July 3rd:Great Canada Day Weekend at Peterborough

I have a new Idea. There are many beautiful wild flowers everywhere we go. I decided I would start to add a picture of one to each blog and you can try to identify it. Assuming I can identify it, I'll include it in the next blog. Our phone doesn't take the best closeup pictures but I'll do the best I can.

Guppy right by the walkway

We arrived at the Peterborough Marina Friday morning. We had made a reservation weeks before and the marina was now completely filled. We had a great slip, close to the showers and restrooms and also very close to the park
for people watching.

Persistence Pays

It was fairly quiet Friday other than a lot of boats coming in for the weekend. I had been searching grocery stores for Veggies Straws.  The Veggie Straws make a great snack, have little saturated fat and are made from vegetables instead of a lot of carbs. I made yet another trip to a grocery store hoping they would have the Veggie Straws we like.

Fozzie

I kept thinking about Fozzie's Persistence. Fozzie, Matt's and Wendy's great dog, would stalk us doggedly if we had food. He didn't bark, whine nor pester us, just stalked us looking sad. Eventually his persistence paid off and we'd give him a tidbit. We started using the phrase, "Fozzie knows, Persistence Pays," when we were thinking about giving up on something.

At the store I finally spotted the Veggie Straws. However, I knew I already had enough stuff to fill my backpack and it was a long bike ride to this store.  I decided I could tie them onto the bike seat. Worked fine!

The very large Band shell is the triangle roof in front.

Peterborough is a nice city. They work hard to bring tourists into the area. They have a Music Fest during the summer which includes a free open air concert Wednesdays and Saturdays. We were there for the Saturday concert and could hear just fine from our boat. The weather was beautiful. The lawn was completely packed by the time the concert started.







We know Peterborough has a comfortable movie theater a short bike ride away. Linda checked and found Toy Story 4 was playing. We wanted to see it so it worked out great. We both liked the movie. Stopped at a beautiful spot on the Otonabee River for sherbet on the way back. Ice cream is very popular in Canada and never difficult to find.

Peterborough Clock Tower - Built 1889

I like the old clock tower building in Peterborough. We have watched quite a few changes since 1971. As you can see from the blue in the picture there are some current changes in progress. It's nice to see it is preserved and serving the city well. History of the Clock Tower

Butterfly Garden

Peterborough really does a wonderful job with their parks and bike paths. These pictures were taken on the path to the movie theater. It is a very nice place to go for a short bike ride or walk. The butterfly garden is so nice and large I needed two pictures to cover it. The third picture is one of a number of historical sculptures along the way.

Butterfly Garden

Saturday night we were relaxing on the boat as the sun was setting. Very quickly the sky turned a beautiful color that was reflected in the calm water. Great way to end the day.

Sunday, Scott our boat neighbor, was getting a lot of pressure to go get his "Dog Table". We saw it in the past and I agreed it was only right for the "Dog Table to be included on Canada Day. Fortunately, he lives close by so he went to get it.

London

Trevi

Speaking of cute dogs Rebecca's two real dogs, Trevi and London seem to get cuter every day. Here are the latest pictures.










On July 1, Canada Day activities started happening early. The many food vendors were setting up by 8:00 am. There was a lot of variety as this Canada Day was focused on Multiculturalism. There was Indian, Caribbean, Asian, Russian, Albanian, Thai, etc. food. I tried the Tandoori Chicken which was very good. By 11:00 am the lines were very long. By 1:00 pm some of the vendors were out of food. (The vendors had to leave the area by 3:00 pm so the area could be set up for another concert, a Rod Stewart tribute, to be followed by fireworks.) Canada Day is the US's equivalent of the 4th of July.




While I was walking around, I was surprised to come across a lady that was selling hand knitted animals, sculptures, etc. She had a lot of fun stuff, in particular, "Audrey" the man eating Venus Fly Trap from the movie Little Shop of Horror. They are very similar to the ones Wendy has been knitting. The lady was charging $15 for the small ones and $20 for the larger ones. Seemed like a bargain to me. She was very busy so I never found out how long it took to knit one.

There was of course a Canada Day Parade. We took our chairs and found a great spot right on the curb. One float consisted of 7 individual wagons with a variety of large stuffed animals in each. Some were turning in circles. Don't know who sponsored it, it just looked like someone having fun.







We were counting on bagpipes and were not disappointed. I was even able to capture a short video so you could hear them. Don't really know why bet we both enjoy bagpipes.

A rather unusual float was this airplane fuselage promoting the Peterborough Airshow. It did get everyone's attention




The concert was a big hit with a huge crowd. Of course people were there for the fireworks also. The fireworks were over Little Lake which we could see right from our fly bridge. This is a picture of the huge fountain in Little Lake. For a size perspective, look closely and you'll see the person kayaking by the fountain.

The fireworks were quite good, especially for a pretty small city. As the show ended we were very happy to be sitting on our boat. Thousands of people were covering the walkways out of the park. I'm certain the traffic was horrendous! The weather was again beautiful so everyone seemed to be taking the crowds in stride.

Happy Canada Day and Happy Fourth of July!!