Status: A-Team OUT

(Voiceover) "Who are we? You sure you wanna know? The story of our lives is not for the faint of heart. If somebody said it was a happy little tale, if somebody told you we were just your average citizens, not a care in the world, somebody lied. But let me assure you, this, like any story worth telling, is all about a city. That city. The city you live in (or maybe you don’t, but that’s ok too). Burlington, Ontario. The city we've loved since before we even liked cities..."

Well, you actually already know most of our story. But we needed a beginning, and trust us it ties in great with the line at the end. As you may know (if you stalk us), this is our last blog. Try to hold back your tears. It will get better. The emptiness might never go away, but it gets easier to bear with time.

In order to replace the void in your lives that our departure will definitely cause, you could always come to the Visitor Information Centre to purchase one-of-a-kind Burlington souvenirs! For your utilization purposes, we’re just stocked up on Burlington mugs- both the ceramic and travel mug variety- and Burlington t-shirts (in such rockin’ colours as lime green, banana and GOLD – solid 24 karat gold shirts. Just think how jealous your friends will be).

Let’s make a deal. We are going to make a list of clues hinting at something Burlington-related and you are going to figure out what it is. Your prize? Personal satisfaction.

1. It’s in Spencer Smith Park
2. There will be 175 000 of your closest friends there
3. The Real Jerk will be there (no, not your ex)*
4. There will be 150 000 pounds of ribs
5. It starts with a rib and ends with a fest

*Just to clarify: The Real Jerk is a featured Rib Team…though your ex may or may not be on the team I suppose.

Have you guessed what it is? Good. We know you’re intelligent because you’re already reading our blog. (Just in case you haven’t, it’s Ribfest, and it’s awesome). Come down this Labour Day weekend and choose from 18 Rib Teams- or don’t choose…have one from each! And while you’re digesting and preparing for the next round, check out more than 25 musical acts, crafts, kids’ activities and fireworks Friday night at 11pm! Also check out our office, because there will be a very pleasant British woman happy to help you.

On to the goodbyes. First, the Cap’n: Sally, thank you for steering the Visitor Services Ship in the right direction (even though Kat crashed it into the wall). To the rest of the full-time squad, Pam, both Lindas, Simone and Lauren: we appreciate the many projects, especially the Sport Organization Database (you know who you are), the exciting snacks left on the back counter and your cheerfulness even at 6:00 am (you know who you are, and you may or may not be the same person). For Russ, down at the waterfront, your singing was incredible and we enjoyed your efforts to remove every single fingerprint on the windows. To the rest of the student Task Force: Godspeed. We hope your exam questions are less challenging than some of the questions we have received here.

Finally, to our fearless followers: thank you first of all for becoming followers, and second of all for dedicating minutes of your life to reading the postings. We are eternally grateful that you found us amusing, or maybe you didn’t but still read it anyways. In that case, we are even more grateful.

As a parting gift, we have left you with an inspirational message, courtesy of Tobey Maguire. Remember this always and recite it to yourself as you fall asleep: "Whatever life holds in store for us, we will never forget these words: 'With great power comes great responsibility.' This is our gift. Our curse. Who are we? We’re K&A."

Till next summer, stay classy Burlington.
K&A.

Tourism Burlington: Alysserrific

Hello loyal fans!

This is Justin Bieber. Just kidding, it’s not, but if it was, he’d have a sweeter job than he does already. On to business. These are our confessions: just when we thought we said all we could say, we must admit, we [Natalie] have [has] a secret obsession with Justin Bieber. How did we discover this? I’m so glad you asked (don’t worry; we won’t subject you to that one again). Though she tried to disguise it as “browsing the Stratford Tourism website”, we all know that this was not the case. In actuality, she follows Justin Bieber on Twitter and consequentially stumbled upon this gem.

Not wanting to be outdone by anyone, we here at Tourism Burlington decided to create a map about our own local superstar: yours truly, Alyssa the Awesome. Without further ado, we present you with the Alysserrific Map of Downtown Burlington.

We hope you enjoy your tour of Alyssa's Burlington. Maybe one day you'll get lucky and see her. Probably not though, she's super stealthy.

K&A.

Tourism Burlington: Live from the Beach

We on the Task Force don’t struggle with much. But there is one thing that we on very rare occasions have a slightly more difficult than normal time with: beginnings. In an attempt to avoid having to write the beginning ourselves, we thought we would let our dear friend Lewis Carroll do it for us:

"'Where shall I begin, please your Majesty?' [Alyssa] asked. 'Begin at the beginning,' the King said, gravely, 'and go on till you come to the end: then stop.'"

Seeing as he’s a king, we have decided to do what he says.

So, we begin our tale yesterday in the far away land of Niagara-on-the-Lake at a mythical place known as the Ontario Travel Information Centre. Your beacheriffic travel counselors were there in force, handing out free drinks, Frisbees and Burlington information to visitors from across North America. The highlight of course was this weekend’s Children’s Festival, which kicked off today at Beachway Park.

Children, families and adults galore gathered at the beach to participate in the epic once a year showdown of sand and castles or, as they are commonly referred to as, sandcastles. Sandi Castle was in her element. The competition was fierce (almost as fierce as the competition to pick up a free Tourism Burlington Frisbee – we know, they’re awesome). We would like to applaud all participants for their creativity, artistic ability and liberal use of sunscreen.

Did you miss the sandcastles? Are you sad? Do you wish there was some sort of second day to the Children’s Festival, perhaps one featuring entertainment, skateboarding demonstrations and activity areas? Well aren’t you lucky. Tomorrow, from 10:00am to 4:00pm those things AND MORE will be happening at Spencer Smith Park. And if you are lucky enough to snag a seat in the shuttle service, you may get a rare but dazzling glimpse of your travel counselors outside of their natural information centre habitat. Discovery Channel, we’ll be waiting.

K&A.

Tourism Burlington: Artsy Edition

Hello bloggy friends.
Alyssa is travelling.
Kat and Nat today.

So to celebrate,
And to boost our artsy cred:
Our blog in haiku.

Burlington events?
We have all the knowledge here.
And we’ll share with you!

No more tasty deals.
Goodbye Taste of Burlington.
You went very well.

Ballot entry done.
Fingers nearly fell right off.
Winners got their prize.

Are you still hungry?
Come down Sunday, August 8th:
Lakeside a la Carte.

Blacktree, Canyon Creek,
My Thai, Spencer’s, Red Canoe,
They will all be there.

Civic Holiday,
Celebrated Joseph Brant
Reptile guy was there.

Hot air balloon rides,
Visitors were lifted high.
Kat was right (for once).

Need something to do?
Come build sandcastles with us!
Right at beachway park!

Children’s Fest awaits,
Inflatables, face paint, crafts,
Fun for parents too!

Just for you, a treat!
Blogging live from festival,
Tune in next weekend!

-K&N
(if you can come up,
With a joke for these letters,
Free Haiku for you!)

P.S. In case you thought all of that was too relevant to tourism:
The tourism travel counselors have brought life into the world. And we don’t mean Linda’s Eva or Sally’s new grand counselor. We mean Basil. Basil is a basil plant. His full title is Basil the Burlington Basil.

Please note that the “a” in Basil’s name is soft (as a baby gosling’s underfeathers), while the “a” in his title is hard (as an adult Canada goose’s raptor talons).

P.P.S. Another video blog is in the works. Every extra moment it takes to be finished adds an extra ounce of awesome.