OK, I know at first glance that I am not looking all that patriotic in my Canada day attire ...

... but let me put it into perspective: I am sitting in a booth at Timmies, wearing an HBC sweatshirt and pants from the 2008 Canadian Olympic uniform series, both of which say "Canada" down the side, eating a vanilla-iced DOUGHNUT with maple leaf sprinkles and sipping a large double-double. Just the fact that most of my American friends won't even be able to decipher the entirety of that sentence should prove my loyalties ...

For Canada Day we continued with a tradition that we started up in Alaska, of attending the local minor league baseball games. The Vancouver Canadians always have a Canada Day game followed by fireworks right at the field, and you gotta love minor league ball games for all their quirks and traditions that are allowed to continue, year after year, unfettered by corporate restrictions and marketing glitz.

This year, before the game (and after a rousing, participaction worthy rendition of O Canada), they also had a fly-over by a CP-140 Aurora, from CFB Comox.

Ummm ... cool.

It ALMOST measured up to the traditional third-inning sushi mascot base race-off between Ms. BC Roll, Mr. Kappa Maki and Chef Wasabi ...

Sigh. Gotta say, in all my years of attending Expos games as a kid, I can guarantee you that life-sized plush Asian food was not rounding home plate at any point in time ...

The other notable Vancouver Canadians tradition is the hardworking ground crew ...

... who come out in the fifth to clean up the infield, and look like any other diligent group of guys just going about their duties, until they drop their groomers, and bust out with a choreographed dance routine ...

There is nothing a crowd (ummm ... or me ... ) loves more than a group of presumably straight guys in an athletic setting, wearing matching outfits and laying down Flashdance-worthy moves in sync. Except maybe a a group of presumably straight guys in an athletic setting, wearing matching outfits that do not include T-shirts ...

Most notable detail of the day - my new camera has a fireworks setting ...

Oh yeah ... apparently a baseball game also happened at some point in the evening ...