Long weekend

We've had a pretty full long weekend - Friday night we had an awesome thunderstorm, one like we rarely have.  It stuck around for an hour or so, with about 2" of rain, and lots of lightning. 

Saturday I put in a half day at work, then met up with Jenn and a dear friend of ours from way back in our Kananaskis days, who was in town with her daughter for an outdoor concert in Ambleside Park, West Vancouver.  She had a couple of extra tickets, as her husband and son couldn't make it due to hockey tryouts, so we joined them for the show.  It was an absolutely perfect evening, and the bands were great!  (The Mowgli's, Tegan & Sara, and fun.) 
 
Sunday was relaxing, and some puttering around, as well as a brief nap (yay!)

Today we made our first trip to the fair, the PNE.  Today was the last day, so it was now or... next year.  The weather started out kind of iffy - another (brief) thunderstorm this morning, but clearing, and it turned out to be a gorgeous afternoon.  We were there for opening, and beat the crowds.

My main goal was to ride the old wooden roller-coaster, built in 1958, and by all appearances, unchanged since then.  It was terrifying and exciting fun!  I rode it twice, once in the front seat, and once in the back seat. 

The front gives the full experience of the steep drops, and at times it seemed like the car would lift right off the tracks - though I'm sure there are safeguards against that (right?).  In the back seat, it just felt like I would be thrown out of the car as it whipped over the hills!!

In between my two rides on the wooden coaster, I went on the Corkscrew, a steel coaster that does (you guessed it) two tight corkscrews.  Good fun as well!

I struggled for a while on whether to go on Atmosfear, which takes you up to 218 feet above ground in a little swing, going around and around in circles.  The circles part turned me off though, and I stayed on the ground.
 

We also enjoyed the RCMP Musical Ride (hadn't seen that in many years!).

In the marketplace, amongst all the gadgets and toys, we saw a booth where you could get your teeth whitened!  Right there in the marketplace!  We had a good laugh about that one.
 

We ended our afternoon with this raucous group of drummers, who put on a crowd-pleasing show!

We really enjoyed the whole experience, and were glad we finally made it there!