Windmill Fest 2018: Hubba Bubba
This day did not bode well--I woke up to rain. Well, I woke up about 3 AM, couldn't go to sleep for a couple hours, then woke up shivering violently. What was that about? I'd heard it rain when I was up in the middle of the night, and I'm not sure it really stopped raining. Because mom and I wanted to be down at Windmill Fest by 10 AM, we put off shopping until tomorrow, but when I finally got up after 8 and it was still coming down, dad was all, shopping? I'd already checked the radar, and it looked like the rain was about to pass for a little while, so no, not shopping today.
Mom and I didn't have a set time to leave, only knowing that we'd have to be out by about 9:45 to make it there by 10 and not be late. It was pretty close to then and I still had to put on sunscreen and bug spray; they'd gone last night and said the bugs were really bad. I did a slapdash job with the SPF, but given that it was cloudy, I'm not sure it mattered much, though my face was fully covered. As for the Off, my legs were okay, but the sprayer clogged up when I went to do my arms. I know the container is close to empty, but it still had stuff inside. Never mind, I gotta go anyway; mom had already pulled her car out of the garage.
Mom decided she wanted to go to the farmers market first, and I went to the Peg Bond Center to see the pet parade. However, there was this van parked in front of the stage, which was unusual, and it turned out the pet parade *wasn't* starting at 10--this other demonstration was. It was for Cold Blooded Creatures, which I think I did see was supposed to happen before the parade, but more like at 9:30 or 9:45. I'm guessing the rain earlier in the morning threw things off. I immediately texted mom to let her know what was going on. I wasn't sure I was going to like it, but it actually was really interesting--we got to meet Tank the Tortoise, a smaller snake and a larger snake (who don't appear to be on the website at this time), and then the star of the show, but I'll get to him in a minute. Jim, who runs the show, called over the park district director to help with the second critter; apparently she is terrified of snakes but she was a trooper, especially as he draped it around her neck. Right, that snake's name is Curly. He curled up a bit at times. This was the snake he walked around and let everyone pet, so at 10:15, I texted mom to say, I touched a snake. Now, she was on her way back from the farmers market at that time and didn't check her phone until she'd joined me, but she texted back, is that like touch a truck? Heh. She did get to see the nine kids lined up shoulder to shoulder to help hold the bigger snake, whose name I forget. But the star of the show? He was last. His name is Bubba. He's an alligator. He's actually the second Bubba; the first one had been praised by the Crocodile Hunter, Steve Irwin. Apparently Steve was a good friend of Jim's; you can see a few pictures of them on the website. Jim let some of the park district employees come up and take selfies with him, but then this random girl walked up and started petting him and he was like, who does she belong to? I have a rule, and parents have to be with the kids when they pet Bubba for liability's sake--he doesn't want, say, the park district to get into trouble. The scary thing is that nobody claimed her and she kept petting the gator as he was explaining this; she was maybe seven. He didn't make her stop petting Bubba, but he clearly wasn't happy that some parent was being negligent, and eventually the girl stopped. He has Bubba storybooks written by his daughter, and mom decided to buy one...and got to pet Bubba when she went up there. I missed it. However, it was because of mom, too--she'd wanted me to get a picture of Bubba on her phone. I haven't taken a picture on this phone yet, and when I finally figured it out, Bubba was heading back in the van (with a different little girl on his back--Jim had put her there), so I basically only got his tail. I'd already taken a picture on my phone, so I was texting that to mom so she'd have one, and that's how I missed mom's Bubba encounter. Rats. But it was a fun show, a nice change of pace, and Bubba is a good boy. I'm not sure I'd want to get near his teeth, though.
By the end of the critter show, though, it had started sprinkling. Mom had gotten a couple croissants plus the Bubba book and didn't want them to get wet, so she was going to take them back to the car, parked a few blocks away at the library. It started raining more heavily in the meantime, so I retreated under the nearby tent and mom decided to stay at the library to check out the book sale. It eased up by the time the parade started, but that wasn't until 11, and consequently not as many people participated. There had been a bunch of dogs waiting during the critter show--one dog barked loudly at the tortoise--but I know at least one of them had left. There had been a girl with a shirt that said "Bonjour!" on it, and she'd helped hold the big snake; her dog had a little beret on and was super cute. I totally wanted a picture of him. Alas, they didn't stick around for the parade. The rain eased a bit and I went back out on one of the little plastic bleachers set up for the audience, but it wasn't long before I was taking shelter under a nearby tree, same as the participants. Yeah, it was not the best year for the parade. Sweet Pea the bird was back. I met him and his young owner last year, and while watching the critter show I swore I kept hearing a bird but could never see it. He liked to crawl along his owner's back. He won Most Unusual Pet, since the only other non-dog was a cat. The cat won for Best Costume, dressed like a construction worker. I personally liked the dog dressed as a marionette, one of the last dogs in the show. Foltos' favorite was Hops, the 3-legged greyhound, and the last entry into the parade. They didn't have a physical prize to award him but he got recognized anyway. Turns out he lost his one front leg at 2 weeks old, so he basically never knew life with four legs.
