July 1 is Canada Day, ironically I am writing this on July 4 which is USA’s national day.
Allow me to say that over the years of travels to the United States, and interactions with some fellow bloggers in the USA, my fondness for their nation keeps improving. I know that my family tree is on both sides of the Canada/USA border as two brothers immigrated to New York in the early 1900’s, one brother stayed in the US, and the other went to and stayed in Canada. As a result, it seems natural that I like the USA, but my heart is Canadian as this is my home that I love and am proud of.
This Canada Day was especially memorable as my yard is flourishing with flowers, and we added a Canadian flag to hang from our front deck at our home. It looked grand!
Later in the day, we took it to the beach and my wife, son and I took turns posing with the flag with Skaha lake in the background. We have never done that before and we enjoyed it.
My home city, Penticton, I am informed, is one of only two cities in the world that is located between two different lakes. Canada Day here is celebrated with much public fanfare. In a park downtown there is bandshell and all day long the bandshell hosts different types of music and entertainment from belly dancing to scottish highland dancing. Of course there are food trucks everywhere and after the grand opening there is free cake!
During the opening ceremony, we citizens stand and sing O Canada, and recognize the indigenous people and their culture. At night the boats and beaches are full as the light is lit up with fireworks, as I know it will be tonight all over in the USA.
Many years we enjoy aerial displays from the Snowbirds but not every year. They put on a dazzling show that is always exhilarating to watch. Click here to see what I mean.
In Ottawa, the national capital for Canada, there is a huge party on July 1 – click here to hear The Nylons sing O Canada
Every country has it’s national day, and hopefully you will enjoy yours especially this year, as I did mine.
Nice day to sit on lakeshore bench
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Life and Random Thinking 
Lovely post and I’m with you all the way O’🇨🇦❣️ Great that you had such a perfect frame for a wonderful day to remeber. (We Norwegians 🇳🇴 are not bad at all at feeling proud, happy and grateful, celebrating and waving our flags on the 17th of May…)
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The good people of Norway 🇳🇴 have a wonderful country to be proud of I agree. My grandparents were raised in small Norwegian farming communities in our prairies. My grandmother made me lefse which I loved with brown sugar.
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https://polldaddy.com/js/rating/rating.jsGreat post and Happy Canada Day a little late.
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I am glad it was well received! Happy 4th!
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https://polldaddy.com/js/rating/rating.jsNice post! Our son used to think that “Oh, Canada” naturally followed “”The Star Spangled Banner.” Plenty of hockey games! We are great neighbors. 🙂
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I always thought that the last two words of the USA anthem were “play ball”😁
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https://polldaddy.com/js/rating/rating.jsThat’s funny!
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https://polldaddy.com/js/rating/rating.jsI’m so glad you had such a beautiful day! I’m not ready to talk about the nightmare that was my personal national holiday, so it did my spirit a lot of good to read this and see these great pictures!
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Sorry about your day, glad I helped a tiny bit.
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https://polldaddy.com/js/rating/rating.jsYou helped a lot. Thank you!
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Oh. My. Goodness 😍 I remember passing through the gorgeous Okanagan as we trekked from Regina through Calgary then on to Vancouver. Many years, every summer. If you’ve heard of the little donuts at the Stampede and PNE fairs, that was us. My favorite parts of the whole summer were the Rockies and the Valley. I love Canada very very much 😍🇨🇦
(Annnnd that would be the first time I’ve ever used a flag icon; haven’t ever even used the US one 😂)
Anyway, your family sounds beautiful, as are your pictures! Thank you for sharing your day 💖
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The mountains are impressive and I love little donuts 💚 . The Okanagan is lovely and I am happy you took the time to comment. The comments to me are like whipping cream on pumpkin pie, 😁😁
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Aww thank you! Omg those mountains! They’re majestic 😍 Here in TX we only have Hill Country, which is beautiful and Europeans (whom I also love) refer to them as mountains, but they’re not the same 😉 I spent about a quarter of my life in Canada until I was 21, when I left my parents’ operation and did my own thing, but I look back on my travels and the amazing people I met with incredible fondness. I’ll have those memories forever, I hope. And I’m itching for more travel, so maybe I’ll get to add new ones! The Okanagan is definitely on my list of places to visit (again); my sister lives in Calgary (dual citizen), and she regularly ventures into BC for fun 😁 It’s so cool meeting someone else from there! 💗
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If you like wine, this is Napa north, and I look forward to meeting you and sharing my place to live forever (that’s what my city Penticton name translates into)
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Now *that* sounds heavenly! The next time I get up there, I will definitely have to get out that way! It’d be fun to meet up 😁🙌🏼
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Reblogged this on Life and Random Thinking and commented:
Almost Canada day and this post is from 2017 and i hope my friends will enjoy it again. There are five or so links inserted that open a new tab to provide more information or music. I hope you find them all in good working order. I particularly love the brief rendition of O Canada.
My yard is looking great right now with sunflowers and we started picking and canning cherries from the tree in the backyard yesterday.
It was Beach Cruise weekend, an annual event and i blogged about it in 2018. If you love old cars use search on my blog using Penticton and voila!
Happy day!
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