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Saturday, July 12, 2014

Canada Day celebrations

As you might know, Canada Day is celebrated on July 1st. It's a national day off, yet this year was the first one I've really celebrated what looks like "the traditional way". I've always enjoyed the extra day off, sometimes spent it moving (it's Moving Day in Quebec), usually though, just taking full advantage of the Montreal summer (read: at a terasse having a drink most likely)

A week before in Quebec it's St-Jean-Baptiste day, which is the bigger celebration, so I was quite excited to see what happens on Canada Day in Toronto.

The Beaches, Toronto Since it seemed the right thing to do, we went out for a picnic by the beach. Just some sandwiches and salad, but it was nice to be outside and by the water. I'm definitely more the 'by-the-water' than 'in-the-water' kind of a gal.

Canada day, 2014 In the evening we returned back to the beach since there were supposed to be fireworks. We had no idea that the entire beach would be packed. There were people everywhere and a ton of boats gathering in the same spot. The above photo is at the east end of the beach, which was much more quiet. As we walked west, more and more crowds were gathering.

Canada day, 2014 My priorities haven't obviously changed... "Oh, look! Food!"

Canada day, 2014
The fireworks were quite impressive.

All in all a nice Canada Day, it was fun to try the whole picnic and fireworks thing. Interestingly, practically everyone was dressed in red and white, with maple leaves everywhere (the pictures, don't think people being covered in actual maple leaves... Oh, you didn't?).

And, as Finnish person, I must say that I still enjoy fireworks in the summer. So pleasant! If you're not Finnish (or Nordic) please let me explain: it's really, really light at night in the summer. The sun doesn't set in the north and in the south it just gets dim, like dusk, not fully dark. So, we only get fireworks in the winter, namely New Years.

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