Harvest Festival Parade

Pulled pork, mashed potatoes and all the trimmings.  Yum!

Today we decided to take in the festivities of the Harvest Festival.  In the past, when we have visited PEI, we used to see the Harvest Festival advertised but always had to leave the island before it took place in order to make it back to BC before I had to go back to work.  Now that we have moved to the island, this year we were able to attend it.  J

It was a perfect day, weather wise, for the festivities.  The sun was out and there were a few fluffy white clouds floating about to make sure it didn’t get too hot.  We arrived down at the train station where all the action was happening around 11:30 a.m.  There were tables set up for vendors selling their wares, a petting zoo for kids, music playing from local entertainers and food sampling … which is my favorite!  J

There was a local chef handing out free samples of her cooking, which consisted of pulled pork, mashed potato and then you got to add your own shredded cheese, green onions, gravy, real bacon bits and sour cream.  It was really good!  There were also free samples from Mary’s Bakery of cinnamon buns, several different kinds of cookies and scones.  The milk company ADL also had samples of 3 different kinds of cheese and chocolate milk to enjoy.  I told Ron we didn’t need to eat breakfast before going!  It was really good.

The Atlantic Lottery Corporation also had an interactive booth set up.  Inside the bubble dome they had tv screens that told you where the money goes when you buy a lottery ticket.  Another screen showed a map of the Atlantic Provinces and had pin points of where the big winners were located.  PEI has only had $1000.00 winners, but Newfoundland has had several $100,000.00 or more winners.  Did we move to the wrong province?  Of course you have to buy a ticket in order to win so maybe that’s my problem.   The last tv screen was the winner’s screen and it took your photo with funny disguises photo shopped in.  You will see what I mean in the photo attached.

We decided to leave the train station and head over to the beach volleyball tournament.  They had blocked off some roads and piled a ton of sand on the ground and turn the street into a beach.  They had 3 different volleyball games set up at once.  There were bleachers set up for people to sit and watch which ever game you wanted.  It was a nice to sit down for a while and have a rest.

In the afternoon we had the Harvest Festival Parade.  It was a much larger parade than the ones we had seen so far.  I found out that this parade had more floats and entries because there had been a parade in Charlottetown the day before and many of the floats stayed over to be in the Kensington parade today.  We had decided to leave Bailey at home this time, just in case his little horse buddy that he attacked when we first arrived on the island, was in the parade.  It was a wise decision because Blue Boy was in the parade.  It was a really good parade and I took lots of photos for you to enjoy.

After the parade we went back to the train station and sampled some more food from the local restaurants here in Kensington.  There were little fish patties from the Family & Friends Restaurant.  There was also a sampling of potato chips topped with lots of melted cheese and pulled pork from the Island Stone Pub.  It was a little different twist from nachos that were very tasty!   After we had our fill of sampling all the goodies we decided it was time to go home. 

I think that it is important to take in the local festivities and events when they are so close to home.  It gives us an opportunity to see what a great community we have moved to.   Everyone is so friendly in a small town and you are bound to run into someone you know.  We love living in Kensington and finding new things to see and do.  This was just one more new adventure for us.  It was a very enjoyable day. 

Enjoying a free cinnamon bun

Chef Campbell preparing pulled pork with mashed potato

This was so good ... and FREE!

Closed the street for Beach Volleyball

A lot of sand for beach volleyball

Girls beach volleyball

Checking out the books

Atlantic Lottery Corporation Booth

Honoring past Fire Chiefs

Citizen of the Year

1927 Hudson Essex

Bailey's buddy Blue Boy

We live in a farming community for sure.

1937 Dodge

Flintstone Car

Shriner's Clown

Shriner's Plane

Motorized lawn chair

Shriner's Mini Cars

Parade Clown

Best Float - Sweating with Richard Simmons

Atlantic Lottery Winner's Circle