On Friday, the four of us went to the STUN gathering at Morgantown Park in Snohomish. This turned out to be a really nice spot (I picked it pretty much at random from the Snohomish Parks Department Web site), with access to the Pilchuck River. We spent pretty much the whole time in the river, which was about two feet deep all the way across. We waded in the river, played frisbee in the river, skipped rocks in the river, played improvised softball in the river, and had nice conversations in the river. Fun!
Friday night, the girls and I piled into the van and drove down to Eugene, Oregon. We spent Saturday hanging around town (one of MJ's favorite places) and going to their Saturday Market, then on Sunday we headed out to the Oregon Country Fair. What a wild, wonderful experience! It's a real hippie haven, with lots of happy people, new-age and age-of-Aquarius wisdom, arts and crafts, music, dancing, people watching, and liberal politicking. Fascinating place! And it was interesting how many people knew each other there. Thousands of people, small community. A frequent overheard greeting: Are you having a good fair?
My favorite thing—absolute favorite, can't wait to experience it again—was the Drum Tower. A couple dozen people, using a variety of drums and percussion instruments, sit together and DRUM, baby! "Drum circle" doesn't describe it; there are bleachers and benches and a dusty dancing area in the middle, and none of these people has rehearsed with the others. The energy was amazing, a tangible thing, and the gradual, synchronous shifts in rhythm were astonishing. I could have spent the whole day soaking it up. If we go back next year, it will be with a drum!
The downsides of the day were twofold: One, Chloe fell ill, suddenly covered with goosebumps despite the 85-degree heat. She spent most of the afternoon sleeping in the van (and is still under the weather today). And two, we got separated from and didn't get to see much of the Golds, our Corvallis unschooling buddies and the organizers of LIFE is Good. We spent the morning running into each other even when we'd separated, so I got casual about it when I left to take Chloe back to the car and didn't arrange a meeting place. That was the last I saw of Mary and Jon, although I did manage to locate MJ again eventually! As one woman told me, that's the fair for you!
Some photos:
Here are some more photos, on Mary's blog post from the 2006 fair. I bought a card-sized print of the fire people. Love it!
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