Anacortes Arts Festival

Last weekend was the annual arts festival in Anacortes, Washington. As usual, I arrived a day early so I could relax and take in the flavor of the town before I had to set up. Here's downtown on the afternoon before the show with my "home for the weekend" marked on the street.

And here's my booth all set up. See my new awnings? I got them in Seattle this week in case there was sun or rain this weekend.

In the previous photo, did you notice how much sun there was? This was first thing in the morning and the sun was already hot. Uh-oh...

I came to Anacortes because the historical weather records showed me that this is a town that enjoys a hazy marine layer most of the time. This keeps the sun at bay and creates a breezy, cool environment. You know, the kind of atmosphere where someone might say, "Hey, I wish I had an extra layer."

Well, this three-day show happened during the only three-day heat wave that they expect all year. On Sunday, I let my desperation show and went for the "pity sale". It worked, sort of. I ended up selling 3/4 of what I expected to, with more than half of my sales on Sunday.

And, yet again, I was so busy trying to find my customers in the sweaty crowd that I forgot to take even one photo of the show. Trust me, it's big and crowded. In the hottest part of the day on Friday I made one loop through the show and it took me almost an hour.

When I packed the van to leave on this trip I meant to show y'all how tight it is with the extra boxes of merchandise needed to do three shows. They provide one whole extra layer beneath the mattress and leave me about 16" of head room once the bed is made up for sleeping. My hope was to sell enough that the bed would be lower for my last week of camping. No such luck.

And the real kicker to all this? I was so exhausted after teardown that I spent the night in Anacortes. I woke up in the morning and walked downtown for coffee. It was hazy, breezy, and cool.

Then I went out to their beautiful Washington Park and took a two-mile hike. It was perfect cloak weather and just as I was preparing to drive away the mist began. The wind picked up and the cold mist swirled around, making ME wish for an extra layer!

If I had left the night before I could tell myself that Anacortes just doesn't have good cloak weather, but nope! They usually do and I just happened to miss it... this year.

Next weekend I'm in Coupeville, just one island over from Anacortes. At this point, the weather is supposed to be cool and breezy. Fingers crossed!