Greetings Ocean fans!

Summer is almost here, and the excellent weather this weekend proved it! (Victoria Day notwithstanding). For me, it was a weekend full of food, music, and good times. What more could one ask for, really? Here’s what I got up to this weekend:

On Friday night, we set up in the food court at Hillside Centre for Music on the Menu, a regular event which showcases local music to all those dining in the food court on Friday evenings. As far as food courts go, Hillside Centre’s is pretty darn luxurious. It’s full of open windows that let light in, perfectly illuminating your burger or souvlaki or chow mein or submarine sandwich eating experience. The music is just the cherry on top! This Friday the musical guest was DJ Boitano, who serenaded the audience with slick beats all evening long. We set up our table across from the Ocean wall, which is a spectacular ocean-education experience that kids and adults alike seem to love. How appropriate that Ocean 98.5 sets up across from an Ocean wall? Big shout out to Hillside Centre for the hospitality, and for providing us with a bunch of really cool prizes to give away.

Saturday saw Mandy and I ship out to the Red Barn Market on West Saanich Road for their 10th anniversary celebration. You know when you have a really good friend that you don’t see in a while because you both have your own stuff to do, and then you run into them and it feels like no time has passed at all and everything is wonderful? That’s how I felt about the Red Barn Barn-B-Que this Saturday. Yes, the star of our Ocean 98.5 Breakfast Block Parties, the Barn-B-Que was there, and I couldn’t have been happier to see it. There were delicious smokies, burgers, bacon, and sausages being grilled up on it all day. I tried a Lemon Rosemary Chicken sausage and it may have been genuinely one of the best things I have tasted all year. Red Barn really does it right – especially for a guy who loves to eat as much as I do. Speaking of ‘doing it right’ – Red Barn also gave away a $5000 gift card, as well as several other prizes all day! The gentleman who won the grand prize said he would donate $2000 of the gift to local charities and food banks, which is just heartwarming. It’s important to consider all of the hungry people in this world who are less fortunate. Shout out to Red Barn for all that they do, and all that they cook.

Sunday was another day all about soccer. It’s a good thing I love ‘the beautiful game’ (as the kids say), it seems like there’s a lot of soccer-related events I’ll be checking out all summer! Centennial stadium played host to the Victoria Highlanders as they engaged in a fierce battle with the Portland Timbers. A battle, almost as fierce as several of the kids in attendance waged against our prize-filled lock box. For the entirety of the game, many kids tried and failed to crack the code to the box and win the prizing inside. Some were very, very persistent! The Highlanders came out with a well deserved win, as did one of the many persistent children who hung around our tent. He walked away with a 25$ gift card to Moxies Bar and Grill, but more importantly, a beaming sense of pride knowing that sometimes, polite and quiet persistence pays off.

 

We’ll see what next week entails! I can only hope it features as much food as this weekend did.

 

-Fun Finder Sam

Filed under: Community Cruiser