The PNE 2011, Baby!

Well that toothless little piggy and  the crazy rooster up there are your introduction to

 "The Penners take on the PNE - Season Deux"

You will all have to forgive us if this blog has a lot of  "Season Two's" and Part Deux's in the near future.  We're on year two, after all!  A lot of the things we did and wrote about last year, we thought were going to be a one time only event!  And now, here we are, getting to do them all over again!

The PNE (Pacific National Exhibition)  is one of those things.  It's something you've just gotta do if you live in the Lower Mainland.  We had been waiting for the perfect day to go, and last Saturday was it!  The weather was picture-perfect and one of our family's favorite bands "Delhi 2 Dublin" was the featured band at the evening concert.

The girls love everything about the PNE.  Really, there's not much NOT to love.  But one of the reasons our girls love it so much is because it's become our day to say "yes" to pretty much everything.  Cotton Candy?  Yes.  Kettle Corn?  Yes.  Slurpees?  Yes please.  Mini Donuts?  Hell, yes.  You see?  It's a "yes" kind of day.  And it feels good to be a "yes" parent for a whole day, doesn't it?

So we started off the day roaming through the grounds, snacking on gigantic bags of cotton candy and getting the lay of the land.  Mike was supper impressed with this sculpture made entirely out of steel.  It was pretty amazing and enormous.  It took the creator 2 years to build it from start to finish.  And, it's for sale!  If you're interested, I could point you in the right direction.

We made our way to the Pacific Coliseum to catch "Super Dogs" for our 4th time!  We've seen their show twice at the Royal Manitoba Winter Fair in Brandon, and now twice at the PNE.  It is always a huge crowd-pleaser.

Afterward we lay on the grass and listened to the "Dal Richards Orchestra".  Dal is a legend in Vancouver.  He's got a great band, great crooners, and a touch of class.  They play songs from the Big Band era that we all love. 

We called the afternoon quits with huge plates of "Wiggle Chips".  You know their kind.... the crispy, deep fried, thinly sliced potatoes that are part chip and part french fry.  We had to try and do our part to fill our quota of deep fried food early in the day.

After checking out some exhibitions we were off to see the "Peking Acrobats" show at the Coliseum.  It's a huge crowd pleaser!  Thankfully we got great seats and were not disappointed.

Mike's testosterone tank needed filling after all the lycra and sequins in that show, so it was off to the "Evolution of Extreme".  (Please say Evolution of Extreme in your most macho-host voice ever)  It was basically Evil Knievel on dirt-bikes, quads, and (wait for it) snowmobiles.  That's right, people, the guy flew through the air doing flips and turns on a snowmobile.  All the men and boys in the audience were very impressed.  All of the girls covered their eyes and held their breath at the appropriate times.  It was a great show!

We refueled with butter chicken and naan and then took our places on the grass in front of the concert stage to await Delhi 2 Dublin's show. 

We have loved this band since discovering them at the Winnipeg Folk Fest a few years back.  Amazingly, Hannah was lucky enough to see a full show of theirs this past year as part of the concert series offered to kids in grades 5-7 here in Burnaby.  D2D is band that is hard to categorize.  I've read one reviewer talk about them as what you'd get if you cross an Indian wedding party with a drunken sailor just off the boat in Newfoundland.  They merge Indian, Celtic, Electronica, hip-hop, and reggae.  It's like nothing you've ever heard before.

That description doesn't do them justice, so here's a clip of their song "Tommy" which we've been singing all week long.  We love the message of this song.... "What you have is not who you are".  Amen.

Needless to say we danced our faces off all night long.  Our girls have some pretty fine Punjabi-esque/hip-hop moves if i do say so myself.    I love having our girls grow old enough that we've started discovering and falling in love with bands together.  It's just the beginning!

We finished the night with mini-donuts and a gigantic icy-cold root-beer from a wooden keg.

The perfect way to end  a great day.