This weekend was Portland, TN's annual Strawberry Festival. We'd
gone a couple years back
and had a blast so we decided to go again this year. To give a little history, Portland was the strawberry capital of the US
until California overtook them in production in the mid-20th century. This particular festival has been going on annually there
for more than 60 years, so they have honed it into a quite a fun event. Just like last time, we started the day off with a run.
This time, however, Cara, Zara & Maxwell ran the 5K instead of the 1 mile. Maxwell is quite a fast little dude and prefers running
barefoot. Unlike the last 5K we did together in Frederick, MD, today was a warm day which Maxwell claims is key for his running.
He managed to stay ahead of me through the whole race. To taunt me would slow down and let me almost catch up to him before
sprinting off again. I thought I might overtake him by gunning at the end, but he had enough of a lead and also sprinted so I
wouldn't catch up. We both finished around 27½ minutes. Zara ran about the first half mile with us and then dropped back to
run/walk with Cara. They finished together after 42 minutes.
Last time we missed out on the strawberry eating contest so M&Z made a bee line for the sign-up when we got to the main
festival area. Then Cara & I went off to partake in festival fare while Maxwell & Zara collected freebies: bags, lollipops,
hats, magnets, tattoos, etc. The weirdest thing they got were lollipops with crickets inside them and, yes, they ate them, crickets
and all. But not before they ate some strawberries:
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