July 16 – Filomi Days in Port Hardy

Yesterday I had planned to drive across the island to do a hike in Cape Scott Provincial Park but it would have meant driving on 160 km of logging road for the return trip and I have just lost confidence in the CRV tires. We would probably have been OK because I think it was the metal at the mine that got us but I couldn’t help thinking that we would get stranded on the other side. I think I will have to get some tougher light truck tires to replace the ones we have. It was also a rather gloomy day so we just rested.

This weekend is Filomo Days in Port Hardy, celebrating their history of FIshing, LOgging and MIning. It is also 50 years since the town was incorporated so the theme was the 60’s.

We headed downtown and found a spot to watch the parade at noon.

These guys came ahead to warm up the crowd.

Got to have Mounties and a pipe band.

The easy way to do the parade.

There were some Taiko Drummers up from Victoria. I think Port Hardy is twinned with a city in Japan.

Some hippies from the bakery. I had a chocolate scone from them later. One of the best I have eaten.

The pirate ship was shooting off his cannon.

This dragster, with the huge slicks on the back, had trouble going slow enough. Every time he touched the throttle, the car would leap forward.

Most of the floats and cars threw out candy. There was always a scramble.

I am not what this moi had to do with the theme but I guess they had one so why not use it.

What is a parade without the Shriners and their go-carts.

For a relatively small town they have a lot of fire and rescue vehicles. I counted at least 6.

Port Hardy has a population of about 4000 and a lot of them were out today.

There were a few booths to wander around.

We ended up getting exactly the same thing that we had when we were at the dragon boat races in Campbell River. BBQ salmon on either a burger or noodles. At both places the price was a minimum $5 contribution to a charity. I guess the trailer just travels around the island to all the events. It was very good, once again.

I had seen in the program that a company was giving rides in two of these flying boats. The brochure I had didn’t mention a price and I just assumed that it would be too expensive. Just as the time was up, Jennie saw in her brochure that it was only $20 a ride. Darn (or words like that).

Lots of face painted kids running around.

A booth was doing a very brisk business in these bubble guns. Jennie even bought a couple.

A bit of aerial combat went on over our heads. The eagle was trying to catch the seagull, which seemed to have an injured foot. The eagle came close a few times but I think that the seagull could turn sharper and the eagles eventually gave up.

There was entertainment all afternoon. The Taiko Drummers were up first.

They played for over and hour and were really into it.

The Caucasian lady and this man were married but it seemed that she was the one that would go away to the drummer’s conferences and bring back new songs.

After they were done we wandered over to all the inflatables in the kids area.

No, this is not Jennie’s arm.

There was a long wait to get into the balls because you got a fairly long ride.

After a while Jennie couldn’t resist the call of the shells on the beach.

Once she came back up, we decided that we had had enough so home we went.