Hometown Days Fun

One of my favorite things about San Carlos is Hometown Days. Everyone in town comes out to celebrate our town in some way or another throughout this weekend! I love it because it is usually on or around my birthday, which is the third weekend in May. Hometown Days has been happening since 1979 – 35 years strong. I love it when the parade is on my birthday – feels like everyone is throwing a parade in my honor! J I guess that must be how people feel who are born on the 4^th of July.

For Hometown Days almost every group in town is a sponsor or participant in some way – from our fire department to our schools to our Education Foundation to our Kiwanis, Lions, and Rotary clubs to our sports teams to out scout organizations.

I always have fun at Hometown Days and this year was no exception!

From 2007 HTD Parade

There are some activities Friday night like the jazz band playing and a tri-tip dinner by the Kiwanis. But the real fun starts on Saturday morning with the parade. There isn’t much of an audience for the parade because there are like 4 people in the town who aren’t actually in the parade. One year we could have been in 4 different things in the parade – 4H, school, Scouts, and the Pop Warner football team. For that one, the kids wore their scout uniforms and marched with the school, while I walked with the San Carlos Chickens’ Ball.

This year’s parade was no different!

My favorite float this year was our school entry. It was an amazing pirate ship. I don’t remember which parents organized and built it but it was truly inspiring. We were told to dress like a pirate, a parrot or a mermaid… I watched the parade go by and then joined them for the rest of the route. Some pirate gave me a swig of rum, which at 10 in the morning was quite a jolt! That pirate ship won best overall and set the bar high for next year! It truly was a community effort and turned out great.

There are so many activities at the fair, you could spend all weekend there and not get through everything! Dime toss, pony rides, bouncy house, pinewood derby races, rock climbing, zip lining, mechanical bull, dunk tank – you get the picture… Not to mention the food or biergarten or artists, community groups and other vendors. As I don’t have my chiropractor on speed dial, I haven’t been brave enough to try the mechanical bull – maybe another day?

There is even a kids art contest. I’m always amazed at what they come up with and it is interesting to see the art show featuring the kid’s artwork.

My favorite is to get a henna tattoo. Darcy, the woman who runs it, does an amazing job. She is wonderfully creative and patient (the line of pre-teens is long if you don’t get there first thing in the morning)! The henna tattoos last about a week if you don’t scrub it too hard.

One of the best things Days for the kids at Hometown is the performance opportunities. The jazz bands, rock bands, dance troops and other groups in town perform all weekend at the bandstand in the middle of it all; actually, there are several stages. This is a really great opportunity for the children in our town to perform in public. And it also gives us a chance to show off our highly successful middle school music program and bands!

McKinley enjoying his friends’ dance performance.

On Sunday morning, there is a Rotary fun run where you can run a 5K or a 10K. I’ve done this run with each of my children. It was Bryce’s turn this year and he did really well. My goal was to not finish last, which I achieved overall but not for my own age division L I gave it my all and almost barfed (for the first time ever running) as I crossed the finish line. Last time, I ran it with McKinley when he was 11, I think and he was the only kid in his age group to run the 10K. Kind of cool! After the fun run is the pancake breakfast which is always tasty! This year was no exception!