Beer festival, fireworks, food, and friends.

What a fantastic weekend I had! Saturday was the Canada Cup of Beer at the Thunderbird Stadium where Jenn and I spent the bulk of the day drinking away like a fish, sampling about a dozen different varieties from the advertised two-hundred brews offered from local and international taps. There we were in the sunshine pouring, swirling, sniffing, tasting, and grading each one with descriptive notes on its percentage of alcohol, appearance, aroma, taste, aftertaste, and suggested food pairing. We were able to taste a sampling of white ales, pale ales, lagers, and wines from all over the world including Tyskie (Polish), Peroni (Italian), Menabrea (Italian), Hells Gate (Richmond), and Red Racer (Surrey), but the one I found most satisfied with was Central City Brewing Company's Red Racer White Ale. The fact that this was the very first beer I had downed at the festival may have had the advantage of leaving me with the strongest first impression, but this straw coloured ale with its crisp and smooth qualities really hit the spot for both Jenn and I. We both agreed that something like a roast beef or chicken sandwich would pair well with this. The other one we were both impressed with as well was Barefoot Wine's Zinfandel and Pino Grigio. For the extremely sweet Zinfandel with its fruity and floral aroma, we had fruit salad, strawberry shortcake, and potato salad in mind. As for the Pino Grigio, sauté butter prawns came to mind.

And that's exactly what I had ordered at The Cellar on Granville to share between the two of us.

We hurried on back down to White Rock afterward with the intention to walk across the border to Blaine to catch the Independence Day fireworks. With white chocolate macadamia nut cookies in hand, we were trying to beat time and quickened our pace along the railroad tracks meandering through crowds of others who had set up folding chairs along the coastline. Though we didn't make it down by foot to the actual site in Blaine when the fireworks started at 2230h, we found a log on the beach on the White Rock side with an equally gorgeous view.

Sunday came around when I woke up from Jenn's day bed. In the late afternoon, I met up with James, a friend I hadn't seen in years, at the Museum of Vancouver where we went to see the Velo-City exhibit: a history of bikes in the city. Squeezing in as much as we could see in the thirty-minutes we had before closing, I was thoroughly impressed with the exhibit of DIY bikes, hardcore downhill mountain bikes, road racers, a wall of candid photos of people on bikes with quotes, and videos.

We were at The Mill Bistro on West Cordova and got together with Jenn and Ian for food and drinks before retiring at the Christ Church Cathedral, cleansing ourselves from our sins with Gregorian chant and service.

It's back to work tomorrow.