the {not-so} jazz festival

What a crazy fun weekend!
I know its been three days since the weekend, but it has taken me this long to recover & gather my thoughts {& photos} of all of it.

& I'm going to tell you all about it in a non-chronological/ non-structured order.

Saturday {the mother-day of the weekend} I forced my adorable husband out of bed at what SHOULD have been a respectable time to get outta bed, but this particular morning, it was really a cruel cruel hour & a mean thing to do {more on this later}.

We headed out to Brambleberry Farms {aka my personal little paradise} We picked blueberries for a few hours - we lugged 39 lbs of those awesome little blueberries home with us. Then we had an awesome BBQ dinner with Adam, Andrea, Cameron & Cory. While the boys went fishing down at The Point, Andrea & I stayed at the house & indulged in all that girly talk. It was great - she is such an awesome person. You should all agree.

Sunday was church & the then another round of blueberry picking. Only 18 lbs this time though {but no worries, we'll be picking more this coming weekend! & no, I am not crazy.}

I don't really know what else we did that day other than go for a walk {where we were laid siege to by mosquito's} & waste ourselves away in front of the laptop watching MASH. So nice.

Back tracking the story, all the way to Friday: After work Mat & I took off to Toronto for the Beaches Jazz Festival. It's been a tradition between Mat & his friend Albert for the past three years. I have only been privy to it for the past two. It's a lot of fun, but I mostly just went for the kettle corn {I wish Albert never introduced me to that stuff, it's so addicting!}

The traditional stroll along the Beaches on the way to the StreetFest. Can you see the CN Tower in the distance there?

Someone who was rich enough to actually buy waterfront property in Toronto had this bizarre mirror fence set up. I had to get a picture...cool eh?

The StreetFest. See the two little kids in the bottom left getting ice cream!? Isn't that just SO cute!?

The 2nd {& best} band we saw all night. They weren't jazz, they were that salsa/Mexican music that I love. The accordion player was just getting right into it too. I never knew someone could rock out on an accordion, but this man proved me wrong. But {as was the theme of the night} 'Just because you CAN do something, doesn't mean you SHOULD do it'

There were a lot of 'big band' bands this year. These ones were probably the most well dressed. Though the drummer (not pictured here) looked like he belonged in the mafia.

We had a short stop for some dinner in a park. This was probably the highlight of the whole night for me {next to the accordion player} This little squirrel got SO close to us, {no zoom required!} apparently he REALLY likes Subway bread.

Ahh, Toronto hospitality. Something I don't miss. {For those with bad eyes, the sign reads: "DON'T EVEN THINK OF PARKING HERE!"}

I'm always interested to see how the little shops and stores a long Queen street try to incoroporate a jazz theme into their window displays. The toy store had stuff animals on a mini drum kit & other stuffeds playing saxophones. But this dress was by far the best.

All in all it was a good night. Not enough jazz, & definitely not enough kettle corn vendors. Around 11pm we broke away from the bustling crowds & made our way to the Beaches again {they are so beautiful in the nighttime} We then proceeded to get horribly lost in downtown Toronto for probably close to an hour. {Who knew Gerrard just suddenly stopped being Gerrard & turned into a tiny little alleyway side street!?} When Albert finally got us back to our car, Mat had to change a busted light bulb {something he had never done before} Needless to say we didn't get out of the city until well after midnight, & finally pulled in to home around 2:30am. {THIS is why it was so cruel to walk Mat up at 9:30am...but he did it for me, & blueberries!}

A fun & busy weekend. This weekend is Adam's birthday {woot!}, a funeral, a bonfire party & more blueberry picking. I can't wait! {well, maybe I can for the funeral}