Haines Fair Recap

I've lived in Alaska close to my whole life. Mostly in Juneau. Since being old enough to have a job, I have. I quickly got into tourism because that's where the real money is. This is my first summer in about a decade that I haven't worked a 60hr work week for some tourism company. Hence me being able to enjoy my summer and go camping and whatnot. Because I am not working such a rigid schedule I was able to go to the Haines Fair for the first time.
We started planning this months ago and more and more of our friends were able to go. So it ended up being about 10 or so people going up together and camping. It was pretty much the entire rendez-crew, minus one or two.

The week leading up to the fair was super busy. I filled in two day shifts at the knife shop and filled in an evening shift at the bar. And we had the Buoy Tender Roundup in town. Coasties always make it busy. Then Thursday we had the best band ever play at the bar. They're called the Sugar Shakers, they're rockabilly and just damn amazing. So we all fell in love with them Thursday night at the bar. Turns out they were on standby to take our ferry up to Haines the next morning. And they made it, yeah! So on to the fair:

We left at 8:00am Friday, promptly got beers from the food place on board.
Got into Haines and wrangled a ride from a shuttle. I think we fit about 13 people in a van that should probably hold 8. Plus camping gear. We got to the camp site and were already practically soaked. We went on a search for tarps and I bought the coolest bright yellow rainsuit ever. I looked like a walking banana condom. But I was dry so there! After setting up camp, we walked towards town as directed by a local when we asked where the fair was. I'm pretty sure half if not more of Haines hates the fair and all the outsiders it brings. We walked to town, no fair, so we start walking down another road. Finally see a sign that says Dalton City (the set they filmed White Fang on), and then finally found the fair. After making a hugely unnecessary loop in the pouring rain. But I was still dry.

We got there, walked around, ate tasty food, listened to music, drank local beer, went back to town to the bars. The first bar was the Pioneer, they had accoustic tiling for the ceilings, but people had drawn all over them. It was pretty cool. Then we went to the Fogcutter. I really like that bar. For one, you could smoke there! And tied for second, they had fresh self serve popcorn and a jukebox. We stayed for quite a while. Hell why not? It was warm, dry and we weren't sitting on rocks. We finally made our way back to the campsite and chilled for the evening. In the rain, yes it never stopped raining.

The next day, after sleeping on some awesome rocks, I awoke to sun?! It was a little cloudy but the sun was really shining. I have a theory that the tourist hating locals can control the weather. The first day I got there I bought that awesome rainsuit, the next day I had to buy sunglasses (I have no idea where mine are anyway), they just want to squeeze all of our money out of us.
We watched a very pathetic but fun parade and then headed back to the pioneer bar to meet up with other Juneauites. After the strongest kamikaze ever we headed back to the fair.
Sarah and I both got sweet Haines Brewery sweatshirts. Then I promply bought an awesome wool cardigan. And then she wanted one. We should never shop together. It was a fun day not wearing my yellow embarassment of pants and jacket and listening to really good music. Once we got back to the camp, I realized I had set down my brand fucking new $30 sunglasses. Mother effer. Never found them. I went back the next day but no dice.

On Sunday, we packed everything up and went to the fair for the last time. Our new favorite band, the sugar shakers were playing at 2. We had to leave by 3 at the latest. But we were able to hear them and sort of get a picture with them. We took the shuttle to the ferry and this time there were only four people in it, much more comfortable. The ferry ride back was really calm, we were all exhausted. The sugar shakers were on our ferry so we pestered them occasionally.

We got back to Juneau, no ticket on the car (we parked in 15 minute parking), and headed to eat greasy breakfast food at 7:30pm. On the way back into town we saw our friends car pulled over. They had something wrong with the engine not giving enough power. Another of our friends pulled over and we got them going and followed until they couldn't go any further. Then we pushed the car into a sorta safe place to leave it overnight. Then we finally got to eat greasy breakfast food.

Then we finally went home and I got to shower. Oh my it's never felt so good! My body was so sore. I'm pretty certain it's never been that sore before. But it was so much fun, totally worth it.
Some of the random highlights or phrases from the trip (take them with a grain of salt, they're only meant to be funny):
"Splittin' stamps y'all"
"Eat the powdered one!" (spoke in mickey mouse voice)
Zac beating up an old gray haired guy at a concert because he wouldn't stop grinding on him and he tripped Zac.
"You're lucky you're not pregnant or I'd punch your face in"
Every day we had a PeeWee Herman word of the day, we screamed everytime it was said. I think it was dvda, chapped, snatch, come, there might have been another one in there.
I know nothing I type can show just how ridiculously fun the weekend was, but it was! The effing end.