Sand and Sawdust Festival

On the fly we decided to go to Ocean Shores for the Sand and Sawdust Festival. It was overcast in UP and none of us had motivation. We just had to decide between the Taste of Tacoma and the beach. Ryan chose the beach so off we went. What a great idea! It was beautiful, super windy, but beautiful! (I know it cleared up eventually in UP but we needed the sun asap!).


When we got to Ocean Shores it was packed, of course. We saw the chainsaw carvings right away but we still had to find the sand castle competition. We parked in between the town and the sand and when hunting for sand castles. We followed the kites and crowds and found them. We were a little disappointed. We had expected more sand castle builders but there seemed to be about 10 and they were in the middle of building them. It was cool to see them building them but I really wanted to see the final products. We walked around eyeing them for a bit and then headed off to see the "sawdust" part of the festival. It was so nice walking around barefoot in the warm sand.

At the chainsaw carvings we found we were REALLY impressed by what they could do. There were carvings of every kind imaginable - characters from Where theWild Things Are, Betty Boop, giant stingrays, turtles, beavers, Big Foot, bears, of course, and so many others creatures. The men were still carving as well so we all pretty much got sawdust in our eyes because, as was mentioned, it was WINDY! It was really neat to see them carving with chainsaws and I really wanted a masterpiece for ourselves but didn't want to walk around with it.

There were a lot of chainsaw carvers from around Bruce's home town. This shouldn't be such a shock, it is mountain country up there, but I thought they never left their hometowns. Just shows how little I know :) They were from Wilkeson, Buckley, Bonney Lake, Lake Tapps and then from Tacoma, Seattle, Aberdeen and La Center (where ever that is). They were impressive.

We also walked around the fair area where I willingly purchased nick-nacks! Yikes, they were cute little owls made from giant pine cones and they were such a good price for a unique little thing I haven't seen before. We ate hard ice cream and looked at jewelry and some kooky bead lady gave Ryan free stickers because she thought he was such a gentleman (he was because Britt didn't have cash so he whipped his out for her - what a sweet heart).

Afterwards we went to this kitschy little shop, Sharky's, where we took pictures in the shark's mouth and bought, wait for it............. a shark! Gross! A dead little baby shark preserved in formaldehyde. It was a MUST to buy for Ryan who was trying to decide what to purchase as his souvenir for that day.  We carefully took it back to the car and put it in the cooler. Bruce laughed at me but, seriously, would you like that broken in your trunk and ruining your car or ruining your food in a contained cooler. Ok, then.

Then we were off to go fly a kite. We've had this kite for at least 3 years, probably 4, and have never flown it. Brittany and I found out we weren't that good at flying kites. Bruce and Ryan found out they were, hmpf. Well, they got it up and showed us what to do and we all got the hang of flying our 6 foot wingspan dragon kite. It looked so big while we were preparing it and so tiny once it was up in the sky.

 After flying the kites we went to look at the finished products of the sand castles. The competition had just ended and they were taking the honey buckets away and filling up the giant holes that had been created for water. Sadly, people were destroying sand castles while others were still trying to look at them and take pictures. We got to see most of them unharmed.

 And we played in the sand and surf a bit. Or, at least Ryan did :)

 Of course there were pirates there!

 Britt and Ryan jumping for joy for such a great day!

 Fun Group Photos!

We had a perfect day. Great weather, albeit a tad too windy, great fun and great company. On the way home Britt and Ryan slept while Bruce unknotted our kite string (wind!) and I drove. At home Ryan and Britt were ready to continue their Harry Potter movie marathon and then we all slept well that night. The End.