Big weekend in Fairhaven

It's Dirty Dan Days this weekend, honoring the founder of the town of Fairhaven, Dan Harris. He used to row back and forth to Victoria on Vancouver Island in the 1860s and 70s--I guess he was a smuggler. He platted Fairhaven in 1883. So the merchants and civic-minded people in this community throw a festival every year, mostly on the Village Green. Here's a sculpture of Dan overlooking the Green on a quiet day.

We're in luck this weekend because yesterday didn't rain and today looks like a blue sky day. This is the Northwest, after all, and the weather here is no respecter of festivals. There's a certain amount of embracing the overcast and drizzle -- we might as well. The sun began to peek through clouds in the early afternoon and one of the guys in the band on the stage referred to it as the Devil Star. 

Yesterday there were some silly contests (salmon toss, cupcake eating), and some fun activities for kids, and some food booths. We arrived too late for a serving from the huge pan of paella, but managed to snag the last of the seafood gumbo, and some roasted corn. Today is the clam chowder cook-off, and we'll have 19 restaurants competing for the best. I don't know if I can sample 19 chowders in one frenetic hour. It probably would be better not to.

The Winter Escape, part 1

This was the year we extended our winter time away from the cold to three full months--which feels a little bit like snowbirding. I guess it is. It's also the first time we've tried living in one spot, except for the coming and going, instead of island hopping. We stayed in a rented apartment on Bequia, with a bit of time before and after on St. Vincent, and a day on Grenada before flying home. We took maybe 800 pictures, so I'll share some here, in installments.

St. Vincent doesn't have an international airport (although one is under construction) so we've used Barbados, Grenada or St. Lucia to get as close as possible, and then taken local flights.  We arrived on St. Vincent on December 15, on a LIAT flight from Barbados. Our two smallish checked bags didn't. We weren't surprised. 

LIAT has some fairly stringent baggage limits, because their Dash-80 planes are small. But it was 10 days before Christmas, and people were coming home for the holidays from their far-flung, employment-imposed exiles, with overweight and extra bags and taped up cardboard boxes. I imagined Christmas presents, as well as things you can't easily get on St. Vincent. I suppose the bags left over from previous flights got on first. Reminder to self: next time pack a change of clothes in the carry-on. I always forget that, being an optimist.

We spent a night at the Cobblestone Inn, which is a few blocks from the ferry terminal, before catching the ferry to Bequia the next day. We managed to be there for First Morning, which is the first of St. Vincent's Nine Mornings celebration leading up to Christmas. And, we were just across the street from the festivities, so we didn't need a wake-up call. The huge speakers delivered the 4 am kick-off Invocation straight to our room. (You can see the size of the speakers stacked on the sidewalk on either side of the stage in the third picture.)  We watched some of the activity from the street, and some from the roof of the Cobblestone with our morning coffee. 

Every morning from December 16-24 the show starts at 4 am sharp. It's a combination of performances from musical groups, singers and costumed dance troupes, plus contests with people recruited by the MC on the spot from the audience. A group of eight-year old boys had a barking contest. Small girls belted out their favorite Christmas carols, a cappella, without a hint of shyness. Some young men vied for the attention of a beautiful girl by serenading her with a song, mostly made up on the spot and consistently awful. Then the crowd voted by applause for the winner. 

After that it was a leisurely morning, and staying in touch with airline baggage by phone. The bags found their way shortly after noon, and we managed to catch the 4:30 pm ferry to Bequia.