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Every year, the PNE opens for 2 weeks at the end of the summer for everyone to enjoy everything from Superdogs shows to concerts to buying goodies from the Marketplace. This year, I went on the 1st day (Aug 22), where there was free admission from 9am-12pm.

One of the first things I did was go to grab a spot at the Superdogs show @ 10am. Normal days at the PNE don’t have Superdogs shows in the morning. This was a special one, some sort of “opening ceremony” with Raymond Louie (the chair of the PNE, something or other).

Some of the dogs at the Superdogs show were really, really cute.

Look at the shaggy one up in the middle front!

Shaggy doggy has a ponytail!

Any time you’re at the PNE, the crowds will be right there with you.

Just look at that pile of people leading from the PNE side to the Playland side and vice versa. Crazy!

Global BC has their amphitheatre set up here, and this is where concerts and whatnot are played. Red Robinson and others perform on this stage.

This barn-like place houses animals from horses to sheep to pigs to chicken eggs.

This sheep would not quit “bahhh”-ing! And he was SO loud!

More crowds of people outside the Pacific Coliseum.

I also saw a lumberjack show. It was as lame as the one up at Grouse (Mountain). And worse than being packed like sardines in a can. Because you’re sitting there and legs are climbing all over you trying to get up and down the bleachers.

I also saw the RCMP Musical Ride, which consisted of about 32 horses and RCMP officers “dancing” to music. Raymond Louie was also at that show. The show was really good.

Here they are in windmill formation.

This formation was supposedly on the old $50 Canadian bill.

Then, there’s Miller Drive, which features things like the sand castle competition, which hadn’t started yet on the 1st day of the PNE.

Of course, there is much more to see at the PNE like different concerts every night and painting the art cars, but that’s the gist of what I saw while I was there. Now here’s something cute.

KC! He’s the mascot for Playland or PNE or both.

Adorable!

Wouldn’t you love to meet and feed a sea turtle? That’s just what I did last Monday @ the Vancouver Aquarium. It was all part of the Aquarium’s Animal Encounters, where you get to “go behind the scenes and find out what it’s like to feed and train the animals of the Vancouver Aquarium alongside their trainers.” Of course, you have to pay a hefty price, but it’s worth it.

Schoona (SKOO-na) is the resident sea turtle at the Aquarium. She has been there for a number of years now and is estimated to be between the ages of 10 and 20. She was brought to the Aquarium after being found along the coast of BC/Alaska, lost, alone, and starving. 6 of the 7 species of sea turtles out there are not meant to swim all the way up to places like BC as it is much too cold for them (considering they’re cold-blooded and all). A fisherman found her and rescued her, some other things happened, she was rehabilitated, and wound up at the Aquarium. She was unable to be released because nobody knew where she was from. They could’ve put her back out by, like, Mexico or something and for all they know, she could’ve gotten lost again.

That was the gist of the story of Schoona we were told during the Encounter. We also learned about sea turtles in general, their shell, and other facts about them. After that, we went up to an area behind the scenes to “make” Schoona’s lunch. Sea turtles are mainly vegetarians, so the trainers give her red peppers, string beans, broccoli, lettuce, some fishy/squid stuff, a gel diet (this block of dark green stuff), and a vitamin E capsule. She needs so many grams of everything so what we did was weigh everything out.

Then, off we went to the shark penthouse (basically the area above the shark habitat).

Yes, Schoona swims with the sharks. Stingrays and some fish too. In order to section Schoona off from everyone else swimming around and to feed her, a pair of really bright lights (which is supposed to have vitamin D for her shell) is turned on, a red paddle is dunked into the water, and a shaker is rattled. Schoona immediately swims into this little section and a clear plastic board is placed so she doesn’t get out.

I was on one side of this sectioned-off area and some others were on the other side, both with our bowl of food for Schoona. From there, she basically swam around in circles to get each piece of food put into the water for her. Of course, we didn’t plunk our hands into the water to put food in. She could easily bite a finger or more off, so instead, we used plastic tongs (the nicer ones that are used to pick up scraps of garbage) to put in a piece of food at a time into the water, making sure we released the food before she could get a bite of the tongs as well.

That went on for about 15 minutes, and I had the privilege of touching her shell, which is pretty smooth.

Here she is taking a breath. During the duration of the Encounter (which was 60 minutes long), she took about 4 breaths.

She’s reaching for a string bean here. From above the water, Schoona is enormous compared to when I usually see her swimming around (not above water).

She’s heading to the other side for some more food. The green plastic bowl clearly shows her food sitting in there. Look at that giant shell!

Schoona gets fed only once a day and usually, it is the people doing the Animal Encounter that feed her. Cute.

Hm. I’m not sure what to say about China’s fireworks (“Through the Looking Glass”). I mean, the fireworks themselves were very nice, but personally, I found their show too slow-paced, making it kind of boring. I’m sitting there, camera in hand, expecting huge blasts of light and sparks, but there was nothing that gave me chills (uh, the chills that make you think, “OMG that’s amazing!”). The choreography was outstanding of course, and I’m sure their fireworks were something the judges were looking for, but it didn’t do it for me. I wasn’t too fond of the music either.

I have to say, I really liked South Africa’s despite not actually seeing it live. Their fireworks may not have been as creative as China’s, but their music was incredible. The Pirates of the Carribean theme song always gets to me. I could watch that minute and a half over and over again. UK put on a great show as well. It’s unfortunate they didn’t leave their big blast for last. And as for Canada, well… after watching it online, complete with music, I didn’t find it all that great. The Wizard of Oz music was never meant to accompany fireworks. The fireworks were just blasting away however they liked and the music was just there for the sake of being there.

Nevertheless, I’m glad I went to the fireworks this year. Being out in the summer night, driving (aka idling) in the fireworks aftermath, chilling with friends, ah. Will look forward to next year’s fireworks.

Enjoy the following photos. And South Africa FTW!

Onion rings look-alike much? This is actually fried calamari from Watermark (the restaurant @ Kits Beach). Needless to say, they look remarkably different from last Saturday’s fried calamari. Apparently, they changed things around to be all Ocean Wise, thus the new look and way of cooking and taste. All I can say is… yuck. (Sigh, and they changed it because of something the place I volunteer at started.) Fried calamari isn’t the same when there isn’t a crispy surface.

Market Greens

They redeemed themselves (sort of) with their delicious (and obviously overpriced) Tiramisu Cheesecake.

The view of Kits Beach from Watermark

Last night’s sunset was the fastest I’ve ever seen in my life. You could seriously just sit there and see the sun move behind the mountains within minutes.

And now, time for the fireworks photos themselves. (Fireworks mode FTW again.)

And that pretty much wraps up the Celebration of Light 2009. I’m hoping South Africa will win, but part of me doubts they will. I don’t know when the winner will be announced, but I do know I’m already looking forward to next year’s fireworks (hopefully they won’t be briefly cancelled again like they were this year).