Water Festival

Yesterday my husband and I stopped by Rotary Park to check out the Water Festival. This is kind of like 'Rivers Day' and was hosted by an organization called the Nicola Watershed Community Roundtable. The weather was really nice although a bit cool towards the evening. The first person we talked to was a man from Oceans and Fisheries Canada who showed us the display that was set up and then discussed fish farming and such topics. There was a tank of coho fry and a cute little display of the life cycle from the roe to fry stage. We had a hot dog after that and checked out the art on display which was themed on the subject of water naturally. The musicians were setting up as we wandered around the mostly educational displays and then I saw all the wooden fish laying on boxes on the ground. "Come and paint a fish!" they said so I picked up a fish and found a brush and went at it. There were lots of plywood cutouts of fish and birds and the idea was to paint both sides and then place them along either the Nicola or Coldwater Rivers in Merritt. I think these cutout will eventually be attached to the fence of one of the schools afterwards. I was really getting into it actually- after doing one I did two more! Othmar meanwhile had decided that the salmon dinner at the concession looked really tasty so got us some tickets and so with paint still on my fingers we chowed down on an absolutely delicious salmon dinner. Brambles Bakery ran that one and of course the little pastries for dessert were fantastic too. It was a good stop for Friday...we had to do grocery shopping afterwards and it's always better to do that on a full stomach!