AMARYLLIS FLOWERS PICTURES

Purple sweater- Emily, Brown sweater- Brenna, Pink sweater- Tori, Dress and red shoes- Me. :)

Officially HATES Flickr randomly choosing the title image....It's really an awesome video, people!!!

Oh. my. word. This was the most fun I've had in a looooooooooonnnnnnnnng time. So. I got a call from Brenna at, like, 11am. She wanted me to meet them downtown at Bronson park at 2:30 to spend the afternoon with Emily and Tori. I said yes so fast!
I rode my bike and met Emily at Bronson Park a little after 2:30. We waited around for Brenna for a while, but she eventually showed up before too long. Turns out her mom dropped her off at Arcadia Park about 2 or 3 blocks northeast of Bronson Park. Brenna told us that Irish Fest was happening at Arcadia Park while she was there, so we decided to walk to Arcadia to check it out. (Brenna really got her exercise that day.)
So we three walked to Arcadia and met up with Tori there. Irish Fest was sweet!! Lots of people wearing green, men in kilts (which I know is technically Scottish, but there was alot of "Celtic" stuff there as well), shamrocks, Celtic/Irish dancing, tea and scones, Celtic calligraphy, Irish trinket-y souvenirs, highland music, and beer.
After we had enough of Irish Fest, we walked one block east to Water Street Coffee Joint. The building used to be an old railway depot, so you can imagine how cute it is. :] It was pretty cold outside, and when it's cold, there's nothing like stepping inside a warm coffee house....mmmm. Inside there was bouquets of fresh flowers for sale which we though were really pretty. Until we came across an unidentifiable....something...in some of the bouquets. We (well, I,) described it as a pouffy-spikey ball. That's basically what it was too. I didn't have any money, so I had no coffee, but I recommended my favorite drink to Emily: The Sleeping Bear Chocolate (with whipped cream, of course).....Yuuuuummmmmm.... Tori got spiced Apple Cider, and Brenna got... water. *Rolls eyes.* So we sat down with our beverages and I noticed that I recognized a guy sitting across from our table. It took me forever to figure it out, but finally I did! And I even knew his name too! "Woah," right?! Andrew Kohler. The conductor of the Kalamazoo Junior Symphony Orchestra. He's the closest thing I have to a celebrity crush... :} I had an audition with him in May. So across from us, it appeared that he was on a date....with a lady!! *teehee* I didn't say "hello" or anything.... I just inconspicuously took pictures of him and her as they sipped their whatevers. hahaha (Thank goodness they didn't notice.) :}
So after that we headed across the street to this cool wooden-lookin' building. So we hung out there and took pictures of each other. When we were getting ready to walk back to Bronson Park, the trolley (we have a trolley in town) pulls up and I say, "There's wedding people inside!" So, being a teenager, I think of being married alot. Okay *cough* well not ALOT, but, ...oh never mind. So all three of us (Tori is married) see the bride and groom get out with their bride- and grooms-peoples and the photographer. So we figured that was a good time to leave since they were showing up. As we left, we walked behind the trolley, and there was a "just married" banner hung on the back! Ah, it was great!
So then we walked back to Bronson Park about 4:30ish. Tori and Emily were going to get picked up by Tori's hubby Peter, but Peter teaches guitar and his lesson didn't get done until 5:30. So........we hung out there. For a while.
But as you can see, we had a blast! :)

The chonic shortage of small coins during the first half of the 19th century gave rise to a series of attractive copper tokens known as "bouquet sous" in 1835 the Governor of lower Canada granted the bank of Montreal the authoity to issue copper tokens of good weight to meet the need for small change.. The front side of the tokens showed a bouquet of roses, thishles, shamrocks and wheat. The reverse carried the denomination, "Un Sou" hence the name "bouquet sous" In 1836 the Bank of Montreal was permitted to add it's name to the legend on the reverse. in 1837 La Banque du Peuple was authorized to issue "bouquet sous". These tokens became so popular the many lightweight imitations in both copper and brass were soon put into circulation by unscrupulous individuals. The genuine tokens were manufactured in England and in the United States but the counterfeit pieces were strictly a Canadian product. Altogether there are over 50 varieties of these tokens, several, both genuine and counterfeit, showing the denomination in the very ungrammatical form of "Un Sous". Since these tokens were produced in England this was obviously the work of a non-bilingual die cutter.

This token was dug in Houston TX. in the late 90s