Mystery Box

It's only late afternoon but we've already had a full day. We kicked off with a trip downtown to the Pearl District to volunteer a little of our time picking up trash. After that we popped in to Powell's to buy some books. Then headed over to NE Alberta street to catch the Art Fair there.

The Art Fair was very cool. The street was blocked off to traffic from about 15th up to 30th. There was every sort of anything you might want to buy in terms of art and clothes, but most of it was pretty much green and/or recycled. The kids had Organic Cotton Candy. There were very cute handbags made from candy wrappers; art drawn on old furniture, suitcases and other junk; vegi dogs and ribs; and even a guy with a stall giving out "Free Advice". Very diverse and interesting things to find. Also great people-watching to be had.

Up near 29th, there is a fun crepe place where we grabbed a quick bite. A very inviting "beach shack" kind of structure with a the kitchen out back in a trailer (i.e. a caravan for those across the pond). All the furniture and fixtures in the place were resused/recycled stuff collected from here and there and painted nice bright colors.

One of the items was this old functioning typewriter. I explained to the kids how it worked and they had a great time typing things out. Emma wanted to type "I Love Daddy", and Holly helped her to do it, but then Holly wanted to write something more and so added "sometimes". They sure know how to keep it real for old Dad! :)

BTW, Holly scored the hat you see here. It's also reversible so she gets two hats for one. Emma scored a nice little dress too.

At one point, as we were walking along the street catching up with Mom, we started counting the number of dogs we saw. By the time we caught up with her(about 10 minutes later) we had counted 37 doggies.

By this stage it was approaching three o'clock and with the sun beating down all day, with not a cloud in the sky, we headed home to sit out on the porch and relax a bit.

Off now to grill some steaks and get settled in for some movie watching tonight. Too much sun and fun. I hope I last the evening....