So, someone stole my camera. That's what you get for leaving your house unlocked while you're at work all day.
Fuck.
Also, it was -5C today - and enough of a breeze to make it feel much worse. I wasn't going to bother heading down to the Christmas parade but Ayreonaut and Ms. Ayreonaut really wanted a third wheel. And jeddy1989 was in the parade - as well as a few other friends.
One of the songs that played as the parade passed by to set the mood...
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We walked down from Rabbittown, our neighbourhood.
Taking Long's Hill for the bulk.
The Christmas parade gets well over half the city's population in attendance, so there's lots of folks milling about the streets heading down.
From Long's Hill, we tucked down Church Hill to get most of the rest of the way down to Water Street.
The Anglican Cathedral of St. John the Baptist.
The Gower Street United Church.
A portion of the parade actually passes by Duckworth Street on its way down to Water, so lots of people were up on this one as well.
We stopped at the Newfoundland Bagel Cafe hoping to get some toutons or something, but it was packed. So we gave up.
We finally made it down to Water Street and decided to walk to Rocket Bakery to see if we'd have better luck there as it tends to be a quick-in-quick-out kinda place.
That meant we had to walk all the way to the other end.
Newfoundland Television was there for its live broadcast. We like pretending we're something.
A long history of local importance.
At Rocket, we got a pulled pork turnover, salt cod cake, sausage roll, and Spanish omelette.
And enjoyed the view. We contemplated just staying here in the heat to watch the parade but I wasn't tall enough.
A lot of the bars on George Street opened early.
People went wherever they could to get a view. The crowd on the roof of Bowring's were throwing snowballs down at the people on the street.
The intersection of Water Street, Beck's Cove, and George Street. Our main downtown intersection and heart of the downtown.
We decided to go to the parking garage of 351 for a better view, but we had to take George Street to get there as Water was too crowded and slow-moving.
With the flags in that state it'd be more complimentary to just not bother.
And then we made it to 351.
No selfie this time. Ms. Ayreonaut took it.
There was a pigeon trap. Not knowing if they'd be released elsewhere or killed, we may or may not have released them.
One of the finest little harbours in the world, so sheltered it's the reason we're the capital of Newfoundland and not Harbour Grace.
Mr. and Ms. Ayreonaut.
Our Christmas parade itself is hilariously small town. Lots of dog and dance troupes and a handful of floats.
Last year the theme was "Christmas Around the World". The Newfoundland ponies - dozens of them - were decked out in flags of various nations.
Then there was one that just said "Africa".
This year they had tutus.
We hid in the stairwell to warm up. Had to be close to -10C with windchill.
Our hideous, under-developed Downtown West End. Normally you could spend all day here and never see another living soul outside their vehicles. Today, the crowd seemed especially thick out there. No idea why... who wants to stand beside the fucking Oceanex terminal? Come on...
The obligatory Elsa/Frozen float.
Traditional Newfoundland Christmas Lego Star Wars?
Do they still count as belly dancers if they're bundled up for winter?
Last year's theme recycled?
There were three different LGBT groups participating this year. So nice to see it spread beyond the Pride parade.
Traditional Newfoundland Christmas Hip Hop.
Then we headed back down to the street to see Santa because we're still kids at heart.
The usually busy Murray Premises Courtyard completely empty with everyone up on the street watching the parade and all the cafe seating put away for winter.
In summer, this is one of the places in the city that can feel big city urban. There are two bars, a restaurant, LOTS of seating, lots of people. It's really lovely.
HO HO HO!
And then it was time to walk home.
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