No metal on the track

Umpteen years ago (or maybe just four), during our wild young adult years, we sat in the dust of the Chelsea Community Fair on a late summer's night taking in the sights and sounds of the Figure Eight Demolition Derby.  This year we journeyed back to the same fair, similar event, with my parents and Calvin.  It was the same food, the same animals, and the same dust–all the things I love about a good community fair!  While there Calvin got to pet a day old chick and take in a real live sheep shearing (that was cool), and we discovered that the older he gets the more expensive the fair gets.  We didn't even think to take into account the fact that he is now tall enough and brave enough to try several of the carnival rides (how many times can a little boy ride the train ride?  To infinity and beyond...), some of which must be ridden with an adult (not that Gram begrudged him a chaperone on the merry-go-round).  The demolition derby, however, was not a favorite new event for him.  The noise alone was enough to set him on edge, but he was willing to accept our calm laughter as a sign of safety until one of the cars breached the barrier of cement blocks, after which he decided that the danger was no longer contained and he needed to leave immediately.  "I think we should leave this place now" were, in fact, his exact words and emphasis.  So we left the stands after only two rounds of derby, and escaped to the quieter and calmer train ride to watch him take yet another trip around the same twenty feet of track.  Wild.

More pictures from the fair (including the sheep shearing!) are in the new August 2009, too album (we took too many pictures in August for just one album).

Dazed in Dexter

Our adorable little village, population a bit over 3K, hosts a somewhat rowdy and completely underdone little festival every August.  They call this little festival Dexter Daze, and before you let your mind wander into the various meanings of that second word, let me just say that it is not a rehash of the cannabis festivus that takes place every spring in Ann Arbor.  Activities at Dexter Daze, actually, range from shopping at the "artist" tents (including everything from woodworking to Pampered Chef), entering one of several raffles (with prizes from gift cards to playhouses), enjoying live music (from Elvis outside the bakery to RFD Boys on the stage), and eating, eating, eating.  The Daze takes place over two, well, days, and we had every intention of walking down Friday night, then spending Saturday hiding from the heat in the shade of our own home, but it turned out that we just couldn't stay away.  We did walk down Friday night and enjoyed great shopping at the library's book sale, followed by brats and ice cream from the food vendors and a beautiful sunset set to the tunes of a really great blues band on stage.  It was so much fun that when boredom started to set in on Saturday morning we decided to walk back into town to eat at the BBQ chicken dinner, served at 11am at a downtown church and peruse the sales tents on the park lawn.  Strangely enough we found that several people in town recognized and "knew" us already, either me, since I run through town four mornings a week, or Calvin, since he is, apparently, a celebrity at the downtown bakery.  That feeling of small town camaraderie is one of the things we really love about our new home, and it is the reason we felt compelled to walk back downtown after naptime to enjoy the final evening of the Daze.  The music, thanks to the RFD Boys, was just as good the second night, and we were joined by my parents for pizza and drinks in the beer tent, followed by another round of ice cream (did I just admit to that?).  My only complaint was the lack of beverage selection–next year they need something other than Miller Light.

Death, taxes, and rain during Art Fair

Art Fair opening day.  It's been a tradition in Jon's family for many years, and has been part of my life as well for all of the eight years that I've known him.  Sure, lots of locals avoid the Art Fair like the plague, but we run straight for it the day it arrives.  For us it's a chance to spend time with family that we see, well, once every July.  It's also an excuse to gorge ourselves on pizza (during the annual Cottage Inn lunch) and to window (or tent) shop our way through art we can appreciate but can't afford.  This year we were fortunate enough to snag the entire day to spend traversing the many corridors of varying artistic abilities, tactile, visual, and auditory.  It's always fun to look for artists you've seen in years past, and also to recognize new booths and new talents.  Strangely enough it wasn't ninety degrees this year, and it didn't rain buckets, either.  Instead we enjoyed coolish temperatures, a mostly cloud covered sun, and, except for a five minute downpour in the afternoon, an incredibly dry day.  Unfortunately, a combination of the economy and the forecast of scattered thunderstorms kept the crowds to a relatively minimum–good for us, not so much for the artists–and there were far fewer people wading their way through the crowds carrying unwieldy bundles of unique purchases (the upside of which is the lessened risk of having your eye poked out by someone's art on a stick).  But even if there were fewer eye catching (or eye threatening) moments in the crowd, there were certainly several stand outs punctuating our enjoyment of the day:  the Michael Jackson impersonator was a particular favorite of Calvin's (and maybe all of ours); Calvin and Auntie Rite's performance of an MJ rain dance for the fifty or so people gathered under the LS&A overhang during the short downpour; the ludicrous, but enjoyable, entertainment at the corner of William and State in the form of dancing pizza, water, banana, and carrot.  There were some more serious stand outs, too, like the beautiful 8 car wooden train that Calvin came home with (thanks to his doting grandparents), our group's gorgeous jewelry purchases (also a yearly tradition), the bronzed rabbit with the huge ears (that we did not purchase), and the magnificent purple wood we kept seeing everywhere (made from the purple heart tree–we learn something new every year).  And that about sums up our 2009 Art Fair experience.

