Happy Canada Day!

I think that a nation­al hol­i­day is a good enough excuse for me to get back into the blog­ging habit.

We had a great hol­i­day today, even if we did start a lit­tle late (got up a lit­tle after 9AM after play­ing the board game ‘Tick­et to Ride’ with Matt, Oana, and their friend Ryan last night until very late). We did a lit­tle tidy­ing up of the back patio and moved a few small blocks of con­crete that had been sit­ting there for a year, and then we went out to Stan­ley Park. At the Boat House, we caught the free shut­tle, which just start­ed up a cou­ple of days ago. It took us all around the perime­ter of the park (this takes about 30 min­utes or so). It real­ly gives you an idea of how huge Stan­ley Park is. After­ward, we walked over to a park bench by the edge of the Lost Lagoon, and caught a few rays of after­noon sun­shine while watch­ing the sun-dap­pled water, the ducks, and the foun­tain, while lis­ten­ing to our iPods and gen­er­al­ly just relaxing.

On the way home on the bus, we heard the best ‘Over­heard in Van­cou­ver’ ‑style exchange:

He: So have you heard of this Can­abis Day Celebration?

She: What are you talk­ing about? I’ve nev­er heard of it.

He: Just anoth­er chance for them to smoke it, I guess.

While this sound­ed like sus­pi­cious­ly like a snarky mala­prop, sure enough, there indeed was a huge con­gre­ga­tion of teens and slight­ly old­er peo­ple all cel­e­brat­ing some kind of Cana — day by the Art Muse­um (the stan­dard place for all events that take place in the city), and this one did seem to involve smok­ing, although I must admit that I real­ly did­n’t smell any­thing, and that’s say­ing something.

Lat­er we came home, where Pam went down to Granville Island to pick up some fruit and veg­gies, and I went up the street to get some beer. We munched on piz­za and beer while watch­ing the Cor­ner Gas marathon on the Com­e­dy Channel.

Out­side we can hear the music from the park, and soon, the fire­works will start.

In just two weeks, we’ll have been liv­ing here exact­ly a year, and we feel more set­tled than ever. This three-day week­end hol­i­day has come at just the right time for us to sit back and enjoy our new home more than ever before. I’m start­ing for feel a lot more Cana­di­an these days. It’s not a bad feel­ing, eh?