A Weekend of Festivals

We decided not to go camping over Columbus Day Weekend as we had tentatively planned. I had an event to attend at church on Saturday night and schoolwork that needed to be done. We did the take the time for some family fun, attending festivals on Saturday and Sunday afternoons.

On Saturday we drove down to Marshfield for the South Shore Celebration, a sustainable living festival at the Marshfield Fairgrounds. It was an enjoyable afternoon for everyone. We learned about green practices, ate some tasty local food and wandered around a bit. I parked myself near the music stage to listen to the music provided by Boston area band Melloteen. They played great high energy rock music—a mix of originals and well-done covers, many with environmental themes. Their show also featured a bicycle powered sound system. It worked very well as long as they had a few enthusiastic peddlers to keep it going. Near the stage a vendor was selling handmade hula hoops and she had a dozen or so out for people to try. Maura spent about an hour learning how to hula hoop and now she wants to get one for herself. The fun of the afternoon was worth the ten dollars per family admission. It would be an even better deal for a larger family.

On Sunday we headed into Boston for the Local Food Festival on the Rose Kennedy Greenway. It was a much bigger event than the one in Marshfield and admission was free as it always is for events on the Greenway. It featured local food producers, distributors of locally grown produce, restaurants that use locally produced food in their cuisine, and food related non-profit organizations. There was live music on several stages to give the festival a soundtrack. We had a wonderful time. Our visit was a wandering open air lunch. We sampled a great variety of foods ranging from pumpkin crab apple soup to locally produced chocolate. Some of what we ate was free samples and some we bought, though the prices were reasonable. We all enjoy eating a variety of foods so the festival was great fun. For me the highlight was trying raw oysters. I had them for the first time since I was six and Maura tried one for her first time ever. Maura enjoyed her oyster, which is no surprise since it came from the sea. Maura loves all kinds of seafood. I also enjoyed mine. It was a very different experience for me than the first time I ate a raw oyster. Then I definitely did not enjoy it. Of course, now I know that raw oysters are swallowed whole and not chewed.