Over the Seas and Into the Trees with the Carnival

2012-OAK-BAY-121Who had the weather on their to-do list? How about this Junuary? I am very superstitious about the weather; I never check it before we travel. There is nothing we can do about it, we can’t change it and I always hold onto hope for sunshine – no matter what the forecast shows. I figure if my hat is wet, it’s raining. Sometimes, you just gotta have a little faith.

We have certainly travelled with our Carnival this month! From Langley to Vancouver Island for the Oak Bay Tea Party and up to Lumby and through to Kamloops before we head back to Vancouver to play the Point Grey Fiesta.

No matter how much you plan and how many Carnival rides you bring…you simply cannot do anything about the weather! Our crew all collectively concentrate and think sunshine and sometimes we get lucky — Did we ever get lucky this month! We experienced torrential rain and snow on the drive up and rain and cold during set up and tear down…but on our open days we got pretty lucky!

It’s so nice to see everyone come out to support the event when the weather is not ideal. The Show still goes on. We really feel for our event planners who work all year round on these events – it’s a heart-breaker when you get rained out. I still hold hope and continue to look for small holes in the sky, while thinking positive thoughts, and then just like magic…we get a little sunshine where and when we need it.

I like to believe collectively our crew and the volunteers caused the good weather. We ended up having the best Oak Bay Tea Party ever! Incredible fireworks and rides into the night were a huge success all around. It was very well attended! Our thanks to all of the Volunteers who make all of these events possible for everyone – especially us!

2012-LUMBY-DAYS-21-287x300Lumby is the first small Community we travel to with our Carnival rides. We always feel like we are going back home when we get there. We adore the people of Lumby – there are so many happy familiar faces to see and such a lovely little community! People actually know our names in Lumby.

This year we saw the largest entries EVER in our Colouring Contest in Lumby. Our thanks to the PAC at J.W. Inglis Elementary and especially to Tara Young for all your efforts coordinating this! It was so much fun to see all the kids so excited when they saw us in the hall judging these great works of art. It was sooooo hard to pick winners, clearly you could see how much effort was put into all of these.

We did not have the best weather ever in Lumby but still we built it, and they came out anyway! We saw good crowds out watching the parade and good crowds came down to ride the carnival rides and enjoy the fair!

However….when the sun shines…look out! The line ups were remarkable on Sunday! I think all of Vernon, Salmon Arm, Lumby, Kelowna, Armstong and Penticton came to enjoy the day! Thank you to everyone who enjoyed the greatest little fair nestled in the Valley.

Our thanks are always first and foremost to those hardworking Volunteers who create and make these events possible and for thinking positive about the weather and for already planning for next year! You are the Best!