On Safari

Today we drove into Saline to take in "preschool day" at the Saline Community Fair.   Since the fair website wasn't altogether informative as to what "preschool day" meant, I wasn't at all sure what to expect, and as it turned out I never really got a chance to find out.  The only specified preschool activiity that Calvin was interested in was the Gemini concert that was already underway when we arrived, and as soon as the performance was over he wanted nothing to do with the remaining preschool activities (which seemed to include a number of kiddie games with junk candy prizes  anyway), and instead made a beeline for the animal showing barns.  He clearly remembered the animals from the Chelsea Fair and was raring for a repeat.  I have no idea how the two events truly compare, but the barns at the Chelsea Fair felt larger, fuller, more informative, and more inviting, which, after the bombing of "preschool day", left only one major draw at the Saline Fair - the Whipsering Pines Animal Sanctuary.  When Jon and I  first became acquainted with this group several years ago, we had the opportunity to pet a juvenile Okapi, one of our very favorite (very rare) animals, and we have been fans of the event ever since.  Every year their visit is a little different, and while there were no Okapis this year, Calvin had a great time feeding and petting llamas, goats, sheep, a baby bison, and two kangaroos.  Oh, and he road a camel.  All by himself.  The man running the  exhibit was a little hesitant to put such a youngster on a camel alone, but I assured him that Calvin had ridden quarter horses with no assistance, so he tried it.  Calvin was quite at ease, and quite content, on his camel (most kids ask for ponies...we see where this is going).  The morning was so much fun that Calvin asked to take daddy back after nap time (he wanted to show him the bison and the camels), and he was such a good boy that morning  that we decided to go ahead and go.  We didn't ride any camels the second time around, but we did feed all the animals again, and got the chance to hold an armadillo (Jon) and a fenec fox (me).  Calvin wasn't so sure about the armadillo–he really kept his eye on him at all times and only gave him a brief pet–but he was much more at home with the charming little fenec fox.  Our own little zoo at home will never feel the same again.

More pictures in the Sept 2008 Album. 

Thursdays in Chelsea

Though unfortunately it signifies the coming of the end (of summer, that is), the Chelsea Community Fair has been one of our favorite August destinations since our introduction to the festivities four years ago.  Of course four years ago the purpose of our visit was to take in the Figure Eight (Demolition) Derby, while this year it was to visit the cows.  And the pigs, and the sheep, and the chickens, and the goats, and all the other 4-H animals Calvin's heart could desire.  The sheep are always some of our favorites - they are usually the  noisiest of the barn animals and that makes them more interesting - but this year we also got the chance to pet a day old chick, and to watch an egg actually in the process of hatching (I say in the process because, unlike in the books we read, a real live egg hatching can take quite some time and this one made no real progress in the 10 minutes we watched it).  Calvin also eyed such rides as the Merry-Go-Round and the Ferris Wheel with a reserved interest, but we left before he could get any real ideas and  headed for downtown Chelsea where dinner would be less expensie and less dusty.  That's when we really lucked out, since apparently summer Thursday nights are music nights in downtown Chelsea and there were performers of every kind on nearly every corner.  We enjoyed some fiddling, some rocking, some barbershop, and some zydeko all within a block or so.  Calvin also enjoyed crossing and recrossing the train tracks, and we stopped for some dinner at the new Mexican restaruant, Las Fuentes (which we can't really recommend unless it's for the impeccable service, but the food and  margaritas left much to be desired and nobody goes to a Mexican restaurant for the service.  The next time we want Mexican we'll head back to Ypsi Township to La Fuente, which we highly recommend.  Apparently one fountain is better than many any day).  As with Independence Lake, our only sadness is that we did not discover Thursday Nights in Chelsea earlier in the season.

More pictures in the August 2008 album.