Sunshine lit Granville street this morning when I arrived at quarter to eleven. Final preparations were being made for the imminent parade along the street from Davie to Dunsmuir, and people from all walks of life lined the strip on both sides from one end to the other, many decked out in green clothing, shamrocks, and Guinness beer hats.
Sitting cross-legged on the road in front of everyone else at the end of the line, I watched the parade of pipers, dancers, cyclists, unicyclists, and more pipers in their traditional tartan kilts head on. But then after the usual floats of traditional Irish and Scottish spectacle came some sponsored floats from the Vancouver Fire Department, the Serta mattress sheeps from Sleep Country, and even Ronald McDonalds convincing us all that his red, white, and yellow stripes is a new tartan pattern and colour. When I thought it couldn't get any more silly, the "Gung Haggis Fat Choy" dragon boat float came around the bend with Chinese guys in kilts. The Punjabi dance group and the Brazilian belly dancers followed soon after. Vancouver truly is a multicultural city...
For lunch, Damien, Jen, Sigrid, and I joined Jamie & James and the rest of the VSC members for some dim sum at Hon's on Robson Strasse. It was a good thing they had made reservations ahead of time as there were about 16 of us in all! I also met Jeffrey there for the first time, a CSer who plays the viola with the UBC orchestra, and he was delightful to talk to. Over dim sum, Jeff and his lady-friend Emily, I, and the guys sitting opposite of us were playing "Movie Lines" in which someone would quote a character or a line in a movie and the others had to guess the name of the movie. It was sheer entertainment!
Jen, Damien, Sigrid, and I broke away from the pact after filling our stomach with yum yum dim sum, and went club/bar hopping in search for live Celtic music. We popped into the Caprice but left after we realised that we couldn't hear the fiddlers in the corner over the crowd of people talking above them. We caught a group called "Three Row Barley" performing at the Roxy and stayed there for a few hours until they played their set, then we moved on to Doolin's Irish Pub where we shared a plate of Irish Nachos and Honey Thai Chili Ribs.
Vancouver is a fantastic city to be living in. To borrow the tag line of the Celtic Fest, "Everyone's Irish on St. Patrick's Day!"
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