Thursday, August 22, 2019

Tall Ships

In a fortunate turn of events, the Tall Ships tour of the Great Lakes made a stop in Kingsville harbour for the weekend. A mere ten minutes walk from the office, the festivities began Friday at lunch and lasted through the weekend.

Even right at noon on Friday, lineups were already sizeable as fans flocked down to the wharf and began clamoring for ship tours and sunset sails. With limited time, a few of us walked down from the office and met Jane at the harbour for a quick visual, though we were not able to stay for long.

Sadly, we weren't able to get any photos with ships in full sail.....alas. Still, a great opportunity that doesn't come around very often!

 Picton Castle

 Bluenose II

 The Kingsville fishing fleet keeps a respectful distance

 People line the wharf to tour the Tall Ships!
Fair Jeanne, Oriole and Empire Sandy docked in Kingsville


Sunday, August 18, 2019

Kingsville Folk Festival

We finally made it to the Kingsville Folk Music Festival, held every summer at beautiful Lakeside Park on the shores of Lake Erie. There were four stages scattered throughout the park, offering continuous music from a variety of genres over three days.

The sprawling park afforded some great shade opportunities within earshot of the various stages, great for those of us who need to shun the sun and therefore tend to skip outdoor festivals in summer.

Food was good, including our friends Total Meltdown and their gourmet grilled cheese and other sandwiches.

Local beverages were also featured, including brewery The Grove, Pelee Winery and Wolfhead distillery. Bottled water was not even sold on site, as guests were encouraged to bring refillable bottles and use the OCWA water station.

We chose the Sunday lineup specifically to see The Milk Carton Kids, who were every bit as incredible as anticipated. There may be no better guitar player around than flat-picker Kenneth Pattengale, and the vocal harmonies between the two are stunning. Check them out on Youtube!

We were also exposed to lots of other great local artists, including among many Annie Sumi from Guelph, The Pairs from London, Brendan Scott Friel from Windsor, storyteller Gurf Morlix, Toronto's Union Duke, and Bluegrass band Traditionally Wound.

From further afield we heard Erika Kulnys from the East Coast, while the Gabriel Palatchi Band brought some crazy Latin jazz piano from South America, and Low Lily imported some folk from Vermont.

Perfect weather and a peaceful crowd rounded out a wonderful day of music!

Windsor's Brendan Scott Friel entertains at the Creekside Stage

Gurf Morlix on the Main Stage

Sound check for the Milk Carton Kids


Union Duke from Toronto

Low Lily from Brattleboro, Vermont

Beautiful sunset over the Folk Festival

The Milk Carton kids!

Kenneth Pattengale and Joey Ryan work their magic

Monday, August 5, 2019

August Long Weekend

The August long weekend rolled in, bringing summer heat and our friend Vanessa for her annual visit. Someone even aged a bit.

This weekend also always brings Art on the Boulevard in Erieau, which has quickly become our favourite show due to proximity, ease of setup/teardown, and overall results.It doesn't hurt that Bayside Brewery is there too....though I never seem to make it there anyway, all the way down at the far end of the show!

Hogs for Hospice added to a very busy weekend locally, featuring many MANY motorcycles and some outdoor concerts in Leamington. What was new this year, was a Tour the Tip rally en masse to Point Pelee National Park, including a loop around to visit Wheatley for lunch.

The local BIA planned things well, and arranged to have the main intersection shut down for several hours so the multitude of bikers could park in all four directions and  enjoy some lunch and cold refreshments. Renny's in particular did it right, bringing in three breweries and a distillery to run the expanded promo patio, while offering a very limited menu of their delicious pulled pork sandwiches.

From what we heard, even the entry and exit of the pack was so well organized it went off without a hitch, though bikers alone easily exceeded the village's regular population. Organizers re-routed bikes and led them to designated areas by groups, to maximize the dispersal and turnover throughout the village.

Estimates vary, but somewhere between 3000 and 4000 bikes took over the town for a few hours. Sadly we missed it all, being stuck a half hour away selling art in Erieau.

We did manage to end up on the patio at Renny's for THREE straight dinners - partly because Vanessa needed her brisket fix, but also just because nothing goes better with a summer long weekend than cold beer and great food on their patio!

The garden - looking pretty good in spite of a late start

The Open Door

Lake Erie shoreline at Erieau

Art on the Boulevard!

Hogs for Hospice takes over Wheatley for lunch!


Erie Street

The Usual Suspects

Loaded Up Fries and some local Flywheel

"Somebody" sleeping in the van at the art show....

Brisket on a Bun at Renny's

Birthday cake!

Perch Po'Boy

Renny's patio