We went to the Folk Music Festival in town last weekend where the kindness of the Canadians was shown to us yet again. We drove down there with the kids thinking it was just a come and go, walk around festival but were shocked to see the admission booth and the price of $70 per ticket! It was late in the day and the festival was only going to last a couple more hours so ultimately we decided that we wouldn't get our money's worth and turned to go. A nice man chased us down to let us know that someone had donated tickets and asked if we would like to have them. I felt guilty for taking them, surely there was someone that had a greater need than us. This man was working the ticket booth and for some reason had chosen us to receive the tickets and we were surprised but grateful and it was such a nice break after being in the house all week.
The food trucks were all cool, lots of gluten free, local, healthy options. Recycling bins everywhere and instead of packaging and paper plates you "rented" a ceramic plate for $2 to use and then got some (or all?) of your money back when you returned it. Multiple stages were spread around and a cool kids area with balls, stilts, hula hoops….and a "town" made out of boxes and tons of paint for the kids to decorate. Kendall did surprisingly well with the stilts after a few attempts and some demonstrations by mom, ahem (sorry no pictures).
Afterwards we walked over to a local restaurant for a fun dinner.
The Bad and Ugly
Why? Why must the speed limit be SO slow?!? On my mental list of blog posts I plan to write is a post about what I've found to be different or interesting in Canada so far. One of those things is the always slow speed limit. It is seriously slow. Mostly people follow it too. And if a pedestrian steps up to the crosswalk everyone slams on the breaks. It's slow people. Early on Brian mentioned that we would have to be super cautious since it's not what we're used to.
So today after taking all three kids to TWO different stores in areas of town that I'm totally unfamiliar with I was super frustrated to find that neither had lawn mowers. Cause, you know, taking three kids shopping for lawn mowers is super fun. I pulled out the GPS and programed one.more.store. and I set off. The kids weren't fighting (even though our car isn't here and they are currently in a rental all three sitting in the backseat elbow to elbow, knee to knee which never makes for an enjoyable ride. For anyone.) I don't even think the radio was on so I wasn't distracted, my phone was in the cup holder and I don't mean my hand. I was going 70 kph which is only 40 MILES PER HOUR on a regular street with traffic lights, not a neighborhood or residential street. When out of nowhere a man….a man in a police uniform stepped into the street, pointed at me and motioned me over. I am 34 years old. I have never gotten a ticket of any kind. I have been in one small fender bender with my best friend but that hardly even counts, right Jennie?!? Anyway, I'm an excellent driver no matter what Jennie or her Lexus bumper tells you. The officer was completely nice, asked if I was in a rental or was it just stolen (huh huh huh, you're a funny one). Welcome to Canada, here's your yellow slip of paper, give us some money. The stupid speed limit was 50 kph which translates to about 20 mph. Have you ever driven 20 mph? I think it requires you keep your foot on the brake. Anyway, it was bad. And ugly.
I think that speed limit business would drive me absolutely crazy!! Good luck with that, my dear. Still, glad there is great hospitality. That makes a world of difference!
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