Whaling Days

I love Silverdale! It's a smallish town with a community feel, but we also have all of the box stores that I "need" in close proximity to our home. Plus, it's GORGEOUS here. Oh, how I love the green. Whaling Days (a town festival held each year the last weekend of July) brings out my Silverdale pride!

The festivities start with a fireworks display at our favorite place - Waterfront Park. They have a carnival set up all weekend with all sorts of unsafe-looking rides. Max and Ty went on this big green slide just before the fireworks began. It was a total hit for the little dude...pure excitement. You would have thought that was the coolest - and only - ride there. Ahhh, I love this age.

Flash was MUCH too bright...

The next morning is the 4-mile and 1-mile runs and Kids Dashes. I ran the 4-mile last year and Ty joined me this year. Okay, so we saw each other at the start and finish. His time was a whole lot better than mine...but I have shorter legs! My dear friend Tristalene ran with me again this year. I felt awesome about my time. I beat last year's time by about 4 minutes. It was $2 to sign Max up for a kid's dash so we figured that even if he froze (which he did) the $2 would be worth the picture and the memory. Little did we know that he would get a stuffed whale and a finisher's ribbon to boot!

The race meltdown..."Mom, carrrryyyy meeee!" Poor little fella.

The big pay-off! Totally worth the trauma. A stuffed whale to be treasured forever.

After the run we stayed for the parade. The highlight for Max, of course, were the fire trucks. It should be noted that this year (a first according to our friends, the Morgensens, who grew up here) we had a huge balloon float. It was a large whale held down by strings, floating above the Harrison Medical parade people. We were thoroughly impressed.
Until next year, Silverdale, carry on as the best little place to live. We hope to run your streets, watch fireworks over your water, and enjoy a quality parade with you again next year.