So the second day of Rhinebeck was in fact amazing. The big selling points were:
1. No feeling like we had to do everything in just one day, more time to just spend with people.
and
2. Leaping Llama Competition.
Really, point number 2 was the most important feature.
We wandered through the barns to say good morning to our favorite camelids.
We enjoyed the parade of llamas and alpacas.
We then settled into the barns for the best. show. ever.
The 4H’ers, in particular, were super-fun to watch. The take home lesson was: alpacas don’t jump. Llamas leap. If you have a llama, you need a pretty high fence. Not so much for the alpaca.
I even made a YouTube video to this effect –
We did a tad more shopping and finally heading home (stopping at yet another diner and spinning in yet another Stop and Shop parking lot on the way home).
I think that was the point in time at which Kara and I dyed more yarn? I can’t remember October so well at some point. And there wasn’t a lot of sleep. But there was dye and yarn and it was awesome.
I loved making the festival a two-day thing, and totally will do so in the future. Had I written this post promptly after Rhinebeck, I probably would have hemmed and hawed and said maybe next year, maybe not, but at this point…I can’t imagine NOT going, whether I’m in New Haven or anywhere else in the world. It really is the happiest place on earth…for me, at least. One miserable night back in the middle of winter, I was up late finishing my lab meeting, and finally thought to ask on Ravelry who on earth the pan-flute band who plays at Rhinebeck every year is (Esperitu Andino, for those who can’t live another minute without YouTubing them, I don’t blame you…Es Asi probably is the one I get stuck in my head the most from wandering around the festival for two days). Once I could pull up their background music and think about Rhinebeck, I had the mental break I needed to push through and keep working. Put on some music, pet some fiber, grab a hunk of cheese, and know that October is closer now than it was in January.