Jim's Birthday and the Kitchener Ribfest

Once again my little brother has tried to catch up to my age. It'll never happen, I tell you!

In honour of Jim's birthday, we boycotted the usual trip to the pig roast.
For some reason Dad always plans the pig roast for the weekend closest to my brother's birthday. Ironically, Jim does not enjoy this annual event and only goes because the rest of us end up going.

This year it was decided that we'd ditch the usual plan and spend Jim's birthday with him in Kitchener.
Kitchener was also holding its annual ribfest that same weekend, so we thought we'd hit that event too. We didn't think he would, but Jim surprised us by volunteering to come with us to see what a ribfest was all about.

The first thing we did (besides arriving at the Mandarin too late for brunch - rats!) was to lunch at Angel's diner.
They were kind enough to provide the birthday boy with free cake without singing at him. That was one grandiose piece of cake.
After filling our bellies with all-day breakfast, we sat around Jim's place for awhile.
Even though we were still full from lunch, we wanted to get to the ribfest before it ended at 6, so after debating parking issues for awhile, we parked within hiking distance of Victoria Park and got some ribs just before closing.
To save time we jumped in the shortest line. We're thinking there's a reason that line was the shortest. The ribs were NOTHING compared to the ribs we had in Markham.

After we bought the ribs we bagged them for later (still full from lunch), and decided to hang out with the park geese for awhile.
Goose-viewing turned into swan-chasing. Those guys get around the park fast.

In our travels, we ran into a character I'm going to call the Duckman. He liked to hang out with the ducks and toss them bread.
I told my brother it was like we were in a video game where you walk up to a character and press talk. Then the character starts rambling about things.
This guy rambled about the ducks. I didn't mind as it meant I could stand there and photograph the ducks. They weren't about to give up their free meals and leave.
He said he'd been busted twice for feeding them, but he wasn't about to give up his hobby. I think he secretly enjoyed watching the ducks perform epic battles to get the food first.
Epic battles!

Since my brother and I have both turned into mole-people, it was a good day for a walk in the park.

Happy birthday Jim!