CandyTown in Yaletown

I had an amazing weekend!  It started out on Saturday, the second and last day of CandyTown in Yaletown.  It was the first year for this winter festival type event.  My friend, Cindy, was organizing it.  She emailed a couple weeks beforehand looking for volunteers.  I, of course, extended my services to her.  I also contacted another fellow volunteer and friend, Nadine, to help out on this day.  We were both positioned to work at the make shift ice rink from 4pm to 9pm.  We decided to go a bit earlier in the day to check things out before we started our shift.

First, we got off at the Yaletown, Roundhouse station and walked onto Mainland Street where two blocks were shut down for the festival.  The first thing we noticed was the ice rink at which we were to volunteer at.  Trevor Linden was supposed to be in attendance to sign autographs from 12-3pm.  He was at the skate rink for a while before he crossed the street to the Scotiabank tents and sat down for the signing.  The line was long but people were great and really happy to see our former captain of the Vancouver Canucks, still involved in the community.

 

Here is Trevor Linden taking pics with people in the rink.

As we walked further down the street, we came upon the horse drawn carriage line up.  Our friend and Cindy's husband, Ken was there organizing the people for carriage rides.  Cindy was also with him.  They both gave us the low down on what was happening at the event and what our duties would be.  We told them we would take a look around and get familiar with the sites and sounds of the area before we started our shift a few hours later.  

So, we walked over to the information booth where I ran into fellow volunteers, Kiersten and Stephanie.  Hilarity ensued as neither of them really knew anything about the event and thought it was funny they were put in the information booth.  It really was on-the-job learning for them both.  At this point, Kiersten volunteered to go help out with the Reindeer as it nearing the time for both it and Santa to arrive.  Nadine and I decided to walk further down the street checking things out.

We came to the end of the festival where we stopped and listened to a jazz band playing and singing Christmas music.  We joined in and sang and danced to "Jingle Bells".  

 

 So, now as we were walking back down the path we had just come from, I looked over to my right side and who should I see but one of our beloved out of work Canucks.  Yes, folks, it was Kevin Bieksa.  I swear, I am not stalking him.  We just tend to show up at the same events.  He was with his wife and kids...I think he had an extra kid with him cause he had three.  I took a pic of him only though and as stealthily as I could. 

Here, he was with the owner of PHAT deli/bar.  Its the restaurant with the blue awning in the background there.  He was playing with his kids (not pictured) and waiting for his wife.  She came down the stairs and they started wandering around the festival.  Nadine and I also decided to venture forth looking around at the merchant's offerings.  Next thing I knew, Bieksa's kids were right behind me and trying to get by between Nadine and I.  So I moved aside to let them through.  Bieksa said "Excuse me" as the kids ran though us and he walked by me.  Nadine and I kept walking and I noticed that Bieksa had taken his kids to go see the Reindeer.  Well, let me tell you a little story about this Reindeer.

Ken had mentioned a few things to us earlier about this particular reindeer.  He was cute as a button but apparently he was a pretty moody reindeer.  He didn't like people.  He was one of the two reindeers that live on Grouse Mountain.  We got the special one. Kiersten thought he was cute and sweet as he was only a few feet off the ground and had only one antler on his head.  This particular reindeer was a nasty one.  He was biting, kicking and farting (alot) the whole morning.  He didn't like any of his handlers until one volunteer, named Karen, got into the pen with him.  He seemed to like her alot.  She seemed to be able to keep him calm.  As far as him only having one antler, most people don't realize this but the reindeers shed their antlers.  So the one on the left side had fallen off already.   He was extremely popular with the kids though.  The line ups were long and the one-horned, moody, farting reindeer behaved long enough to put on a show when needed!

We started our shift a little later at the rink and met a couple security guards that also work at BC Place.  They were fun to talk to.  We collected donations for Vancouver Children's Hospital.  We saw Cindy walking around dressed as a snowman and had to take a pic with her. 

Candy Lady was also walking around.  Had to take a pic of her.  It was another fellow volunteer of ours, Carmen.  She did a great job as well. 

After our shift ended, we helped bring back some props to the office and then headed off to eat.  Nadine and I ended up at PHAT deli/bar for some food.  Bieksa seems to promote it a lot on twitter so we thought we'd check it out.  The food was amazing, the drinks were yummy and the waiter was great!  All in all, Nadine and I had a great time. The Yaletown Candyland festival was great.  We know it will be even better next year.  I went home after all that and went to bed.  Plus, I had to get up early and work the Paul McCartney concert the next day at BC Place.  That's what my next blog post will be about.