row row row your dragon boat, fast down the False Creek...
We went to the Dragon Boat festival today. We cheered on gemtiger's race--although we didn't actually know which boat was her team, and they didn't make any announcements, but we later found out they won, so that was good. :)
The festival was even more fun than I hoped. It was crowded but not overwhelming, and there was a lot for Pippa to see and do. She got bored fairly quickly with the boats (our vantage point was not the greatest, so we pretty much just watched the one race), but she loved some performing acrobats, and she had a lot of fun in the kid zone, climbing on the play structures, playing with the giant xylophones, and doing crafts. She liked standing on the very outside of the bouncy castle but was too afraid to go in, which was probably just as well, because some of the bigger kids were not being very careful in terms of knocking littles over.
I was also surprised how much stuff was being given away. It was puzzling that things seemed to either have humongous lines or no lines at all. Gordon is not a freebie-phile like I am and standing in line with a toddler isn't that great, so we only grabbed things that involved little to no waiting. So, we got some lemonade, popcorn, chips, coconut water, coffee, and coupons and buttons for the aquarium. The best part of the day was probably the tea house, which I don't know why, but it was not crowded at all. We could just sit and take part in a tea ceremony and got to try different kinds of tea, and they also had free crostini, which were very tasty. One was a wakame radish salad, and the other was raspberries and strawberries with mascarpone. One of the attendants actually gathered the wakame himself from a local island! Super fancy and interesting, and Pip actually enjoyed it too, and was well behaved in her stroller.
Gordon didn't really want to do food cart lunch, so we walked over to Nuba, which I have wanted to try for a long time. I had lamb kibbeh plate and he had falafel plate. It was all delicious, but especially the falafel and hummus. Making them the traditional way is so tedious, so I always just go for the quick and easy methods, but the flavor of the traditional way is definitely better.
The weather was also perfect, cool and crisp with the sea breeze but warm enough that I was fine in a t-shirt and capris. And no rain!
The one disappointment: NO ZONGZI. WHAT. WHAT IS THIS NONSENSE. NO ZONGZI AT A DRAGON BOAT FESTIVAL?
So the next time I go to a Chinese bakery I need to buy some zongzi, because I was looking forward to getting one. I like the kind with the peanut filling best.
The festival was even more fun than I hoped. It was crowded but not overwhelming, and there was a lot for Pippa to see and do. She got bored fairly quickly with the boats (our vantage point was not the greatest, so we pretty much just watched the one race), but she loved some performing acrobats, and she had a lot of fun in the kid zone, climbing on the play structures, playing with the giant xylophones, and doing crafts. She liked standing on the very outside of the bouncy castle but was too afraid to go in, which was probably just as well, because some of the bigger kids were not being very careful in terms of knocking littles over.
I was also surprised how much stuff was being given away. It was puzzling that things seemed to either have humongous lines or no lines at all. Gordon is not a freebie-phile like I am and standing in line with a toddler isn't that great, so we only grabbed things that involved little to no waiting. So, we got some lemonade, popcorn, chips, coconut water, coffee, and coupons and buttons for the aquarium. The best part of the day was probably the tea house, which I don't know why, but it was not crowded at all. We could just sit and take part in a tea ceremony and got to try different kinds of tea, and they also had free crostini, which were very tasty. One was a wakame radish salad, and the other was raspberries and strawberries with mascarpone. One of the attendants actually gathered the wakame himself from a local island! Super fancy and interesting, and Pip actually enjoyed it too, and was well behaved in her stroller.
Gordon didn't really want to do food cart lunch, so we walked over to Nuba, which I have wanted to try for a long time. I had lamb kibbeh plate and he had falafel plate. It was all delicious, but especially the falafel and hummus. Making them the traditional way is so tedious, so I always just go for the quick and easy methods, but the flavor of the traditional way is definitely better.
The weather was also perfect, cool and crisp with the sea breeze but warm enough that I was fine in a t-shirt and capris. And no rain!
The one disappointment: NO ZONGZI. WHAT. WHAT IS THIS NONSENSE. NO ZONGZI AT A DRAGON BOAT FESTIVAL?
So the next time I go to a Chinese bakery I need to buy some zongzi, because I was looking forward to getting one. I like the kind with the peanut filling best.