Quite an eventfully weekend in Vancouver. Saturday saw the finale of the Celebration of Light fireworks and Sunday was the day for Vancouver's annual Pride Parade. Traditionally a gay and lesbian parade (like Sydney's Mardis Gras), it is now more of celebration of lifestyle and cultural diversity in Vancouver with many participants from the various communities in the city.
We headed down at about noon for kick off. We didn't have to walk far as the parade was along the street in front of our building. The organisers couldn't have picked a better day; bright blue skies and mid-high 20s. Quite warm for downtown Vancouver. Ironically, it was the worst conditions to take photos in with the bright sun overhead creating harsh shadows. This was made worse by facing into the sun, leaving my subjects' faces in shadow, but enough about that.
As you would expect most of the paraders were men; dressed in drag, leather, underwear or nothing at all. 
Despite being surrounded by families with young children, no one seemed to mind. The glitter and paint that I was told was ubiquitous last year, however, was seldom seen this time round; strange considering it's what I think of when I thing of a gay parade. This one's for you Robert: 
There were some women parading too; the most notably the girls in fishnets,
and the girls dancing with huge feather arrangements a'la Rio's Carnivale.
Except for the naked blokes it was quite an enjoyable experience and the crowd and participants had a great deal of fun and the parade lasted about 2 hours. Afterwards, Trav and I headed up Davie Street for our regular Mongolian BBQ lunch.
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