October 7th Fall Festival at Camp
Alex's camp in Los Altos, formerly called Camp Costonoan but now renamed Via West, holds an annual fall festival and we go almost every year. It is a fundraiser where you buy tickets for food, various games, and activities.
he is feeding a rabbit in a cage...
... or he is holding one rabbit while feeding another.
We spend a half hour to an hour there each year until Frank or I get bored and cannot take anymore. We eventually do urge Alex to go to the games area where he likes the ring toss and the bean bag toss. He smiles enthusiastically at the attendants and they generally let him place his toes (and whole body) over the boundary throwing line.
Hmmm... see that blue tape line about 1½ -2 feet behind Alex's heels in both pictures?
We watch a magic show and go through a haunted house. Alex makes a decorative striped vial by filling it through a funnel with layered colors of sand then picks a pumpkin at the pumpkin patch. We all enjoy the fancy limousine ride back to the parking lot where we'd left the car. The black lights within are cool and give off a party ambience.
But even better is the view out the double height front windshield.
Here is that limousine-bus parked back at the gravel quarry.
Alex does have a good time and we were one of the last group of folks to leave. Our car was one of the final few in the parking lot. It appeared that we just might have overstayed our welcome and were being shoved to another location by a front loader. After an initial double take we realized we were free to be off on our ride back home. Whew! It was just an illusion of our viewing angle.
October 15th Dogtoberfest
In our home town of Livermore we attended the third Dogtoberfest in which dogs wearing bandanas gather with their significant person or family to be counted - sort of like a flash mob but with barking instead of dancing. We followed the paw prints along the sidewalk to the grassy field of action.
Dogtoberfest is a competition to challenge an entry in the Guinness Book of World Records for maximum gathering of canines. Livermore's chief competitor is a similar event held in Canberra, Australia who currently holds a record they earned in 2015 for 764 bandana-bedecked dogs. Livermore first challenged the record in 2015 when they had 371 entries. A second Livermore attempt in 2016 rose to 460 pups. This year, 2017, Livermore gathered 621 dogs so we are nipping at the heels of the Australians. Perhaps in 2018 we will surpass that 764 record.
During the event dogs are vaccinated for free. Pet vendors sponsor doggie giveaways and contests. Adoption pens are set up so attendees may take home a dog (or maybe two?). We took Alex for the fun and the noise and managed to leave without a canine - no matter how cute. Alex had fun but at times even he seemed overwhelmed. So many dogs to pet and so little time!
That picture of the Rav 4 and the front loader is truly a keeper! Alex looks like he had a ton of fun at camp. Im glad they kept him well-stocked with bunnies! and super mellow ones at that, apparently. And, Dogtoberfest sounds like a really great idea. Ah, the joys of blue-state living!
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