So Much Culture!

Eau Claire held it’s annual International Fall Festival downtown on Saturday. I’m not so clear on why they add in the “International” part, because as far as I can tell the only remotely international stuff about the day is the part of the parade where a group of people carry a bunch of flags from other countries, and the “Sons of Norway” float. Oh, and also the 5 gyro stands mixed in among the kettle corn and obligatory cheese curds.

Mostly, the day is a mini bazaar of sorts where local crafty people set up booths on the sidewalk and sell the stuff they make, and the downtown businesses open their doors for open houses. Including Volume One—the magazine Mike works for.

So Mike and Eva and I all put on our V1 shirts on Saturday and headed downtown to help man the Volume One "booth," and to indulge in the International hoopla.

Eva visited her first petting zoo, where they had one of those fainting goats. I never saw it faint, which is good because it spent a lot of time with its head sticking between the bars of its pen, and I kept having horrible mental images of the poor thing throttling itself when it fell over. There was also a zebra and a camel. In Wisconsin. When I saw them I began quickly rifling through my knowledge of Wisconsin wildlife thinking I’d missed some mention of zebras or camels, but then I remembered where I was. An International festival. Ah. 

Eva also witnessed her first parade on Saturday. Her Daddy (sorry, that's not Mike in the costume) was marching in it, so Eva and I settled in front of the Volume One office to watch and wave to him. Eva’s not much for parades. I don’t think I need to tell you how unimpressed she was by the horns on the fire trucks. And also the ladies throwing candy refused to throw any to us. I even tried yelling “Hey! There’s a kid here!” No dice.

By the end of the day, Eva was a little tuckered out (way too much Internationalness squeezed into one day), but she really was an angel all day long. Mike and I were so proud of her. Little Eva can party with the best of them!