multipurposegoddess

For Father's Day, my dad wanted to go to the Pirate Festival in Vallejo, specifically to see the ship-to-shore cannon battle. So that's what we did.

We'd gone to it a few years ago when my sister's family was in town (I think it was my BiL's birthday, in fact) so that was a big group and required some people wrangling. Just three of us this time - mom put together a very piratical outfit, dad declared he wanted a pirate hat, I looked like a day at the beach (bec ause, hey, you get pirates on beaches, and it was a comfortable and reasonably flattering outfit, plus, giant totebag handy for carry stuff around the festival grounds).

We got there not quite in time to see the Test Firing (of the on shore cannons, presumably), so the first thig we did was eat. Lots of good food stands this year - dad got oysters and poke, mom had fish and chips made by a local cooking school that were really good, and I had a cottage pie that was excellent if more suited to a wintry day than June. Then outfittting dad with a tri-corner hat, which he had customised with a bright blue feather and a sparkly red butterfly pin. After that it was easier to spot him in the crowd - there were a lot of tri-corner hats, of course, but the blue feather was not so common. While he was getting the customizing done, I came across a box od snoods for sale - I've been wanting a snood for a long time, so that was a good find AND I got instruction in how to put it on which was actually helpful. In our wanderings, mom and I got lace parasols (we were concerned that the lacy ones wouldn't have sufficient shade, but they were actually very effective) and I kept hearing songs I knew from my days at the Irish pub from the various performance stages, so that was very pleasant. It was a hottish day, about 90F, but with a pretty constant breeze off the water if you weren't in an enclosed tent or too tightly packed in a crowd to feel it. Dad also picked up a gorgeous leather bound blank journal filled with handmade paper. The seller said you can cut out the paper when you have finished filling a book up and send it to them and they will bind new paper into the cover for you, very cool. I regretfully did not get one for myself, I have not filled up the journals I have now, but I will definitely go looking for this guy when I need a new one! Beautiful leatherwork and lovely paper.

We pretty much made a complete circuit of the vendors by the scheduled time for the cannon battle, so we found a spot near the water to spectate. It's a staged fight between an armed schooner (flying a jolly roger, of course) and two small cannons on shore, lots of booms and clouds of smoke and even muzzle flash sometimes, pretty fun. This one had the added entertainment of the schooner running aground (not totally beaching itself, but getting it's keel stuck when it came a little too close to shore in the shallows) which some of the crowd heckled them for but it was, as far as I'm concerned, actual suspense and adventure trying to get them free! They enlisted a motorized launch to help extract them, and used the schooner's engine, so not so period authentic, but a real triumph when she got floating again! And we got to watch a whaling longboat row by, and another schooner that I think was giving cruises and wasn't part of the battle. Mom and I agreed that we like the smell of gunpowder. 

After that, more food - we got a duck leg, a quail, and a steamed artichoke to share. That artichoke was delicious - they advertised that it was steamed with 16 spices, but I was kind of surprised to be able to taste them, steaming with added flavors so often doesn't seem to matter. The confectioners gave free samples to lovely ladies with parasols, so we tried their mint chocolate and it was delicious, so we went back to get some of that and some of the maple pecan chipotle brittle, because, really, how could I not get some of that to try? Tasty and with definite heat, as it turns out, but not overwhelmingly spicy. Sadly, it's made with corn syrup so I shouldn't eat it, but I plan to have tiny bites of on occasion because, seriously, yum. The chocolate is corn-free, so that's fine. Right hen we arrived dad had spotted a wood-worker with these beautiful wooden beer steins that he wanted to take another look at, so we did that. The same guy also made nifty wooden cases for pocket watches. Next door to him was another woodworker, and he had crochet hooks, so mom and I found the sizes we use most often and got a couple of those. They just feel so nice in wood, and not outrageously expensive. he beer steins were not outrageously expensive considering how much work went into them, but still a lot of money.