Craigdarroch Castle and the Moon Festival Lantern Celebration

It was raining this morning. Consequentlz, I thought it was best to do something indoors. In the end, it didn't rain anymore after lunch but I still stuck to my indoor plan for the afternoon:
I went to Craigdarroch Castle with Simone early this afternoon, as they had free entry today for some reason. Apparently we were not the only ones taking advantage of the free entry, as there was already a long line in front of the castle. Thus, it took us a while to get inside.
The castle was more interesting than I had expected. Apart from seeing all the 19th century furniture, you could find out a lot about the Dunsmuir family, for whom the castle had been built, and the history of the castle, which had also served as a military hospital, a college, and a music conservatory before being turned into an museum.

Even though I didn't spend more than two hours at the museum, I was quite exhausted when I came back home. I was tempted to just spend the evening relaxing at home. However, I had planned to go to the Moon Festival Lantern Celebration and as I didn't want to miss that event, I forced myself to go out again. Tuulia had also planned to go to the festival and so we went there together.
The festival was located on the grounds of some preschool or recreation centre and at first we had some trouble finding our way around there. 
Part of the program this evening was making a lantern. For 3 CAD you would get a paper box, some stickers and decorations, as well as a candle. Even though this activity was mostly meant for children, Tuulia and I both tried our luck and we had a lot of fun decorating our lanterns. I tried making my lantern look a little like a cat on the front side.
When we were done after about an hour, we went on exploring. You could get free mooncakes, green tea, chocolate chip cookies and hot chocolate at the festival. I never say no to free food and so Tuulia and I tried all of the offered treats. I especially enjoyed the chocolate chip cookie. 
After we were done eating, we went into a gymnasium in order to watch several Chinese dance performances. There was a performance by two groups of Chinese kids, which was really adorable, and another performance by some girls in peacock outfits, which was just very graceful. I also very much enjoyed watching a group of dancers that embedded some tai chi elements into their movements. We left when a group of Chinese men was about to sing some traditional Chinese songs. 
The lantern procession outside had already started and as it was getting dark, it was the perfect time to join in. Walking with our self made lanterns reminded me of the lantern processions I took part in as a little child, which was nice. 
The whole thing seemed to be over just before 8:30 PM and it actually took us a little while to find our  way to the bus stop. People were starting to line up at the bus stop and the bus was really taking its time. We must have waited for more than 20 minutes before the bus finally arrived. As it was already pretty full, we were lucky to get on the bus - not everyone was that lucky. 

Back at home, Katrina let us now that she and Margo had waited for us so that we could watch a movie together. It was already past 9 PM and I knew I had to get up early the next day. Nevertheless, I joined them as the movie sounded quite interesting to me: The movie was called 'The Big Short' and it was about the market crash in 2007.