This weekend Emily and I joined Arley, Katie, Ryan, Erin, Ian, Eric, Caitlin, Eric Porter and others from Watershed Quantum Spatial on a trip out to Blaine County where Annie's family now holds the annual fair on their farm. I had a pretty shitty week at work but Caitlyn's birthday party on Friday at Eric's had cheered me up a bit and I decided to go to the fair as well and I'm glad I did as it turned out to be a good time.
Emily and I met Eric at 1pm and we followed him, Eric and Caitlin towards Tillamook and then south and into the woods of the Coastal Range and Blaine County. When we got there we found a large yard full of tents and a parking area, both in a field filled with dried cow poo. With rain in the forecast and Eric’s love of wet cow poo from the tough mudder I was expecting to hear some dry heaving from his tent later that night... ha! That’s when we met their little dog who wanted nothing else but to harass poor leo and hump him. Unfortunately, for the dog, Leo doesn’t like to be harassed. At first I smacked Leo for growling at the dog but then realized he was just trying to let the dog know he wanted his space.. well it didn’t work. It came down to poor Leo having to snap at the dog every 10 minutes or so as it followed him around and constantly tried to hump him. Eventually, Leo just stuck near us until the dog finally lost interest. Thankfully, I think by the end of the night both dogs knew their boundaries and Leo set off to spend the remainder of the party begging and scrounging for food everywhere.
We arrived just in time to see a pie eating contest with all the locals and ton of kids. Ryan and Al also took part and Al ended up getting 2nd place I think, while Ryan was lucky just to hold back puking as he dove face first into a chocolate pie. Later came the potato sack races, egg toss, ax throwing, lawn skeeball, a talent show from the kids (and co-workers), live bluegrass and country music sung all night, and several other events for everyone. The farm was littered with chickens everywhere, a turkey pen, and families of wild ducks. I’m not sure where the cows and goats where stuck while everyone was there. 
For food there was local Tillamook sausages, a ton of chanterelle mushrooms and a bunch of sides including potato salads and a yummy asian peanut veggie dish. On tap they had a local IPA and a cider. They had also freshly squeezed what looked like over a 100 apples for apple cider which I happily mixed with the alcoholic stuff from the keg. Later in the night some fishermen would show up with fresh sea bass and Tarika brought about 8 dungeness that he had caught earlier in the day. 
The farm had plenty of signs of where events and attractions were such as a barn of rope swings, a trampoline, the ax throwing area, a sling shot that I was very good at, a large white movie screen and projector for the kids and even a wonderful bonfire area for late night after the kids went to bed. There was so much stuff to do and it was nice that unlike the Clark County fair the things were free and didn’t cost $5 a ride or $5 per sausage. A $20 donation was suggested and Emily and I happily contributed to the great day. 
Everyone had a great time I think. Arley even found Annie’s bat suit and took an upside down nap in the barn with the ropes. Chester, Nate’s roomate, seemed to have the best time of everyone, running around shirtless and eventually getting hand-cuffed to a small tree and hosed down by the kids with the garden hose until he was completely soaked. Needless to say, he remembered none of this the next day. Of course with a party with such varied people from both the city and the deep woods there was some unfortunate incidences but overall I think the day was a huge success for Annie and her family. Most everyone Emily and I met seemed to be really great people and were happy to share in the food they had caught or harvested. We even got to see a great little family of ducklings running around before we left!
On the way home we stopped at the Pacific Oyster Company in Bay City for some oyster shooters, clam chowder and cioppino. There was talk of others joining us but it ended up just being Caitlin, Eric-squared and Emily and I. It had started to mist rain out since late last night and the coast wasn’t that pleasant anyway so after soup with them we took off with a tired and full-belly Leo in the back to have a quite Sunday night at home for the last few episodes of Breaking Bad. 
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