brussels. We left on the 23rd eventually crossing on a ferry to Dover, England. I'm glad I write this shit down because there'd be little chance of me remembering these facts without reading my own blog.  

Neither of us has started packing yet, but we are pretty psyched about our upcoming month on the French Riviera.

   

Places for Lots of New Neighbours

These are the two residential towers taking shape along the New Westminster riverfront.  I look forward to the day we can continue walking from Westminster Pier Park along the Fraser River to our downtown New West Quay.  The site will be much improved from the tarred-over pier lots dating back to the days of old cannery buildings.

Unevents

I lit the gas fireplace again today. The temperature only reached about 16 degrees Celsius today and is forecast to dip to a mere 10 tonight. 

There's really little to relay in a blog post today. 

We did go to the uptown Walmart this morning. We went to buy bananas but I also got a pair of Levis. My regular jeans are a bit too thick for spring or summer travel. I bought a thinner pair that'll be comfortable when flying to France.  Although we don't dress up on flights, it wouldn't seem right to fly wearing shorts, especially on an all-nighter to Frankfurt.  

I had to pay 32 Canuk bucks for them!  You'll have to forgive me but I'm nearly officially an old fart now.  So, spending that amount for, what did I call them when growing up?  Dungarees?  That just seems excessive.

 

These pictures don't have anything in common with the text or each other.  They're simply the most recent three that I created with AI.

Our Spring Adventure

We've viewed the Mediterranean Sea from many vantage points.  They include Gibraltar, Spain, Italy, Malta, Greece, Albania, Croatia, Montenegro, Türkiye, Israel, Egypt, Tunisia, and Morocco. However, there's a famous strip of its shoreline to which we've never ventured.  If all goes as planned, we should soon be rectifying that situation.

Travelling at this time of year is a bit unusual of late. Since retirement, we've used winter as our primary part of the year to explore both new and familiar places. This past winter though, we spent just four months abroad. Our regular journeys are for five. We noted that discrepancy when making those plans and decided to add an extra visit to a location where the weather would be good in June. 

 

Our plane should touch down in Nice, France next Monday.  We have arranged to stay at a VRBO for thirty nights.  We should have enough time to explore the entire Côte d’Azur.  There does seem as though there's a lot to see along the French Riviera.  

Fortunately, the Cannes Film Festival just took place and the Monaco Grand Prix will have just finished by the time we arrive.  Our stay won't coincide with large summer-vacation crowds either.  Therefore, I think we will be happy using Nice as a base to explore a slice of the world to which we've never been.

A Deer Lake Outing in Burnaby

 It was the first cloudy day in a while, but that meant it was not too hot to be outside.

We met friends at the Metrotown Mall in Burnaby.  We converged at the Canadian Superstore at 11:00 am from Richmond, downtown Vancouver, and New Westminster.  Our plan was to buy picnic goodies and head to one of a number of nearby parks.

However, we ended up eating a really early lunch in the mall's T&T Supermarket, an Asian grocery store.  There was a small area with tables inside. 

We, then, drove just a few kilometers down the hill and stopped at Deer Lake.  As you can see from the photos, we walked around the small lake.  The path was about 4.5 km but it is a very easy walk. 

 

 

After getting back to the car, took beers out of the cooler and sat at park tables.  We shared the area with a lot of baby goslings and their overprotective parents.

As we'd started the day at the largest mall in BC, we decided to head back up for some late afternoon coffees.  The food court and the whole complex seemed pretty crowded.  However, this is the Victorian long weekend in Canada.  Tim Horton's coffee seemed appropriate.

 

Jay and I got back home after 6 o'clock in the evening.  I might be sore as we walked a little over 12 kilometers today!