Depending on who you ask it's either a 3 day or 5 day event. Sticklers say it's only three because the craft shows and concerts don't open until Friday. Others say it starts on Wednesday with the closing of "the Village" downtown, for the all week sidewalk sale.
No matter how you choose to look at it, it still needs better organization.
The events are reasonably well planned. It's the travel that needs the help. Because most of downtown is closed to street traffic half the city busses are re-routed. This year its complicated due to a bridge being refurbished. Next is the "free shuttle" service.
To allow everyone to get to all the events at Meyers Pier or at Zwicks Park the city has commandeered a few city buses that run from the bus terminal to Zwicks and Meyers, or from the mall to Zwicks.
The biggest problem is the times these shuttles run. Events start at 1100 hrs. Shuttle starts at 1200 hrs. For people with a car it's not that big of a deal. Those, like myself, without have a problem with it.
How can I take Logan to see Spongbob Squarepants and get to other more "grown up" things on time? Spongebob was to be there at 1215 hrs. I was expecting monster line-ups like we had for Dora, so I wanted to get there around 1130 hrs. I figured that would give us lots of time to wait and we could take the shuttle from Zwicks to Meyers to catch the bellyflop competition. Since we couldn't get there at 1130 hrs, I figured we were screwed. Walking was not an option with a 4 year old, especially since we walked home Friday night after the fireworks.
Spongebob, Logan and Mommy
Daddy, Logan and Spongebob.
We finally found our sponge buddy and he did have a line up. We waited form 1230 to 1245 to get our pics taken with him. After that we looked around the "kids village", Logan helped Carrie build a wooden tool box at the Home Depot tent, and then Logan saw the Lego tent and palyed in there for a bit.
We never made it to the bellyflop competition. Logan was starting to get cranky and Carrie and I were sweating buckets. We got home around 1430 hrs, and laid down.
Yesterday was a little more fun.
At 1830 hrs the parade started. Logan had a blast waving at EVERY person on EVERY float. Most waved back.
At 2000 we wandered down to Meyers Pier to wait for fireworks. We saw a couple of tallships and listend to some live music.
A great Canadian band Krome was on stage. Logan though they were awesomeand was dancing to all their tunes.
Fireworks were supposted to start at 2145 hrs, but were delayed until 2200hrs. They lasted for nearly 30 minutes, 22 minutes LONGER than our Canada Day display. That's kind of sad.
When we left, the Tea Party was just taking the stage. I've seen them before and would have liked to see them again, but all votes are vetoed by a tired 4 yearold.
No comments:
Post a Comment