Mom rejoined me once the parade was over, and the rain had nearly stopped, though she did bring her umbrella and she did pull it out once or twice after. We looked at the craft booths as well as the food booths, which got moved from the corner grassy area to the parking lot right in front of the police station, which was different. There also weren't any of the big signs listing the day's activities; they're usually right next to the stage. Mom and I didn't see them until we left the park property and discovered them at the festival's proper entrance. That's the other thing--everything was kind of fenced off. Like, we entered off Houston Street in front of the Depot Museum, but there was this little tiny area through which we could access anything; otherwise you couldn't get in unless you walked all the way down to Houston and Island, the main entrance.
Mom and I spent close to an hour sitting under the tent. She was trying to figure out how to put the Bubba picture on Facebook--and couldn't--but then started looking up other people's pictures. She brought up Bird Is the Word, which I'd definitely wanted to visit but actually had forgotten about. We still went and saw that they'd moved a couple things around. No cockatiels on display, or lovebirds, though a baby sun conure seemed to take a liking to me and kept screaming at me. If you remember the caiques from a few years ago, there was another set of babies, and these were fresher than the previous ones--they were still in the constantly-screaming state. Wow, you guys are noisy. Mom took a liking to these large parakeets, especially since they were quiet. One was albino and clearly trying to nap; the other was lutino, like Kirby, and was this butter-yellow color. She liked that one. There was also this bird who ended up on mom's shoulder, a grown white-bellied caique; it ended up belonging to one of the workers, who said she brings him in on Saturdays and he usually causes trouble. :) He then went back into the big cage nearby.
It was after 1:30 when we left there and mom was asking about food. I wasn't super-hungry, but she'd mentioned maybe going to either Panera or Briana's Pancake House, so we tried Briana's since mom had never been there. Mom really liked the pancakes she got as a side; they were sweet even before she added syrup, and ultimately she didn't add any. She'd gotten an omelet and a side of fruit, which we both ate. I got a breakfast wrap, so a tortilla filled with eggs, cheese, sausage, and onion. It was okay, but I'm so used to stuff like turkey and chicken sausage that regular sausage no longer sits well with me. It also had a Southern gravy (like biscuits-and-gravy gravy), which actually wasn't bad on the wrap, plus I got hash browns as a side. I brought home half of it and I think dad ate it--my room now smells like onions, which is highly unpleasant. We had gone home after lunch and I wasn't feeling well, so ultimately I ended up taking a nap for close to two hours after, uh, having some rumbly in the tumbly moments. Not sure what that was about, but I'd also had a Jimmy Dean egg scramble thing for breakfast, so maybe eating too many eggs or otherwise unusual-for-me things didn't sit well with me. (I've skipped dinner, too.) Just all of a sudden, my room smelled very strongly of onions, to the point where I've turned on an air freshener to try and dissipate the smell. I'd open a window, but now it's raining again. Oh well.
Mom and I didn't have a set time to leave, only knowing that we'd have to be out by about 9:45 to make it there by 10 and not be late. It was pretty close to then and I still had to put on sunscreen and bug spray; they'd gone last night and said the bugs were really bad. I did a slapdash job with the SPF, but given that it was cloudy, I'm not sure it mattered much, though my face was fully covered. As for the Off, my legs were okay, but the sprayer clogged up when I went to do my arms. I know the container is close to empty, but it still had stuff inside. Never mind, I gotta go anyway; mom had already pulled her car out of the garage.
Mom decided she wanted to go to the farmers market first, and I went to the Peg Bond Center to see the pet parade. However, there was this van parked in front of the stage, which was unusual, and it turned out the pet parade *wasn't* starting at 10--this other demonstration was. It was for Cold Blooded Creatures, which I think I did see was supposed to happen before the parade, but more like at 9:30 or 9:45. I'm guessing the rain earlier in the morning threw things off. I immediately texted mom to let her know what was going on. I wasn't sure I was going to like it, but it actually was really interesting--we got to meet Tank the Tortoise, a smaller snake and a larger snake (who don't appear to be on the website at this time), and then the star of the show, but I'll get to him in a minute. Jim, who runs the show, called over the park district director to help with the second critter; apparently she is terrified of snakes but she was a trooper, especially as he draped it around her neck. Right, that snake's name is Curly. He curled up a bit at times. This was the snake he walked around and let everyone pet, so at 10:15, I texted mom to say, I touched a snake. Now, she was on her way back from the farmers market at that time and didn't check her phone until she'd joined me, but she texted back, is that like touch a truck? Heh. She did get to see the nine kids lined up shoulder to shoulder to help hold the bigger snake, whose name I forget. But the star of the show? He was last. His name is Bubba. He's an alligator. He's actually the second Bubba; the first one had been praised by the Crocodile Hunter, Steve Irwin. Apparently Steve was a good friend of Jim's; you can see a few pictures of them on the website. Jim let some of the park district employees come up and take selfies with him, but then this random girl walked up and started petting him and he was like, who does she belong to? I have a rule, and parents have to be with the kids when they pet Bubba for liability's sake--he doesn't want, say, the park district to get into trouble. The scary thing is that nobody claimed her and she kept petting the gator as he was explaining this; she was maybe seven. He didn't make her stop petting Bubba, but he clearly wasn't happy that some parent was being negligent, and eventually the girl stopped. He has Bubba storybooks written by his daughter, and mom decided to buy one...and got to pet Bubba when she went up there. I missed it. However, it was because of mom, too--she'd wanted me to get a picture of Bubba on her phone. I haven't taken a picture on this phone yet, and when I finally figured it out, Bubba was heading back in the van (with a different little girl on his back--Jim had put her there), so I basically only got his tail. I'd already taken a picture on my phone, so I was texting that to mom so she'd have one, and that's how I missed mom's Bubba encounter. Rats. But it was a fun show, a nice change of pace, and Bubba is a good boy. I'm not sure I'd want to get near his teeth, though.
