What could possibly be a more “totally Golden” thing to do than to go to almost every single activity there was on Canada Day?
My alarm went off early that day. As soon as my feet hit the ground, I was running. At 9 a.m., I got in line for the pancake breakfast in Spirit Square, put on by the Lions Club.
Unfortunately, I didn’t have enough time to grab pancakes and coffee, because so many other people had arrived before I did. I ducked out of line and walked across Spirit Square, where the RCMP and Special Olympics athletes were gathered for the beginning of the annual Torch Run.
I had just enough time after giving up on breakfast to get a good spot to watch them run by, led by a police car with the lights on, and the first runner with the torch. The sea of red shirts all moved past me, and it was time to forget the pancakes… for now.
Onward and upward, I drove to Kicking Horse Mountain Resort to go celebrate the resident grizzly bear’s sweet 16th birthday.
The air was crisp and cool, but I felt comfortable in my sweater, which was good because I looked forever for my raincoat before giving up and determining that it was most likely going to be a beautiful day. I had a spectacular view of the fog covering the top of the mountains, and the lush green grass below my feet, and slowly creeping into the distance was the town of Golden.
I had a nice hot coffee from the café up there, made to perfection. This was activity number three, and I really enjoyed the solitude from the chairlift. A few sprinkles of rain tickled my skin.
I got off the chair, and Boo was all ready to greet his party guests. There were about 20 people at his party, and we all sang him Happy Birthday. His cake was looking pretty good, and my stomach was growling, but I didn’t want to ask a grizzly for a slice of his cake.
I knew I was on a short time schedule, so I got back on the chair to ride it down the mountain. Without my hot coffee, it was quite a bit chillier. Then those sprinkles from the sky started to pick up speed, and before I knew it, I was caught in a classic rainstorm. The one time I couldn’t find my raincoat. In true tough mountaineer lady fashion, I still enjoyed it somehow. It rained so hard on me, it was creating a stream off the end of my chin into my lap. C’est la vie.
Cranking the heat on in my car to get the chill out of my bones, I enjoyed the dreary drive back into town, got changed into dry clothes, located my rain coat and sunglasses (you never know), and headed out into the hustle and bustle of downtown.
My first stop, of course, was to see if I could get some pancakes at 11:05 a.m., five minutes late. The kind lions filled my plate, and I was on my way again.
Off to the farmer’s market. There were a surprising number of vendors I hadn’t seen before, and it was nice to see all of the regulars, too. John and Jackson were entertaining the passersby, and the market led very nicely into the classic car show, where brightly coloured cars and trucks, and even tractors, lined the streets of downtown.
After that, it was time to head across town to the museum where the Pickups were playing. There were children all around, playing tug of war, eating cake, and dancing. It was a super friendly and happy place to be, and it didn’t seem like a little bit of rain could stop any outdoor party in Golden.
Then, I stopped in for a very Canadian Caesar and went to take a nap (I needed it if I was going to make this whole thing happen), before going back to Spirit Square to watch the dirt bike demo by Ride The Vibe, which was totally cool and amazing.
Some of the stunts and tricks made me hold my breath in anticipation (and anxiety), but they landed every single one of them, even with their very excited dog jumping all around with enthusiasm.
The firehall had a billion activities to celebrate their 120th anniversary, including obstacle courses for kids, BBQ kabobs and smokies, cupcakes, goodies, popcorn, slushies, and just about anything you could crave.
I checked out the silent auction and hung around long enough to make sure I wouldn’t get outbid on some fancy eyelash extensions. I watched a watermelon-eating contest, which turned out to be a hilariously sticky mess, and checked out all of the fire trucks.
With all of the activities and the go, go, go attitude I had that day, I decided it was time for a nice long walk at Confluence Park with my best four-legged pal, Jake. We had fun dipping our toes into the water and throwing sticks.
We walked the whole trail alongside the river, and even continued on past the search and rescue and the airport, and eventually ended up at Little Mittens before turning back. We had worked up quite the appetite, so he had a quick meal on the road, and I headed to the campground, but the Rotary BBQ had already ended.
We listened to the music there for a while before finding a comfortable place along the river to hang out and wait for the fireworks.
The show was great, but it’s always over too soon. I wish fireworks took hours. It was probably for the best, though, because the mosquitoes were having a feast on us.
We headed to the Rockwater to dance to the ’80s cover band and the DJs that followed. The night got late, we got tipsy and tired, and it was off to dreamland.
The events on Sunday showed me what a beautiful and busy town we live in. There are so many different groups of people with so much passion who work hard to provide us with all of these activities.
