Festivalities

Today was one of my favorite "gosh I love my hometown" events of the year: the Fairfax Festival & Parade. If you live in Fairfax and are involved in the local community in any way, chances are you'll get invited - perhaps by more than one group - to be in the parade, and it's worth it. In the 10 years since we bought our house and got involved at the grade school, I haven't actually seen the parade once. But it's always fun to be in it, and this year I actually got to see about the second half by heading back once we were done and sitting with Geoff et al. (As a bonus, we actually saw Will for the first time in a few days - it being summer vacation and his girlfriend being home from her semester away at art school, he hasn't really shown his face around here much.)


So what is it that I love so much about it? For one thing, it's totally home-grown. There are tons of kids in it, many on bikes, scooters, skates. There are people in it that I'm fairly sure never actually signed up anywhere, but just joined in anyhow, sometimes planned and in costume, sometimes just apparently ambling along with a friend they saw. There are big floats - this year we had a volcano, a castle, a baby whale, and the earth - but they're generally funky, and there's more tie-dye than you can shake a stick at. There are also boy scouts, and Native Sons of the Golden West with a giant flag, but there's definitely a pretty overwhelmingly earthy feel to it.


This year we weren't with the preschool (for the first time in many years), but Carson (first photo, blue shirt and Cooper's Hawk mask) went with his teacher and some of his classmates in endangered species masks/costumes, accompanying the aforementioned baby whale. Reed rode his bike in the Safe Routes to Schools group, and I walked with them.

I had fun in a chauffeur costume with 7 other moms, all of us carrying signs that said things like, "Moms are not taxi drivers" and "Walk to School". Luckily there was some fog hanging out over the ocean so the air wasn't too toasty, as I was in a black wool jacket I'd borrowed from Geoff. (Geoff said we were pretty funny, as we'd all obviously borrowed our husband's jackets and it made us look like big kids.)

My favorite group in the parade was the dancing/marching green bins from the local garbage company - they had a whole routine worked out, using the lids as percussion - it was great. But then, the stiltwalkers dressed as red airplanes protesting the spray (the state wants to spray against a moth) were pretty good, as was the man dragging a year's worth of plastic garbage for one person (scary!), the Indiana Jones/African Queen group (okay, so they were a little confused but still, they built a boat AND a volcano), the synchronized Karate students, the Bubble Man, the drummers, and so many more.

After the parade, Carson, Reed and I went to the kids area where we helped to sell chocolates for Carson's teacher and they got to see a pretty cool magic show. A short visit to the creek so they could get their shoes wet, some father's day shopping at the booths, and around 3 we hopped on our bikes to head home. Tired, dusty, and ready to hit the pool, but we had a great time.