Firethrowers and Cowboys

So after ending a week with my random ADD, I started the weekend by going to the downtown Art Walk with Nancy and Roberto.  It was a nice, chilly evening...very pleasant.  It did take us about 10 minutes to find a parking spot though.  A little piece of advice, if many cars are driving down from the car parks, that's probably a good sign not to drive up them.  We drove up them, expecting someone to be leaving from a movie to grab a space.  All we achieved was to get to the very top only to have to find a teeny spot to turn around in and drive back down. It was kind of funny afterward though.

So we headed to Randy Bacon's Studio first; it's always the highlight of the evening. If you don't happen to catch any new art or photography, then there's sure to be a friendly face there you haven't seen in a while.  In this case, there was new art though.  There was this really cool exhibit by Africa artist Ibiyinka Alao. His work was very abstract and bright and filled with life, but you could still see the hardships he's endured.

When we left there we journeyed toward the square and came across a whole new world.  In the middle of the square were dredlocked firedancers flowing to the beat of bongos and drums.  It was quite fascinating!!

And then out of no where came the Superheroes. Yes, that's right...Superheroes.  There was Jewish Man (he had the Star of David emblazoned on his chest so that's what I dubbed him). Then there was Underwear Man (again...stating the obvious...he had tighty whities on the outside of his khakis)! And Towel Man (he had a towel tied around his neck for his cape).  And Lucky Charms even made an appearance...Mr Leprechaun complete with cane and top hat.  Oh I failed to mention...that earlier we had seen a gang of Zombies strolling down Walnut St heading to the Theatre.  At least I assumed they were. Maybe they were going to dine. ;)  So back to the Superheroes.  Off to the side of the square is this little gazebo-like area where Mr Mime was Hammertiming it. So like any below average superhero...this calls for a DANCE OFF!  Words cannot describe what followed.  8-}

Following the Dance Off we decided to head further into the masses.  We passed the "Legalize Marijuana" table where they were having a "Bake Sale" with some "yummy brownies" (We didn't try any, btw).  We continued on our trek and came to a huge crowd gathered in the middle of South Ave. Low and behold there was a catwalk set up, and a Fashion Show was in full force! As we made it to the corner, on one was the "Free Hugs" Street Evangelists...on the opposite corner, the "You're going to Hell if you even say the word Divorce, let alone think about it or heaven-forbid marry a divorcee" group.  I'll let you figure out who got the most interest. ;)

Deciding to call it an evening, we headed to Rendezvous for some coffee *mmm!*, all the while discussing why we even visited Seattle when we have such "culture" in our own Downtown. ;)

So being the old single people we are, we called it a night at 9:30pm.  I was in bed by 10:30pm. 

Saturday morning broke bright and clear suggesting a day filled with sunshine and smiles. (Oh that sounds so corny!) LOL!

I drove out to TownofHall to my sister, bro-in-law, and niece's house for we had plans to go to Pumpkin Daze in Republic and then to Farm Fest at the fairgrounds.  Pumpkin Daze is developing small town festival that focuses around, of course pumpkins, and all things fall and crafty.  However it could do with some reorganization, as Main street was jam packed full of people making it difficult to even get to the limited amount of craft booths on the edges.  We made it all the way through and decided it wasn't worth fighting the crowd, and decided to cut out and head on to Farm Fest. 

Farm Fest...wow. Where do I start.  I grew up on a farm.  By my roots, I'm a farmgirl.  However, I have since lost interest in being on a farm.  It's smelly, and dirty and I like high speed internet. I used to be all out country-fied, roper-wearing, Garth Brooks-fanning, farm girl.  Yeah......scaryyyyyy!  I've since shed the western wear and country music and country accent.  Although, I do have to admit to owning a pair of pink boots. And I occasionally listen to Rascal Flats. 

Anyway, back to Farm Fest. So I've never seen so many Stetsons and Wranglers and Justins in one place!! So we headed to the E-Plex where all the main booths were.  Most of them were unappealing to me, but I did find the PFI booth interesting. It had me wanting to get another pair of boots, not pink this time. ;)  I was the designated Stroller driver for my 15mo old niece and our goal for the day was to find a pink John Deere hat for her.  She's a little shop-aholic already.  Daddy put a cute little cowboy hat on her, and although it didn't fit, she wanted it so much she started bawling.  You don't tease a girl at any age, whether intentional or not, about clothing or apparel. After going through the E-Plex and catching most of the booths and a couple of brochures, we headed out to look for some John Deere tents, still in search for the Pink Hat.  Along the way we found a cute little green John Deere t-shirt. Finally we found "THE TENT" that had the John Deere GOODS!  This one had the Pink hat.  So my sister and bro-in-law got that along with some Christmas presents for my niece.  We positioned that cute little hat on her blonde locks and we set off again for the men to see the machines.  By this time all the girls were getting tired and some a little cranky and needing naps.  So we had to go to one last area...the animals.  One word... EWW.  This is reason number 1 why I don't live on a farm anymore. We finally were down in the middle of the stalls and the filthy animals and I really thought I was either going to pass out or barf.  Either way, I was completely out of place and out of my element.  LOL!  So as much as I wanted to get out of there and into fresh air, it was kind of cute to see my niece so enthralled by the animals, especially the baby ones.  We saw some adorable puppies, and I have to admit, if I had a wad of hundreds on me, I probably would have gone home with one. ;)  I think the little baby that was the most impressive was the newborn calf that was bopping and hopping and galloping his happy self around a 6x6 cage containing his momma and another cow.  Hilarious!! I wish I'd had a video camera on me at the time, because it was quite a show. 

We finally determined that we were all tired, the one needing the nap the most being my niece Brooklynn, so we started to the vehicle.  Somewhere along the trek up, we saw that the Pink John Deere hat was no where to be found. Brooklynn go upset at one one and threw it off her head, and none of us noticed!!  Daddy was ticked - not at Brooklynn, but just the fact that we'd searched long and hard for a pink hat, and now it was lost and we didn't know where. So being the Daddy he is, having his little girl wrapped around his finger, he went back to the John Deere tent and purchased another Pink hat.  This time it was tucked securely in the shopping bag under the stroller.