Pancakes, Dogs And Primates

Sometimes we drive the blog, sometimes the blog drives us. Usually its a mixture of both. So it was last Saturday when carefully timed, we made it out for not one, not two, but THREE area events for some fun and blog fodder. We were up early, the weather was windy but perfect...



...and we made our first stop: the annual humongous Pancake Breakfast in downtown Springfield.



This was very well attended when we got there about 9:30ish, although the lines for pancakes were loonnnng, long long.



It appeared more people were waiting for their pancakes than eating them. So we forwent breakfast and walked up and down the street for a good bout of people watching.







All types and walks of local life were mixed and mingled together, waiting, eating or watching shows of which there were many; several kids were performing at three or four different stage areas along the street.







We hung out and watched a couple shows, listened to Mayor Sarno give a rousing speech, and let the bloggerette take in all the sights and sounds, until 11 o'clock rolled around and it was time to move on to the next stop:



The first annual Dakin Shelter sponsored Bark in the Park, in Springfield's Forest Park. We got there right at it's commencement, and most of the people (and dogs) were just filtering in.







Several booths were selling assorted animal and pet related items, a band was playing on stage, and dog acrobatics and feats of skill were being performed by the baseball field.





Not to mention some of the friendliest volunteers you could hope to meet...



...and the League of Dog Owners, as I call them: a close knit club, of people who have never met yet apparently share some inherent genome that allows them to get along surprisingly well.



Moving on from there, it was a quick lunch break/ picnic over at Mt. Tom state park...

...on our way up to the hills and the Cummington fairgrounds; where the Hilltown Spring Festival, or 'Spring Fling' was already in high gear.



There was some of the traditional hilltown festival fare...



But mostly people were dancing, people were swaying, to the rhythms of bands and singing troupes performing one after the other on two stages.



From what we witnessed, they were grooving to:

This oddly great sounding bagpipe and string duo:



...who were followed on another stage by the young and very talented Freight Shakers:



...who were followed by the locally famous and unique sounds of the Primate Fiasco.





Go ahead, try to get this tune out of your head, (once they got tuba levels right, of course...)



A long full day. Much travel, much to see and hear. The valley is brimming with this sort of thing any given weekend; just have to poke around. Maybe some kind of local events calender would fit on this blog...

Now, time to get home again.



We were whooped.