What A Little Wind Can Do

There's nothing like looking at the sky and finding it full of beautiful kites.  Such was the case yesterday at the Washington State International Kite Festival.  This buoy marks the midpoint of the street filled with vendors.  Since there are so many dogs around, they are allowed their very own water station with buckets and bowls for their drinking enjoyment.

It didn't take long for the biscuit and gravy craze to take over.  On the third day there were several varieties available at FOUR different stands.  I had my usual.  To be truthful, it wasn't all that tasty, but something hot and full of sausage on a cold foggy morning can't be beat!!

There's more than just kite things ... they have a quilt guild here (who knew?) that is raffling off this beauty.  Yup ... I bought tickets!!  I can't tell you how many raffle tickets I've purchased over the years, winning nothing.  It's okay ... it goes to a good cause.

Hardly a sole at 9:00, but by noon you could barely walk down the beach road.

It was Red, White and Blue day, but that didn't mean you couldn't fly anything else.  Just look at these beauties!  I've no idea how they fly, but aren't they cool??

I WANT THIS ONE!!!

AKA is the American Kite Association to which I belong.  Kite flying is a world wide phenomenon.

Diane has all her ducks in a row and added a few red, white and blue flags.  

With not near as much fog and fairly good winds, the big sleds were up and running.  More pictures of these later.

At the far end of the competition fields, the Revolution Kite flyers practiced their routines.  In previous years, I could tell you who was flying by looking at the kite.  This year it appears everyone has NEW kites.  There were no "Vickies" and I think I only saw two Shooks (this for the benefit of Joanna, kite flyer extraordinaire who reads my blog ((can you believe it?))  Winds were maybe 7 mph.

Now THESE guys .... they were the most beautiful on the field.  I'm sorry I can't tell you more about them.  Although I was able to zoom in and get pictures, I couldn't make out what the announcer was saying.  I can tell you that THIS kite had the most amazing movement as it articulated with the wind.

All of today's events were about the kids.  First off, a foster grandparent fun fly.  Over 200 kites were made by three people and donated to the kids.  Every single one who wanted to fly, got to pick their own free kite and a kite flyer foster grandparent took them to the field for instructions.  

Once they got the hang of it, there were kite races for every age group.  Then came the running of the bols, kites that are usually used for line art (tied to the ground).  I didn't get any pictures because I was showing kids how to hold the handle and lifting the kite for takeoff.  The bad part was I had to run after them across the same distance, to unwrap their hand and bring the bol back to the starting line.  In order words, I ran the race across that deep sand 8 times!!  

I think this is my all time favorite flag ... the penguin.

Around 2:00 when the indoor competition began ... yes, believe it or not, they can fly kites indoors without ANY wind ... I headed for vendor row and lunch.  This is MY kind of food ... lettuce, cranberries, apples, walnuts and chicken with a delicious dressing.  I can't believe I ate the whole thing!!

Finally back at the rig, I was pretty exhausted.  The puppies snuggled up and we all fell asleep on the couch!!

Today is another full day of activities with handcrafted kite competitions.  Luckily, there's no running on the sand involved.  In other good news, with a little prompting from me having to move their bicycles so I could dump my sewer, the neighbors have moved over a tad giving me much more room.  I appreciate that!!  It's good to be a good neighbor!!