What we will do for fun!

Memorial Weekend is always Crabfest in Kodiak. It is the biggest event to happen all year. Chad prefers to think of it as meat on a stick fest since that seems to be what is sold most. Crabfest used to actually be about crab. Here on Kodiak Island the major sourse of the economy revolves around fishing. You can drive all over town and see piles of crab cages for crabbing. And there used to be a ton of crab in the waters around Kodiak. Crabfest was a celebration at the end of crab season and everything was crab. Booths sold crab, everything was decorated with crab, there were crab races, and much more. But alas, many years ago the crab was nearly fished out. No more crab! At least not right around Kodiak. But the tradition of crabfest continues, including the time of year it is held. Always Memorial Day weekend, Thursday through Monday, and always the worst weather. I think in the six years we have lived here we have seen one decent crabfest. When I say decent, I don't mean that it was beautiful weather in the high 70s with not a cloud in sight. That is perfect weather here. No, decent weather means that it was not raining or really windy. It was still overcast with a breeze and probably in the 50s. (I believe that was the year I preformed with my belly dancing class. One day I may post about that. Thank goodness it was good weather, I would have hated dancing in bare feet otherwise.)

Well this year was no different. We went to the parade on Saturday.



Sam was walking in it this year with her softball team. It was raining of course. We stood by the side of the road waiting for a glimpse of her, Alyssa and Connor grabbing candy thrown in the street. Poor Sam came past wet, but smiling.


In Kodiak this must be fun.

After the parade we were all soaked, but we went on down to the festivities anyway. We saved out ride tickets for Monday hoping the weather would be better, but also to get more bang for our buck. Monday is buddy day and the rides are two for one. Being that ride tickets are $1 a piece and it takes anywhere from 2 to 6 tickets for some rides, we opted to wait for buddy day and get more rides for our tickets. But we still walked around, checked out the rides, had some meat on a stick, and a deep fried twinkie.

The kids were anxiously waiting for Monday to go on rides and talked about all the ones they would go on. They talked about new ones since last year, and old ones that did not make it back. The Gravitron being the one missing. Remember that one? Where you spin around so fast your feet actually leave the ground! Yes, it will be missed!?

Monday came! Probably the wettest day all weekend. Still we bundled up and headed downtown. Yes, this is fun in Kodiak!

At least Kaylin stayed dry! She did not venture out of her dry bubble to enjoy any rides this year.

The rest of us spent the next 2 1/2 hours out in the rain, getting dizzy, spinning around, and oh yes, freezing! But we used up all of our tickets.

As we huddled in the car, eating halibut wraps, halibut salad sandwich (both really good from the food booths) and McDonalds chicken nuggets for the kids, we asked the kids if they had fun. Between shivering and proclaiming they would be first in the hot bath when we get home, they all shouted YES!