Windriders Kite Festival at the Beach in Grayland - July 10-12

It's that time of year, Kite Festival time! I've written before about why I love the Windriders Kite Festival, but there is of course, more to the story than what I noticed in my experience. Evening Magazine profiled Jerry Cannon and the World Champion Sport Kite team, who will be competing at this weekend's Windriders Festival.

The past 2 years I spent most taking photos of the kites, but this year, I will definitely pay more attention to the actual skilled kite flying taking place.

For some details:

The Festival takes place at Grayland Beach Park. For directions, google map "Grayland Beach Road" in Grayland, WA. It's about 5 minutes south from Westport.

It's pretty casual, if you're just there to watch you can drive onto the beach, or park at access road, and just walk around. There is an information booth that opens from noon - 3ish on Friday, 9am -4pm on Saturday and 9am -3pm on Sunday. Those times are approximate and probably vary depending on the volunteers that are working it :) Check out their flyer at the Windriders Club site for a little more information.

See you at the Beach!

Old Fashioned Fourth of July at the Maritime Museum

I am totally late on this one... the whole point of this blog is to get information out to all of you in ADVANCE of things happening, but between the babies and a technical conference I was attending in Seattle last week, I didn't get a chance to post about all the things happening in town on the Fourth of July. But I can't skip it because this is one of those holidays that this town does right. And by this town, I mean the Westport-South Beach Historical Society.

The Old Fashioned Fourth of July at the Maritime Museum is the cutest

small town festival you could ever lay your eyes on. First of all, there is probably no prettier place than the front lawn of the Maritime Museum on a sunny day, secondly, many of the volunteers have been doing this for years, and are the friendliest bunch of seniors you ever met, and finally, the Maritime Museum flies its GIANT American Flag, which just makes it feel like 4th of July.

I love this event for all of those things, but mostly for its unpretentiousness. There are silly little homemade carnival games for the kids. Yes, the prize is a tootsie roll, but yes, my 3 year old still loves it. This is where you take your family to appreciate the simple things. Strawberry

Shortcake, hot dogs, root beer floats, and nothing costs more than a few dollars. The cake walk is a hoot, a real live piano player and people who are geniuinely happy to win a simple home baked cake. The silent auction? Well, okay, this part I actually don't understand, because a lot of the items looks like regifted Christmas presents, more like a garage sale than a silent auction, but hey, nobody's perfect :)

It's great to bring a picnic blanket and just hang out and watch all the people wandering in from the Marina, listen to music, and play a few games. Like everything in Westport, its also very pet

friendly, and there are lots of well behaved four legged friends hanging around watching the action.

This year they added a blues festival to the end of the event, and unfortunately, 2 children under 3 and concerts don't mix, so I have nothing to report. But I highly do recommend this Old Fashioned Fourth of July to all families looking for a slower change of pace on your next Independence Day at the beach!