Supercrawl.

In Hamilton there is a monthly event called the Art Crawl, in which a renewed neighbourhood filled with artistry and local talent opens its galleries' doors for free to the public. There are over 10 galleries for viewing, many shops, cafes, and bars, and often live entertainment. It is a celebration of the amazing treasures to be found in our own community, in a place that had fallen from grace over the past decades, given new life by a young generation who loves this city and wants it to flourish. Once a year, there is a Supercrawl that amps everything up. This year boasted bigger and better offerings, including 3 stages with headliner Broken Social Scene and many more vendors among the standard art installations.

I chose this event as my birthday celebration so that people wouldn't have to spend money and could feel free to branch off or come and go as they wished. I had a group of friends come in from Toronto just for this event - not a common traffic flow for events - it's usually me heading out there! Everyone gathered at my apartment first, filling it fuller than it's ever been. Friends I haven't seen in a while were able to make it. I opened some presents, all lovely, and brought to me from Toronto, Victoria, and Paris. Then we walked down to James North and immediately encountered the congested streets, coloured purple from the concert stage lights and tangled in pot smoke.

We walked the strip, ducking into storefronts with antiques, live jazz, art supplies, and of course, galleries lined floor to ceiling with canvases detailing everything from floral still life paintings to comic-style graphic art. Vendors included our city's increasingly popular food trucks, cupcakes and grilled cheese flying out of their windows. Buskers sang and strummed for change. A small stage hosted swordfighting. A building at a major intersection was topped with gigantic inflatable human figures, lounging over the eaves. In the street, there were several art installations that the public could interact with. Brightly hued abstract structures, incredibly detailed chalk art of classic paintings, and my favourite, this bear:

During the Art Crawl, there is always a section called the Makers' Market, in which local artisans sell their goods. It's one of my favourite things to attend, especially because it is set up in the yard of a truly awesome cathedral. When I turned and looked behind me for stragglers, I glimpsed a huge glow above the church and could not process that it was the moon until I moved back far enough to see the full moon and its surrounding aura.

James North has been an early adopter of yarnbombing, though much of the knit graffiti has been removed. A bar, The Brain, remains cloaked in yarn, complete with knit flowerboxes.

Late in evening, my Toronto friends departed and I bumped into a group of people I went to high school with. I was surprised that there was not only recognition, but hugs all around. My first ever boyfriend was there and asked, "So, what have you been up to in the last twelve years...?" I bumbled through sufficient interactions with them and began picking my way through the dense crowd to rejoin another group of friends who described their location as "on a hill." Somehow I found them and indeed there was a hill - most convenient for improving our view of the main stage, just in time for Broken Social Scene. The band sounded great and thrilled the crowd with lots of older hits. The person I had been unable to find all night ended up sitting down on some rocks just across from our hill for a smoke and we finally connected. Magic. I walked home soon after, the night air cool but pleasant. I slept deeply, exhausted from a night full of engaging arts with the people I love most.

18/09/11 - Update: Some great photos from Supercrawl are on Flickr.

Cottage.

Yesterday, we drove north to Sauble Beach to stay at my parents' cottage for the night. The drive takes about three hours, and is peppered with funny, cute signs and landmarks (Moccasins! Giant Muskoka chair! The Sweet Potato chip wagon!) as you make your way through acres of farmland and towns that grow smaller as you go. When you pass the last Tim Hortons in Hepworth, you know you are nearly there.

We settled in and did some shopping. The renters before us hadn't left a single stitch, as they often do. Not even ice cream or popsicles, purchased but unable to survive the drive home. Downtown, we ordered Pizza Delight (an East Coast chain that is hard to find in Southern Ontario) and bought a few other things to last us one day, but didn't wander. It's like any beach. Stores change, but it's always the same.

Back at the cottage we stuffed ourselves into our swimsuits - mine new, and oh so cute - and began our basking. The sun was hot and, between the cottage and copse of trees, we were protected from the wind coming off the water. We snoozed, we admired the beauty around us, we sweated. I finally had put it off long enough and I was going swimming, dammit, I just couldn't wait anymore.

