DaVinci Days 2010

We were really looking forward to DaVinci days in Corvallis as it is alot like the Kinetic Sculpture Races we used to go to in Ventura AND Ron's mom and Jim were coming down this year AND Rachele and Dan decided to come AND we have lots of friends in Corvallis! Lots of ANDs!

We made it to the hotel on Friday and got to meet Rose and Jim's new pup. Orion had great fun playing with her and a rope.

While Akasha decided to try out the giant in room spa tub!

She liked that so much she decided to use the sink in our room as a tub to play in for awhile. :)

Then we went out and had a huge Chinese buffet dinner and Orion went in the pool for a bit.

We got a slow start the next day but made it to part of the parade. It was so cool to see all the people on their bikes riding along! This was one of my favorites - it is hard to see in this picture, but it is kindof like a mouse wheel! The outside edges are inflated, and the girl inside just had to run to make it go! They called it Mouse Trap, which I didn't think really fit, although it is none of my business lol. But why a trap? This is a mouse fun time!

This one was really funny. The back wheel was constructed in such a way it made the whole contraption bounce up and down as it rolled. And if you look carefully, there is a toddler riding along at his feet!

And here we have the Space Cow Bus...

...and the Space Cow Butt lol. This thing was huge! We saw it do the sand portion and I thought there is NO way this thing is going to navigate a 90 degree turn, but it bends in the middle, and they did it!!!

This one had a full band on top! And this cool kindof back and forth piston mechanism for moving it.

There was so much art displayed in the area just outside the festival! Check out the Death Star! Had to take a photo because Orion says he wants to make one! :D

This was a really neat project too. Hard to see, but the plate hanging off has a paper on it with a list of things to find, so the whole thing was a big I Spy!

And then something really surprising happened - Orion WATCHED something! Yes, I know this doesn't sound unusual on it's own, but we are talking about the kid who says, I don't like to watch things, only DO things. He has never watched any kind of performance in his life. Granted, he only watched this for about 5 or 10 minutes, but still!

Then it was on to the Children's Area. And what a GREAT area it was! The best I have ever seen at this type of event just because it was so big and had so much variety! The bug zoo was awesome. I got to hold a walking stick! Orion just looked. :)

Monaorion! Definitely the most surreal one of these I have ever seen!

They had a mister set up that Orion really enjoyed.

Then we got some lunch and decided to take the shuttle out to the sand course area. It wasn't really a "race" as the contestants went through the sand one at a time, but it allowed for time to talk about each entry, and we got to hear some good stories. It was nothing compared to racing on the actual beach ;) but it was interesting in its own right because the sculptures had to get up a hill, make a sharp turn, and then get down a hill. The turn caused alot of folks trouble. These guys were off the edge!

Here is Mouse Trap again! She ran right up that hill faster than anybody!

And came right down with complete control!

When we got back to the main event area, Ron decided to take Orion back to the hotel while Akasha and I went to visit the geocaching booth. We also visited the cache that was right near the entrance to the event, where Akasha enjoyed climbing around on the wall.

We walked past some of the chalk art on the way to the spot where Ron was going to pick us up, and I took pictures of some of my favorites:

We found a spot to wait... this was probably Akasha's favorite part of the day as she loves to climb up and down stairs. :)

Later that night we went to dinner at Sunnyside Up with Rose. Orion sure enjoyed all the time with his Grandma!

And the really amazing thing was that Akasha passed out so cold in the car on the way there I was able to put her down and she stayed asleep!

The long view to show how she was zonked out just on the other side of the table from us.

We also did a couple geocaches after dinner, and Rose really seemed to enjoy it. I wonder if I have another convert!

The next day we headed over to where the water event was, but didn't end up watching it because Orion kept asking to go home. I did spot this funny sculpture I hadn't seen yet, though. Check the wheel for the name... and yes, those "peas" were whirling when I took this!

Since we got an early start home , I talked Ron into stopping for this cache, which I thought Orion would enjoy, I had a feeling from the description it was going to be up high, and um, yeah it was....

Getting set up for the grab.

Good thing Ron is tall. It was a stretch for him to lift Orion up that high even standing on this shoulders! Then Orion had to hand the ammo can down to me. It was a true team effort!

Opening the treasure. There was some good stuff in this one too!

And then on to home and rest! :D