Approaching the Punjabi Market on the day of Vaisakhi parade, I easily sensed the crowd size because cars were parked in yards. Now, it's no secret finding parking in Vancouver is sometimes akin to Donald Trump co-hosting The View, but parking in the yard?  That's just tacky.

Next, while strolling south along Main Street, I was a bit shocked by the sheer number of people. It was like Picadilly Circus on a Saturday afternoon. Londoners and their visitors know the mob of which I speak, so just visualize that on Main Street in Vancouver.

Another surprise was so much color everywhere, like a deep sea dive. Nearly every woman wore a beautiful sari with flashes of blues, yellows, coral, greens and orange. As my eyes registered this palette, my nose went nuts. The smells wafting through the air from the food stalls had me suddenly starving, even though my breakfast of eggs and multi-grain toast was still a very recent memory. Right then, a guy using only his left hand to balance a stack of a half-dozen pizza boxes pushed past. I can't say I was expecting to see pizza at a Vaisakhi festival.  Maybe the harvest now brings cheese and tomato sauce?

The crowd became so dense I was no longer walking entirely on my own. At times, my forward movement occurred only because of the movement of the entire crowd. Let's just say that it was a reality I wasn't quick to embrace. The very moment one (me) allows irrational claustrophobia to poison ones' (me, again) light-hearted frame of mind, one (still me) devises an escape plan. Sidewalk, here I come! Alas, it really wasn't any less challenging there either. But, the good news was that's where all the food stalls were set up. I was impressed to learn that it's a Vaisakhi tradition to erect a food stand in your front yard and, after the parade, everyone (we're talking about 50,000 people, here) just walks up and down Main Street to enjoy all the food. And it's all FREE. Cook it and they'll come, I guess. In the picture, you can actually see one family on their own front stoop, watching revelers enjoy all the food the family prepared. And what's a festival without music? A drum circle was performed by Dhol Nation Academy. You can see them dressed in blue and red in the other picture. These guys drummed up a great Vaisakhi soundtrack.

This was my first time at Vaisakhi and despite my uncertain navigation of the crowd it was actually pretty fun and really interesting. You should check it out next year. It was a great way to spend the day out in the community.

Although the calendar claims the first day of spring was back on March 20, I think it's a safe bet that most Vancouverites would claim today as the real start of the new season. It just felt so darn good to be outside. A blue sky covered the city for most of the day and that's a sure thing to smoke us out. I've seen flip flops, shorts and t-shirts (or some combination of thereof) on every other person. Even though it was only about 16 degrees out there, it seemed like Vancouver really warmed up to spring in a big way today.

I was going past the downtown skateboard park under the Georgia Viaduct at Quebec and Union streets. This spot was totally buzzing with at least 50 skaters taking the ramps and rails for a good ride. It had all the makings for a blurry vision of knit toques and baggy jeans. Across the street from the park, a blue BMW sat parked with two men inside, probably in their 50s. A pungent, skunk-like odor emanated from their open window. Funny to think that this smell would be largely considered more likely to linger over the skateboard park and not so much from a couple of almost-retirees hot-boxing their Beemer. When this notion crossed my mind, I must have had a look of surprised confusion on my face because the guys in the car took one look at me and rolled up the window (which is probably what was also done to the substance creating the scent in question).