My method for the always chilly Lake Huron swimming is to walk in purposefully, not necessarily rushing, but always moving forward. Otherwise the cold will get ya. In my strategy, the waves will lap higher than you intend and before you know it, you are submerged. Once you're in, it's glorious. We swam for about two hours. We launched ourselves into huge waves. We stood at the sandbar and tried to withstand them pummelling us. We swam so deep we couldn't touch our toes, then the undertow freaked us out so we came in. We watched a guy surf with a parachute. We swam and swam and swam.

To warm up, we started gathering materials for a fire. It doubled as our kitchen for dinner. We threw some potatoes in the embers and rigged up some skewers to lay kebabs over. Our first try was a bit burny, but we got it on the second go.

After dinner, we threw some mystical powder on the fire to make it turn purple and blue and green. A bunny joined us for a while but it was so dark and she was so good at camouflaging that I couldn't capture a picture of her. You'll just have to trust me.

We watched the sun go down on our bench on the beach.

We drank. A lot.

At one point, I tilted my head back to rest it against my chair and gasped. I had forgotten about stars. There we so many stars. Beautiful, twinkling stars.

At another point, I somehow slipped into talking about work and was turned to slowly and asked, "But isn't the sound of the waves just the best?" And it's true, it was. Work has no place at the cottage.

It got cool overnight, so we slept soundly, swaddled in comforters and soothed by the lake sending its hushes through the windows.

Sunday was a lazy day, as it should be. Coffee was topped with Bailey's, enjoyed with bacon and hashbrowns, crispy both. We snuggled into some hoodies to adventure down the very windy beach, walking all the way to a point in south Sauble where the beach turns to rocks. It was lovely.

We finished our day at the cottage and began our drive home, stopping first for some amazing ice cream cones. We made the scooper's day by taking our selections so seriously and then asking for interesting modifications and combinations.

On the road, through town after town, we were scoping out antique shops. They were all either closed for the day or, in the cases of ones we knew about, closed permanently. We made it home in good time, but what felt like too soon.

This time at the cottage, though short, was the perfect salve to my soul.

Sunday.

Since they moved the location of what I think is our city's biggest annual festival, I wasn't planning to attend. There were shuttle buses, but compared to it being in my brother's backyard, it didn't feel very convenient. When J called me today and asked if I wanted to go, my opportunity presented itself.

I'll be honest, the biggest reason I wanted to go is because Gorilla Cheese has been planted there all weekend. I've been dying for a grilled cheese from this truck and have missed my last three chances. I'll get to this in a minute though.

The first thing that happened when we entered the grounds: someone handed us plastic Dr Pepper cups and filled them to the brim. If you know me, you'll have some insight into how giddy this made me. This sugar rush propelled us through checking out all of the vendors (purchasing only strawberry daiquiri lollipops) and having a little dance to one of the performers (who did both Queen and Kesha covers). The sun was remarkably hot as we were verging on 4 pm. This prompted J to perform an ad hoc fashion show in various cheap hats sold along the way, with hilarious and sometimes surprising results.

We strolled through the midway, betting on whether certain kids would puke. One close call came when a boy I'll just describe as "introverted" tumbled out of a ride's cage and crumpled onto the ground. I think he saved himself from tossing his cotton candy only because his brother really wanted to see him get sick.

After at least the third pass in front of the Gorilla Cheese truck, my patience had trickled empty and I needed a sandwich. We ordered two Hammers - ham, granny smith apple, maple syrup and cheddar cheese. If it sounds delicious to you, you wouldn't have been disappointed. It was perfectly crisp, ham and apple thinly sliced, high-quality cheese, and that bit of sweetness to round it out. I so enjoyed my sammie, that could've been the end of my day.

But we stuck around a while longer. Giggled at the small stage band doing some nervous crowd banter, bumped into a friend of mine and her partner, comparison shopped for soft-serve ice cream, and took a long time deciding what we wanted from the cupcake truck. On the way out, we stopped by for another cup of Dr Pepper and were lucky get some from the last bottle as they packed up for the day. J asked whether they had any cups left and we were given a whole sleeve of cute cups with Pepper logos! I haven't decided whether these are going to be special occasion cups or if I can fashion them into some adorable display item.

We had to rest our heads in the car before taking off, our tummies filled with treats and our skin coloured with sun.