Our New State: Let us all join together in holy YAARRRR!

Two pirate ships were sailing towards each other and were on a collision course. One pirate ship was carrying blue paint and the other pirate ship was carrying red paint. What happend when they hit?

They was marooned!

The day started out like any other day, well...not quite. I woke up, showered, worked a little bit in the afternoon, ate lunch, went to a pirate festival, and then went to bed....whoa, what?! A Pirate Festival?! that's right, Portland hosted a Pirate Festival Sept 20. It was the most intersting festival I've ever been to. So weigh anchor and hoist the mizzen, and I'll give ye a tale that will be sure to blow the cannon! (How's that for pirate talk?!)

The Pirate Festival was held in an area of Porltand that was kinda run down and...uh...well, perfect for the plundering, pillaging type. I was so excited when we were walking towards the entrance because everyone was dressed as a pirate! We payed for our entrance, got our "treasure map" of the park, and set off. There were sword fights, face painting, pirate shopping, cannon ball fights, and plenty of pirate singing. The most interesting part was watching a New Age band (this is Portland, people). That is when all the weirdies came out. People were dancing (drunk and sober ones), as this band was singing about "black blood" from the middle east. I felt like I was attending my very first policital rally or protest. During this time a woman started dancing with a hula hoop and she was very good at it. Makes me want to learn....anyways, we then headed over to watch a cannon fight between the Pirates and the Red Coats that was being acted out. Now, you have to realize that this whole acting like a pirate thing is a serious lifestyle for a lot of the people at the festival. To prove my point, we were sitting in front of these two woman dressed as pirates. As this whole scene was playing out of the pirates against the red coats, these woman were talking to each other as if it was all really happening. They were worried about their pirate comrads that were going up against the evil red coats. They were serious about it too. I wouldn't be surprised if they had pirate names and would only answer to someone if their pirate name was used. Anyways, the whole cannon ball fight was a little anti climatic, but all in good fun. It was getting later and darker, so we headed over to the main stage and watched some fire dancers. What is a pirate festival without fire dancers!? Then, as were about to call it a night, another band came on. Not just any band. A Pirate rock band! They sang all sorts of songs about Pirate-y things and were the most entertaining thing of the whole festival. Captain Bogg and Salty was the name of the band. You should check them out on youtube. and yes, we bought one of their CDs. So it was time well spent at the pirate festival. Will we be going next year? AAAAYYY!!! But next time, we are dressing up!

More Pirate Festival Pictures