Day 285: PNE

PNE is a Vancouver tradition. I used to work at the PNE for 5 years in a row. The first 3 years I worked at a concession stand. We sold foot long hotdogs and sno cones. The last two years I worked as a hostess. We were basically roaming guest services. After I stopped working at the PNE, I would go to the PNE at least once a year. Last year they had a promo where if you were a Gold Card member, you can get in for free. A Gold Card is a casino loyalty card. This year there wasn't that promotion, but I had some of my friends send me their promo codes so I could save $5 a tix. I didn't end up using the promo codes, I managed to get free tix. I went to PNE three times this year.

The first time was right before the Bryan Adams concert becuase our concert ticket included gate admission to the PNE. We only spend about 1.5 hour there. We had to strategize on what to see in such a short period of time. One thing we wanted to see was the prize home. We walked by and there was a long lineup. We didn't want to spend our time in line. So we skipped the prize home. I heard about this new candy exhibit that started this year. We found it. It is called Candy Nation and it is on the concourse of the Pacific Coliseum on the right hand side. It's a really neat exhibit. There is all kinds of candy for sale. There were also old candy dispensing machines. There was also a history on the various candy makers. I am kissing Elvis! The Elvis poster is made from jelly beans.

One thing I have to do at the PNE is to play the games at Playland. I know it's a waste of money but it's a lot of fun. Most of the games are too hard for me or they are games of chance / luck and I don't always have luck on my side. The two games I have to play are the 'horse racing' games. One is the one where you throw the ball into holes and the holes determine how fast your 'horse' goes. The fastest 'horse' wins a prize. The other one is like a pinball game. We won a prize playing the first horse racing game and we also won a prize playing Whack-A-Mole.


The second venture to the PNE was Friday night. PNE this year has a line of performers on their mainstage. On Friday night Cyndi Lauper was performing. She had a few hits in the 80's. One Cyndi Lauper favourite song was 'Girls Just Want to Have Fun'. It's a classic party song. In the 80's, she sang pop songs. Now she is a blues singer. She did sing her 80's pop songs near the end of her performance. While she was singing her blues songs, we managed to see the PNE Prize Home. It was nice. I always find the bedrooms too small in the prize homes. The washroom in the master bedroom upstairs was the highlight for me. It had a TV and a hot tub. It is nice and spacious. The last show we watched was Kaboom! It is a pyrotechnics show with dancers. It is quiet neat. Because this is PNE's 100th year, they had clippings (video and pictures) from the various era's.

Today was my third time at the PNE this year. I wanted to see some of the things I didn't manage to see the other times I went. We went to see the Superdogs. It's a cool show. They take dogs out of the SPCA and train them to be Superdogs. Being a Superdog entails being disciplined and fast. Some dogs are faster than others. The Superdogs show is basically a dog race. Its fun because there is lots of audience participation. One the way to the Superdogs show, we picked up some little donuts and a whale tail. We got a whale tail with rasberry jam.


After the Superdogs, we were going to watch the mariachi band. We got to the location and watched for a few minutes. It is a very small space. We wanted to head to the Agrodome to watch the horse jumping show. Once we got there and sat down, they made an announcement saying that the 2:30 show was postponed to 4pm. We couldn't make it to the 4 pm show so we just left. We ended up going to the Marketplace. It's a place where they sell lots of stuff. The gals I went with liked to stop and look at many of the booths. Each of us bought something from the Marketplace.