By the end of the critter show, though, it had started sprinkling. Mom had gotten a couple croissants plus the Bubba book and didn't want them to get wet, so she was going to take them back to the car, parked a few blocks away at the library. It started raining more heavily in the meantime, so I retreated under the nearby tent and mom decided to stay at the library to check out the book sale. It eased up by the time the parade started, but that wasn't until 11, and consequently not as many people participated. There had been a bunch of dogs waiting during the critter show--one dog barked loudly at the tortoise--but I know at least one of them had left. There had been a girl with a shirt that said "Bonjour!" on it, and she'd helped hold the big snake; her dog had a little beret on and was super cute. I totally wanted a picture of him. Alas, they didn't stick around for the parade. The rain eased a bit and I went back out on one of the little plastic bleachers set up for the audience, but it wasn't long before I was taking shelter under a nearby tree, same as the participants. Yeah, it was not the best year for the parade. Sweet Pea the bird was back. I met him and his young owner last year, and while watching the critter show I swore I kept hearing a bird but could never see it. He liked to crawl along his owner's back. He won Most Unusual Pet, since the only other non-dog was a cat. The cat won for Best Costume, dressed like a construction worker. I personally liked the dog dressed as a marionette, one of the last dogs in the show. Foltos' favorite was Hops, the 3-legged greyhound, and the last entry into the parade. They didn't have a physical prize to award him but he got recognized anyway. Turns out he lost his one front leg at 2 weeks old, so he basically never knew life with four legs.
Mom rejoined me once the parade was over, and the rain had nearly stopped, though she did bring her umbrella and she did pull it out once or twice after. We looked at the craft booths as well as the food booths, which got moved from the corner grassy area to the parking lot right in front of the police station, which was different. There also weren't any of the big signs listing the day's activities; they're usually right next to the stage. Mom and I didn't see them until we left the park property and discovered them at the festival's proper entrance. That's the other thing--everything was kind of fenced off. Like, we entered off Houston Street in front of the Depot Museum, but there was this little tiny area through which we could access anything; otherwise you couldn't get in unless you walked all the way down to Houston and Island, the main entrance.
Mom and I spent close to an hour sitting under the tent. She was trying to figure out how to put the Bubba picture on Facebook--and couldn't--but then started looking up other people's pictures. She brought up Bird Is the Word, which I'd definitely wanted to visit but actually had forgotten about. We still went and saw that they'd moved a couple things around. No cockatiels on display, or lovebirds, though a baby sun conure seemed to take a liking to me and kept screaming at me. If you remember the caiques from a few years ago, there was another set of babies, and these were fresher than the previous ones--they were still in the constantly-screaming state. Wow, you guys are noisy. Mom took a liking to these large parakeets, especially since they were quiet. One was albino and clearly trying to nap; the other was lutino, like Kirby, and was this butter-yellow color. She liked that one. There was also this bird who ended up on mom's shoulder, a grown white-bellied caique; it ended up belonging to one of the workers, who said she brings him in on Saturdays and he usually causes trouble. :) He then went back into the big cage nearby.
It was after 1:30 when we left there and mom was asking about food. I wasn't super-hungry, but she'd mentioned maybe going to either Panera or Briana's Pancake House, so we tried Briana's since mom had never been there. Mom really liked the pancakes she got as a side; they were sweet even before she added syrup, and ultimately she didn't add any. She'd gotten an omelet and a side of fruit, which we both ate. I got a breakfast wrap, so a tortilla filled with eggs, cheese, sausage, and onion. It was okay, but I'm so used to stuff like turkey and chicken sausage that regular sausage no longer sits well with me. It also had a Southern gravy (like biscuits-and-gravy gravy), which actually wasn't bad on the wrap, plus I got hash browns as a side. I brought home half of it and I think dad ate it--my room now smells like onions, which is highly unpleasant. We had gone home after lunch and I wasn't feeling well, so ultimately I ended up taking a nap for close to two hours after, uh, having some rumbly in the tumbly moments. Not sure what that was about, but I'd also had a Jimmy Dean egg scramble thing for breakfast, so maybe eating too many eggs or otherwise unusual-for-me things didn't sit well with me. (I've skipped dinner, too.) Just all of a sudden, my room smelled very strongly of onions, to the point where I've turned on an air freshener to try and dissipate the smell. I'd open a window, but now it's raining again. Oh well.