Soaring over Berkeley
As a child, my dad had a canned response to my complaints of boredom. Its a Yiddish phrase that, roughly translated, meant go fly a kite. More literally translated, I believe it meant go hit your head against the wall, but that’s my dad’s sense of humor. Anyway, as it turns out flying a kite can be a whole lot of fun, particularly if you were at the Berkeley Marina this weekend for the Kite Festival.
When we exited the freeway heading toward the marina, we easily spotted these colorful 89 foot octopus kites in the sky. Watching them wave to us with their wriggly arms in the wind set us into excited anticipation. The excitement quickly fizzled, though, as we became gridlocked in traffic. The marina seems to be an ideal location for such an event, but once you consider thousands of people converging into an area surrounded by water on most of its sides, the problem becomes apparent. Since parking seemed to be hands down the biggest detraction of this event, let me share some lessons learned: 1) If you want to go and park nearby, shoot for arriving an hour before the event begins. In other words, arrive close to 10am. Parking costs $10. 2) Online there is a map that shows outlying (pay) parking areas where a parking shuttle takes people to the event. 3) Free parking is available off the frontage road. There is a large dirt lot with a pathway to the marina. The trek would probably take you about the same amount of time as sitting in traffic looking for a closer spot would. If you have little ones, bring a wagon or even a bicycle/trailer if possible. Another option is to park east of I 80 and use the foot bridge just south of University Ave.
Though we ended up sitting through traffic on this trip, once we arrived at the marina all the craziness melted away. Even with so many people in attendance, the event itself didn’t feel crowded. You could find a spot to throw out the blanket and unroll a kite without much problem at all. Even if you didn’t bring a kite, there were plenty of activities to entertain the crowd. Competitions and demonstrations ran throughout the weekend. When we arrived there was something like synchronized flying going on. Teams of four were leading their kites through maneuvers simultaneously, it was incredible to watch. For the kids there was a place you could make your own kites and something called a candy drop that we missed.
The day couldn’t have ended for us without at least one whirl at flying our own kite. Jeff brought his stunt kite and helped Ryan try to navigate it through the winds. Poor kid could have easily taken off Mary Poppins style.
All in all, it was a really fun day. I believe we will come back for this one next year, but perhaps take a better approach. I would consult with the online program next time and try to catch the Rokkaku tournament. (Contestants try to be the last kite flying by cutting the string of opponent’s kites using your own kite’s string.) I’d pack in a lunch. Food was available, but was the typical food-stand variety. I’d be sure to pack kites for the kids and make it more of a full-day event than the one-two hour activity that we had in mind. The effort in getting there makes it more worthwhile to stay a long time. One might consider bringing one of those sit-down training potty seats for the young kids, as there were only five port-o-pottys available for the entire crowd. Needless to say the lines were long! Also, don’t skimp on the sunscreen. The cool wind may make you forget how strong the sun gets near the water. Even with all these lessons learned (most of these realizations came in hindsight) we had a great time and look forward to coming back again.
When I was a kid (bored and hyper), my mom used to tell me to “run around the house six times. And then go the other way.”
Can’t remember the last time I flew a kite! How fun. I would love to watch this spectacle – greats photos.
The coolest thing about that last photo is that the octopus kites are actually much farther away than the others. They are -behind- the hill, not in front of it. They were HUGE.
This looks like such fun! I think there are kite festivals out along the Washington Coast as well, but for some reason it never occurred to me to take the kids to one. Great idea.