“Well, as long as I’m here…”
After a two hour drive from Portland with my old buddy Troy Gunn, we arrived in Long Beach sometime around 10am… A bit too early for check in, so we headed over towards the main drive to the beach and found World Kite Museum’s Director Kay Buesing who gave us a warm welcome, and quite a few vendors setting up.
Realizing there was nothing going on at the main beach access, we were directed to the other main beach drive in town a few blocks south where fliers were involved in a historic fly commemorating some of the earliest American kite designs including the Cody, Conyne, and others.
Talk about a lot of old friends! Among the crowd we found Northwest locals like Robin Haas and Doc Counce, plus a bunch of out-of-towners like Charlie McClary, Richard and Marti Dermer, Mike Dooley as well as Jim and Lynn Foster, just to name a few!
Mr and Mrs Larry Zilar were out in full traditional “period” garb, in honor of the many kites from the Louis & Clark expedition era… Also to be found on this day was Doc Counce’s excellent Conyne train, as well as an beautiful Eddy train from another individual.
After a bit of chatting and reminiscing, we headed over to the World Kite Museum to drop off a unique Indian book as a donation for their archives and browsed their exhibits for a few minutes… Then back to the beach to check out some more kites and a bit more relaxing!
With no official scheduled events today, there isn’t much to report on… But the tingle in the air gives a good indication of what we’re building towards, and I can only imagine what I’ll see over the next few days at my very first Washington State International Kite Festival!
Anyway, I figured “as long as I’m here” we’d upload some stuff for all of you who couldn’t make it out this year… We’re all settled in here at the Super 8, a mere two blocks from the beach and I look forward to bringing you more photos and news as the days progress!
John Barresi