Kite Festival ... Day Three ... YAY FOR SUN!!!

Listen ....................... can you hear it? ...........................yip yip yiiiiiiiiiii.  Coyotes are VERY close this morning, talking back and forth through the fog.  Don't you just LOVE it??

Anyway yesterday, as I walked across the field to the beach, I was happy to see SUN and kites flying high.  It's day three with no fog and no rain!

That didn't last long however.  The weather is a fickle lady around here.  These two huge bols should be up off the ground, but alas, the wind began to die down pretty quickly, causing kite fliers to scurry across the field.  While taking pictures, I helped one nice lady unhook her reel and let out more line.  That's pretty hard to do with one person.  These babies require caretakers!!

All of the Seattle Seahawks were gone.  It was red, white and blue day.  These displays are called Camps and are judged for prizes.

Here's an interesting tidbit.  The City of Long Beach brings out heavy equipment to dig the holes and set the anchors for flyers.  You TOO can have a big kite at this event.  Just pay the price (the bigger the kite, the more expensive of course) and register for free.  What a deal!!

Most of the character kites require a bit more wind than was available.  Kitty was having a hard time staying up straight.  By noon, many were back on the ground.

I figured to get some lunch, but the kids games were in full swing and they needed volunteers to set them up and hold the bols open.  On GO, whoever ran across the finish line first, won!!  

They forgot to tell me "I" had to run to the finish line too, grab the kite and bring it back for the next runner.  This might not have been such a good idea after all!  I ran back and forth probably 10 times in that deep sand.  No wonder no one wanted to volunteer for this job!!  It was great fun, but all that running in the sand reminded my left foot it had a couple of broken toes from two years ago.  

This is like dragging a car behind you.  The 75 or so kids did great, but then it was time for the parents.  I even set up an 83 year old grandmother.  I ran very close behind her, just in case.

In between games were demonstrations, including this stack of 7 kites.  It's hard to do this stuff with one!!  He had SEVEN, all attached together.

These trains are beauties.  Don't ask me how they get them in the air ... I've not a clue.   Surely it takes at least two people!!  With the sun shining through, they look like jewels in the sky.

Out on the Revolution field, these two guys wanted to fly for the camera.  Just one drags me around the beach ... can you imaging having seven Revolutions together?  The winds were still light, but I can see me being lifted up into Never Neverland!

It being Kids Day,  the World Kite Museum made kites for the kids to fly.  A Foster Grandparent (any and all kite flyers) gave them a couple lessons and they were off to the races, literally.  They had to race across the finish line without their kite touching the ground.  I was tired just watching!!  There were excited kids everywhere when they found out they got to keep their kites.  These are not your old paper and stick kites ... they all flew amazingly well!

After giving a break or two again, I headed back out to the Revolution field to watch the teams fly.  This is Jim Foster and his wife along with four other people.  They invited me to fly with them ... they said I had to learn sometime ... but all my gear was in the car.  Since they will be staying after the festival is over, they offered to teach me more team flying then.  I signed up in a flash!!

There was only one other team on the field ... these four guys were trying out different new routines which I watched intently.  I learned a lot about what NOT to do!!  Everyone was having fun though and that's what counts!  Honestly, if you make one wrong move, it becomes a tangled mess.

I did finally get lunch.  I thought it looked surprisingly like Ramen Noodles with a stick of teriyaki chicken.  After the first bite, I knew it was true.  They do have a tasty sauce that makes them brown and it was filling ... but for $8.50 I'd rather had a hamburger.  

The weather report is calling for 80 degrees on the beach today, 90 tomorrow.  Hazard warnings are everywhere since people at the beach aren't used to these high temperatures.  I plan to take it easy since Friday will be competition day and I want to watch them fly.  I think I'll take a chair this time ... it will make my toes happy!!