Great day, eh?

My Canada Day began at about 7:50am when Annie picked me up. As Canada Day mornings go, this is a pretty late start for us. Historically, we'd be on the Halifax waterfront by 5am to see Shakespeare by the Sea, but that particular performance has since been cancelled. Instead, we had to settle for a free pancake breakfast on the Dartmouth waterfront. It was overcast, and there was a misty wetness (TM Alej) in the air. The flag raising was rather anti-climactic as there wasn't enough of a breeze to lift the massive flag. But the 50 minutes we waited in line for pancakes and juice boxes was well worth it.

Next we took the Dartmouth ferry into the town, walked up to Spring Garden, grabbed a coffee and staked a claim from which to watch the Tattoo parade. The Tattoo parade is made up of performers in town for the Tattoo (aka The Royal Nova Scotia International Tattoo). It was a pretty short parade, but really, it had everything you would want in a parade.

Mounties. Marching bands.

Buses.

Firetrucks.

Civilian extras.

Gymnasts.Mascots.

African dancers.

Old people in scrimshaws. Tanks.

Giant globes.

Fifers in tights and Napoleon hats.

Crazy people on motorcycles.

And, most importantly, lots of pipes and drums!!

About partway through, it struck me that this parade of military and police bands and performers from around the world was the way we'd chosen to celebrate Canada Day. On a day that could be all about us, we had an international parade. That's what makes this country so great.

My sister-in-law and I were fortunate enough to luck into tickets to see the actual Tattoo that afternoon, for it's opening performance. We were even more lucky (and surprised; and under-dressed) in that the tickets were part of a DND reception and we ended up sitting in the VIP section, two rows behind the Premier, the Lieutenant Governor, and I think the guy who runs the Navy.

The show was fantastic; I'm a complete sucker for bagpipes, and drum bands, and people in uniform marching in elaborate formation - so I was in heaven. There's just something about the ceremony and aesthetics of it all that I really like. And the music, the sound of hundreds of instruments and two choirs and a couple of tenors...the effect is quite spectacular.

The first act ended with a tribute to the Highway of Heroes in Ontario (for those of you unfamiliar with this, see here for a really good news story featuring my home town). That was tragically sad and I certainly wasn't the only one crying.

My favourite parts were anything with the bagpipers and highland dancers. The crazy guys on the motorcycles (Hamburg Police Motorcycle Team) did some crazy shit - like headstands and balancing on one leg. The Paris police gymnastic team had great muscle tone. The Canadian military had an obstacle race, and a race where they took apart - and then put back together - a WWII era jeep.

That's not to say that it was all great. Some of it left me scratching my head, like when the Royal Fire Brigade Band from Malmo, Sweden started playing lesser-known ABBA songs. Or, the musical choice of the Motorcycle Team - Celine Dion and Enrique Iglesias?! One thing I found particularly distracting was the sceptre for the Wehrbereich Musikkorps 1. For most of the marching bands, the leader had a fancy sceptre, but for the German's it was this massive, shiny, be-tasseled flag holder (the only picture I have is from the parade, and is a bit fuzzy):

And there was one person whose job it was to carry that around. All day. I mean, is that an honour or grunt work? What happened in that person's life, in their childhood, adolescence, in their education and adulthood, that lead to them being to one to cart around the thing with the giant tassels? I can't fully explain how these thoughts consumed me whenever that band was performing.

So, that was my awesome Canada Day-day, and at somepoint I will write about my Canada Day-night.