friday morning

The food vendors are my favorite part of the festival. This week we will eat just about every meal down there, and then some.

Local businesses are also taking advantage, with Grinderman and Gambino's Pizza getting in on the food frenzy. Grinderman has some really cool chocolate items during Arkalalah. Their chocolate and caremel covered apples are pretty amazing, and Gambino's is offering pizza by the slice. I'd like to see Gambino's do that all the time.

Today and tomorrow are the big days. Today is the kid's parade, which is always cool. It's my favorite parade. Ive never been much for night parades, and the big parade is ... well, big. Either the paper or my church always has a float, and ive been in the big parade a few times. I have not actually watched the big parade in a few years. This year i'll get to see it.

Tonight of course is the coronation. IT is interesting how they pick the queen. People at the event vote, which is interesting. But there are only so many seats available and it has an air of secrecy about it - whether thats true or not is a different matter - but that is my impression.
It would be fun if it were more public, and more of the public was involved. Not sure how to do that.

I don't mean that as a negative at all. The selection of the Arkalalah queen is a long standing tradition and has worked well.

Getting back to the food, I am sure I will eat myself silly over the next couple of days. There is the eating competition, but i'm not going near there.

Did notice in the brochure that has the schedule that the beer garden is called a "refreshment" garden, and that there is no mention of beer at all. It does mention Ale and I assume that doesn't mean Ginger.

By now I have hit my favorites - Harvest Medley, Porkburgers, chocolate cheesecake, and a couple others. Now its time to try new things. That Fried Peach sounds interesting.

james jordan