A Day in the Park

I took the last couple of days off of work to just chill and re-charge the batteries. I decided to check in with Monica if she needed help preparing for Ren's baptism this weekend. She pretty much has everything in control but I offered to 'sit on babies' for a bit if she wanted to do some cleaning or anything. She decided to take me up on the offer and go run a few errands. As the weather outside was fantastic I decided a trip to the park was in order.

Note Ren's great taste in football teams.

Lesson learned - don't make children look up when the sun is behind me. Sorry Mucca.

Swinging good time

The joy of the slide.

 For the last time - Pagan Baby

Farmers Markets

Most Saturday mornings I head a couple of blocks North to my local farmers market for fresh produce.  One of my little pleasures is watching the rotation of shops and produce through the year. In June there are lots of planters and flowers. July sees more produce including the fresh peas. Once August comes the produce sections are massive and I can finally find kohlrabi.

Even though I have a local market I'm always game for checking out the many other markets in the City and area. For the first time ever this year I decided to check out the St. Albert market and was pleasantly surprised by the large selection and the outdoor atmosphere.

Here are my top 3 markets in order.

#1 - Old Strathcona - My favorite as it's the only place I can find white turn-ups

  

 #2 - Saint Albert (awesome pictures taken by Christina)

 Kohlrabi deal going down

#3 - City Centre - Good for trendy people watching and the conveniance

Ice Ninjas Fundraising Party

This Saturday - All the beer you can drink!

Goodreads Profile

I've been a horrible son lately. I pleaded for my dear old Mom to write her memoirs/biography for posterity. It took awhile in writing and production but it arrived in the mail a little over a month ago.
I have yet to read it.

Terrible aren't I. It's just that at work all I seemingly ever do is read serious stuff. When I get home at night I just read crap internet sites or way out there comicbooks and magazines.

I swear I'm going to read Mom's biography by the end of the month.
In fact I'm going to apply myself and really expand the breadth of my reading.

To make sure I honor this intention I signed up at http://www.goodreads.com/ and will update and post reviews of books read from this point on. It's a pretty cool free site. Why don't you sign up and send me some recomendations. http://www.goodreads.com/stukehrig

What I have seen the last couple weeks

The Fosters

My buddy Chris Foster and his wife Tara recently had a baby girl, Adrie. She was born in June but I hadn't actually seen her until about a week or two back when I took a drive out to St. Albert. She is a sweet little girl and Chris and Tara are pretty cool laid back parents.

I don't really think of Chris as a 'big guy', he's about my size I guess. However, when he was holding Adrie he looked absolutely massive. His big hands holding up her neck looked almost comical.

My visit came during a bit of a heat spell so Chris was getting creative in keeping Adrie cool.

The Fosters. If Adrie ends up looking as good as her parents she'll be in good shape.

Pembina River

Over the last long weekend Christina and I floated down the Pembina River. The both of us have heard multiple stories about how much fun it is so we took the plunge (pun intended) and took ourselves to the river.

The launch point into the river is just outside the town of Entwhiste about an hour west of Edmonton. The town is quite forgettable and their local summer economy seems to be based on floating tourists down the river.

Once we got to Entwhistle we found the Pembina River Tubing shop. We rented a couple of innertubes and bought a pass with the drop off and pick up shuttle van.

I'm pretty sure that I could live in this van down by the river.

The tube rental and drop off service is only about $23 and is a great option. As you can see the tube is pretty decent and you can chose to do the full float that takes about 3 hours or the shorter float that takes about 1.5 hours.

Once you are in the water its pretty relaxing as you just coast down the current. Occasionally, you do meander towards the shore and need to kick off or paddle/kick your way back to the middle of the river.

One of the cool things is floating under the Yellowhead traffic bridge and the CN Rail bridge.

It's definitely worth the short drive and small cost. Pick a warm weekend, buy a waterproof disposable camera and just lay back, relax and enjoy the scenery.

Edmonton Heritage Festival

Yesterday I attended the Edmonton Heritage Festival; this three-day showcase of Canada’s vibrant multicultural heritage featured 63 pavilions representing over eighty-five cultures from all over the world.

It's a huge family event and for you Saskatoonians out there it's just like FolkFest except it's all in one location and it's not licensed (boo!). There are tons of great displays, cultural dancing, silly hats and food. This is the third year I have attended in a row and it seems to keep getting bigger every year.

The park is cut off from vehicle traffic so I parked at the zoo and crossed the footbridge. From there you get a great view of Daryl Katz house. The press here likes to make Bruce Wayne comparisons which I think are stupid. Dear journalists, Bruce Wayne is awesome and saves his city through philanthrophy and beating up white martians while being a "hairy chested love-god" - Katz not so much.

The first thing I did was head to the Hungarian pavilion to get me some eats. The elephant ear style pastry is a favorite and the goulash is always great.

Another delicacy I spotted but chickened out on was some bright orange creation. Anybody have any ideas what this is?

Although I possess no talent in music or dance that doesn't mean I don't have an appreciation for it.

The Dutch kids were pretty cute with their spins.

The Polish dancers looked good in their costumes. The men look pretty slick when not wearing their customary rubber boots (I kid as I have some Polish in me).

The Native American dancers are always colorful.

Another highlight for me are the outfits for sale and display. I can't resist the trying on of silly hats.

And hairpieces.

Taking the cues from the kids and their cosplay some old folks went full on with their outfits this year.

One guess who this lad is representing.

This dude was just straight up freaky in his outfit. I kept thinking he was gonna get a norse funeral.

Finally, no trip to heritage days is complete without a picture of ladies doing suggestive motions with chocolate dipped banana's from the Peru pavilion.