To the PNE and Back

Yesterday was a truly fabulous day. I woke up happy, knowing that the day was going to be gorgeous weather and with a plan for the walk to the PNE (Pacific national Exhibition) and back. Whereas once the PNE was a grand, huge agricultural fair, it is now a fraction of its original size but it remains a fun day at the end of the summer.

As a kid, I would go to the huge and MGM-like PNE parade that would open the fair. That no longer exists, and whereas once there was a huge section of the fair devoted to crafts, animal husbandry, home cooking and floral arrangements, all that is gone. Now it is a mixture of Vegas and gluttony.

I left home at 9:00 am and it was a treat walking through town early on a Sunday morning. I had the whole of downtown to myself. I arrived about twenty minutes early, but Dianne had also arrived so in we went with the opening crowd. We just meandered through an overwhelming experience that neither of us were really interested in. We people watched, ate and had a ball. Then I walked back home.

It was THE best way to end the summer.

This is a skytrain station downtown and there are usually huge crowds here, but this Sunday morning downtown was a wasteland. 

The gate at the Dr. Sun Yat Sen Memorial Garden.

I love the Mediteranean feel of these two places (above and below) on Francis Street. 

Crabapples line parts of Francis street.

 Hideous beauty.

 Dude, like my hair?

 This little piggy was hungry.

 This one was tired.

 These ones were in heaven. I Couldn't love an animal more.

 Scotland not only gave us this, they gave us Haggis.

Dessert fries?