Toronto 2011

A few days in Toronto to visit my dear Farrah and "Baba". Also a few days to enjoy real summer (I hope you're taking notes ,Vancouver. We have yet to have a real summer, not impressed). I must say, after a few days with Baba, my reflexes are a lot sharper and I think I got quite a bit of exercise too!

This might replace bubble tea in my heart. Godiva's raspberry mocha

There she goes! Not a care in the world:)

This girl always makes me smile:)

Some shots from the Caribana. Luckily we left quite early because we were so hot and tired. Somebody got shot and killed there:( I think it's safe to say I will not be attending Caribana again in future.

On our way home we happened upon a Filipino festival. Fun times! 

Another drink we discovered: sago gulaman. Very sweet and refreshing

Thanks to Leo for making us REAL Jamaican food; ackee and saltfish. I am honestly drooling thinking about it, yum!

K'naan- Brockpoint Point- July 2011

I love free concerts! I don't know what's happened to Vancouver but we seem to be getting more great concerts than I have time (or money) to go to! This was my second time seeing K'naan perform outdoors. Last year we were drenched in the rain. This year the rain mercifully held off until after the concert ended.

Fun day and great performance, despite K'naan's angry outburst at someone in the audience. I still don't know why but I'm pretty sure it was justified.

Edmonton 2011

Another visit to Edmonton! This time I was there for 4 days. It was nice to see all the kids again all grown up!

The highlight of my trip was a visit to the Fort Edmonton Park. I love history so I had a great time here, despite being bitten all over by mosquitoes. I didn't even know Edmonton was "famous" for its mosquitoes. I'm bringing lots of insect repellent next time.

I normally don't take a lot of pictures of myself when I'm on vacation because I like non-human subjects but I had my own paparazzi, Sharron, for the day and she took loads of pictures of me! She has a great professional camera.

This was my first time seeing a wigwam in person. I even got the chance to go in it! It is pretty much impossible to see the outline of the wigwam since it's the same colour as the background!

 It was neat to see a Cree woman making bannock bread. She was nice enough to take a picture with us and explain the history of bannock (Scottish origins no less!).

I just love arrows.

Une lettre en francais:)

My cute little Simon! 

 

 

 

This couple were totally in character, I loved it!

 Uh-oh! It seems there was a reward being offered for the capture of Simon! $100 definitely isn't what it was. I don't think I'll turn him in.

Supposedly the tobacco chewers were a menace back in the day.

Oh my! A penny farthing!

Next we did a bit of sight-seeing downtown. It was such a hot and glorious day! We started off in Whyte Av. and then drove downtown to the Taste of Edmonton festival. Ate up lots of goodies that day.

On my last dry evening in Edmonton we went to watch Joey play some soccer. I know it was just kids playing (16 years old) but they played with so much passion I really got into it! Tried in vain to keep the mosquitoes at bay. I ended up wearing pants to cover my legs the remaining time I was there.

Simon shows up everywhere! Love him:)

Toots and the Maytals - Commodore Ballroom- July 2, 2011

What a fantastic concert! Thanks Stephanie for suggesting I buy a ticket for this show! I love reggae music but this group was unfamiliar to me. The concert was on a Tuesday evening so Stephanie suggested we go to Sanafir for dinner since it's 50% off appies on Tuesdays.

I can't believe it's taken me so long to try out this place! They have such a unique menu. It was hard to choose what to order because everything looked great.

This watermelon salad , ordered by Steph, tasted fantastic. It had never crossed my mind to put watermelon in a savoury salad but I'm going to definitely try it out too (with you, Farrah, when I come visit! Can't wait to see the sous-chef again!).

Steph also ordered some yummy salmon.

This was my favourite dish: the duck carpaccio

This one was pretty good too, though I didn't like the pita.

The opening act was a local reggae band whose name escapes me. They were okay. Then Toots' daughter performed. She is so beautiful and very talented! Black don't crack indeed!

The whole show was amazing! I had only learned a few of his songs but I recognize talent and I appreciate his graciousness and the way he tried to interact with the audience, even shaking my hand and giving me a bottle of water! What a sweet man.