Bremerton Blackberry Festival with Hubby

After a wonderful flight from home to Bremerton with my Hubby in the back of the airplane for the first time ever, it was time to enjoy some of the local festivities.

I can’t believe that we lucked out to spend our weekend at the Bremerton Blackberry Festival. So much to do and see and eat today! And the whole thing gets to happen with my favorite person by my side.

I knew the day was going to be awesome when we woke up to fog. We don’t exactly get the opportunity to see things like this in Phoenix, so I love when it happens on the road. Doesn’t this just make you want to curl up with a good book? Or some blackberry cobbler?

But there was lots to do today, so away we went! Hubby and I decided to let it warm up more than the 52-degrees that it was that morning. Yikes!

But today’s high is supposed to be seventy-four. Perfection, in my book.

Early that morning, we heard singing from our hotel room. When we looked outside, we realized that the Navy was singing and running all through downtown.

They had chants going while they maintained perfect timing in their formation. It was pretty impressive, and not just because a bunch of people were willing to run.

Soon it had warmed up enough outside to enjoy the festival! It went from 10:00 AM each day until about 7:00 PM, or whenever the last band finished playing their routine.

And, as you can see, the festival is a pretty popular destination. We even watched crowds of people arriving from the Seattle ferry to enjoy the little town’s biggest annual event.

One of my favorite parts of the morning was the official fly-over. While we enjoyed the Blackberry Festival in town, a miniature air show was taking place seven miles away at the airport.

Since only one of us would have enjoyed that, we stayed in town.

We made the official decision to just eat food all day. There were so many choices, and if we shared we could try even more!

I wonder who’s idea that was?

All day long, we were serenaded by different bands playing on the stage. See the guy in tie dye to the left? He danced all day! By himself! It was awesome.

 

But let’s get to the good stuff…the grub! Of course, he put jalapenos on it. He would put them on everything if he could!

We enjoyed a healthy rendition of chili cheese-covered fries. It was actually way better than I was expecting, since I don’t like usually things like that.

And we washed it down with a homemade Blackberry Soda, which we both decided tasted just like concentrated cough syrup. Not a huge fan, but that might be just us!

We found a nice shady spot on the steps to sit and enjoy our food. It was a great view to get in lots of people-watching. Today wasn’t disappointing at all! Hubby stayed in the shade to save our spot while I made a few runs for different edible items.

I wonder who’s idea that was?

We watched them make this balloon ring in the parking lot this morning from the comfort of our hotel room. You can see our hotel in the background. Isn’t it the perfect location to enjoy all of this?

This was my fault. I was being adventurous in trying things that I normally wouldn’t pick. But this was a big, fat fail. It is a blackberry scone with a glaze, which is what coerced me into buying it. But the scone itself was really dry. We both wished we had more concentrated cough syrup to wash it down.

It was that bad. Wop wop.

All through downtown were things for big kids and little kids to do. This just makes me want to put some sort of climbing wall in our future boys’ bedroom. Wouldn’t that be fun?

There were also ponies to ride. This just made me miss my childhood spent on a horse. Did you know that I wore cowboy boots to school until the sixth grade?

It’s hard to pick a favorite thing from today, but these guys are certainly in the running. It was a family-operated booth called Viking Chips.

These wonderful people made my heart go pitter-pat…because they made fresh-to-order potato chips!

Using a power drill, they spun the potato against a blade to create the curly goodness. Then, into the deep fat fryer they went while we impatiently waited.

And then, hallelujah! Chips sent straight from heaven! They lightly salted them and handed us a giant plate of hot chips. Not too shabby for $4, huh?

I absolutely love this picture of Hubby. He is so dern handsome (and old…today is his birthday)!

Sorry for the sappy moment. Let’s get back to the chips!

They were incredible. We seriously considered getting a second order but didn’t want to be those creepy chip-eating people.

We watched a performer while we ate our chips. He was fun and interacted with the crowd well. He kept bringing people up from the audience to incorporate in his tricks. He clearly saw that we were too busy stuffing our face to be bothered.

He did a trick, and then this audience member had to mimic it, complete with weird sounds! It was funny, and the guest followed along pretty well!

They kept stacking these books and got into some pretty tricky configurations.

I wasn’t paying attention very closely since we still had chips to eat at this point in time.

A little later, we decided to put my Coldstone birthday gift card (thanks, Dad!) to good use. Hubby got a shake, and I got the Founder’s Favorite. We should have gotten smaller versions, since neither one of us finished.

You know that something must be wrong for me to not finish some ice cream!

As the evening wore on, the festival came to a close for the day. It would continue for the next two days over the holiday weekend! But we had more important things to do tomorrow.

I get to show Hubby Seattle!

This was the gorgeous view from our room after things were slowing down at the festival. It’s very tiring eating all day and sitting in the shade.

But there was a lot to do, and we had a wonderful day. It was so much better to explore with Hubby by my side the entire time. I am so lucky that he got to come along.