Kite Festival 2008

Last weekend, Chunlin and I went to the Long Beach Kite Festival (or rather, the Washington State International Kite Festival in Long Beach). Unlike last year, this time we actually spent the night. We did, however, arrive late Friday night, so we missed that night's fireworks show. Oh well. At least we were on the beach bright and early Saturday morning.


Wind was a bit light, but kites were still in the air.



One guy was flying three kites by himself, and they weren't all the same string like the ones in the photo right above. He was doing tricks with them, too. Apparently he spends a lot of time in Vancouver doing just this. Some people even chipped in to have a bench installed at his favorite location. The bench isn't for him, mind you, but for anyone who wants to watch.

One kite is controlled by each hand. The third is on a harness around his waist. A little hip action is all it takes for him to get that third kite to manuever.





Around noon was the teddy bear drop, where they hoist up teddy bears and their parachutes via a big kite, then release them for randomly chosen kids to catch.

One catcher, two staff helpers. This girl was one of the few who actually caught her bear.

Afterwards, there was a flat-kite mass ascension, where everybody with a flat kite could fly theirs, with prizes for the prettiest. I didn't pay attention to who won.






In the afternoon, the wind died completely, so we took a walk around town. After clams and ice cream, we headed back to the beach.



I was reminiscing about building sandcastles, so I decided to build one.


After a few wave attacks, I had it built out and defended rather well.



It didn't look like another wave was coming (we were close to high tide), so we packed up to leave. But then another wave came, so I ran back to take photos. A couple kids went to look at it, too.



After a barbecue dinner and some time in the beer garden listening to a live band (mostly '70s covers, so I sang along to some), we headed back to the beach for the fireworks.






And that was that.

The next morning, it was very windy. And raining. We went to the beach. Sand was blowing northward, leaving dry shadows behind every obstacle. A couple hardy souls were flying kites (great wind!), but we didn't spend much time out there before heading for home.



Next year, you should go, too.