berkeley kite festival

Corey and I went to the Berkeley Kite Festival today. Wow! Really amazing. Working on putting up a web page of pictures, but for now, here's one of the two of us . . .

Not something you see in every town and village across America. Berkeley definitely has its advantages.

I helped someone rescue his stunt kite from a nosedive, and I got to fly it for a little while. That was pretty cool. Two strings at once. When you pull on one of the strings, the nose of the kite turns that direction. Difficult in such high winds, though. I kept getting pulled into a spin, and the kite would immediately be slammed into the ground.

We also saw guys flying kites that almost looked like parachutes. The winds were strong enough to be lifting these guys up and dragging them across the field. Very cool.

Then there were the big animal kites. These things looked more like Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade balloons than kites, but they really were just kites. Nothing holding them up there but the wind . . .

Difficult to really appreciate the scale of these things. They were immense. They just filled up the sky. And with all of the other kites (hundreds of them) the air was filled with gossamer strings, weaving every which way. Some of the kites were diving and spinning and some were just hanging there, like an anchor dipped into the sky.

And what a perfect day. The sky was crystal blue, and there was a steady, strong wind coming in off the Bay. Definitely adding this one to the annual list of things to do.

Posted: Sat - July 26, 2003 at 10:56 PM

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berkeley kite festival

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