What else happens in Brooklyn on Labor Day?

Besides paddling that is?

Why, the West Indian American Carnival Day Parade, that's what! And if I hadn't gone paddling, I think I would've braved the crowds & gone - they could not have had a more beautiful day for it. My neighborhood's got a great Carribean flavor to it anyways, and here are just a couple of shots I took in the morning on my way to the club.

This house is always flying flags of several Carribean countries - on Labor Day, they add even more color. So festive!


A couple of young ladies making their way to the parade, carefully hand-carrying their handmade headresses. I'm not usually one for taking random pictures of people on the street, but I just couldn't resist the way the orange plumes were glowing in the sunshine:


I honestly don't know how many more years I'm going to live in NYC - I love it but there are a couple of other options I've been thinking about a lot lately. One's old, one far more recent, both a little scary & feel like a monster gamble, but...well, they're there & I'm thinking about them.

I am capable of thinking about things for a very very long time of course, but if the time eventually does come to leave this fair, unfair, ridiculous, amazing, exhausting city, there are a couple of events that I really hope to have attended with a camera in hand. This parade's one of 'em. I used to live much closer to the route than I do now, so I've gone to a couple, but that was before I got bit by the digital-photography bug. The Mermaid Parade and the Coney Island Polar Bear Swim are the other main ones. Oh, and the yellow submarine in Coney Island Creek...no, not an event, just something I want to go take a picture of. Funny how all the things I want to take pictures of are in Brooklyn, isn't it? Seems like since I moved my boats to Canarsie, I just don't pay that much attention to the other boroughs. Seems Brooklyn's got everything I need. If my office wasn't in Soho & I didn't travel to Connecticut on a regular basis, I might never leave the borough any way other than by kayak.

This Labor Day, of course, I was too busy having fun saving a Klepper to be there, but here's a couple of bloggers who actually have pictures of the parade itself!
Gowanus Lounge has posted some gorgeous shots of marchers in full regalia -

And here's a fun one, the Brit in Brooklyn got up very very early (or perhaps just didn't go to bed the night before) to catch J'ouvert, the early morning procession of the steel bands that starts the day. I admit I didn't know about this until I wandered over there to see if he'd gone - learn something new every day, I guess, and this was an interesting thing to learn about.

Something to keep in mind for next year, I suppose!