Reno, Nevada
The following is one of several video clips I made during Point Arena’s Flower Power and Daffodil Explosion festivities. This is from Sunday, March 14th when I visited the Point Arena Lighthouse early that morning (when the “show” was just beginning and I was on the first free tour of the Lighthouse offered that day):
Point Arena, California
I didn’t show any pictures in the article on the Flower Power Festival of the daffodils lining all of Highway One from Point Arena to the Lighthouse. Here’s one very short stretch….
This is the northern end of Point Arena, at the corner where the “Main Street” stretch of Highway One becomes “School Street”. (The high school is one block further north, on Lake Street. Pictured here is the elementary school.)
Point Arena, California
Berkeley Kite Wranglers exhibit large kites on Lighthouse peninsula, Sunday March 14th
The current “Splash” insert for the March 12th edition of the Independent Coast Observer (the area’s weekly newspaper) starts off with an article “from Point Arena Merchants Association, special to the ICO”. The first three paragraphs describe the birth of a springtime festival for Point Arena:
Daffodils ar blooming all over Point Arena, trumpeting the arrival of spring and the First Annual Point Arena Flower Power Festival and Daffodil Explosion, Saturday and Sunday, March 13 and 14.
The event is sponsored by the Point Arena Merchants Association (PAMA) in response to a need for a springtime event. When a member mentioned that daffodils blossom all over town and out to the lighthouse and why not have an event centered around that natural sign of spring — a new festival was born.
Point Arena being Point Arena, the merchants group, recalling past days of flower children and other things 60s, named the event the Flower Power Festival and Daffodil Explosion.
On Saturday morning I went down to Main Street and experienced first hand an explosion of daffodils outside the Main Street Gallery, where a show and sale of local arts and crafts were on display for the weekend festival.
Flower Power at 824 Main Street.....
inside Main Street Gallery
Botanical Prints by Kirby Leary
The above photograph of “Photographic Art” includes the “Point Arena Pintos Calender”. I found a website of the artist Jacqueline:
http://pointarenapintos.blogspot.com
Arna Means
There were activities throughout town, with Cioppino seafood stew being served both down at the Arena Cove and in front of the theater on Main Street.
At the library, they had seperate youth and adult Scrabble tournaments…….with early bird participants beginning to set up in this picture on Saturday morning.
A lot more was going on. People were showing up at the Arena Market and Cafe to buy $2 tickets (and the clues needed) to participate in a Mural Scavenger Hunt…..and, later that night just across the street (and a little up the street), they had a really big concert show at the theater. (Which included a Master of Jimi Hendrix music, The Ralph Woodson Experience.)
Day two of the festival, Sunday the 15th, shifted somewhat over to the Point Arena Lighthouse just south of town, where spacious peninsula on high bluffs provided perfect staging for a kite exhibition provided by the Berkeley Kite Wranglers. Early arrivals were treated to a free Fog Signal Building museum and lighthouse tour.
And, finally, I left after being part of the very first wave of tours……and, saw as I was driving out a steady stream of traffic oncoming, being directed by attendants into lines on the spacious field. It seemed many people from elsewhere had gotten wind of this festival……with its flying sea life also a feature alongside exploding daffodils.
Point Arena, California
Yep…..seeing is believing, so first the picture. (And, maybe later a reality tv show called The Flying Blogger.)
I joined about 15 others, very young, very old, and all in between, in a climb up the 115 stepped steely spined heart of the Point Arena Lighthouse. We were the very first group who heard the informative talk in the museum and then the final climb and tour of the lighthouse itself. And, it was all for free to those visiting up to noon today…….as part of the Flower Power Festival and Daffodil Explosion, a first time event put on by the Point Arena Merchants Association.
I don’t know as yet what marketing and advertising they did for this, but as I was leaving around 11 am, there was a steady stream of vehicles being directed by attendants out into organized lines in the spacious fields surrounding the lighthouse. Many people seemed to have come from elsewhere.
More information and pictures to follow…………
Point Arena, California
Addendum: I have moved Merita’s posted comments (at “Dateline Point Arena” article) and reposted them here:
Merita Says:
March 12, 2010 at 9:43 pm | Reply edit
Opening reception tonight, March 12, for the 284 Main St. Gallery Spring Gift Show, launched the weekend of events for Point Arena’s first annual Flower Power Festival and Daffodil Explosion. The opening was well attended, great craft items by local artisans. Large pots full of blooming daffodils greet visitors in the entry garden,
The festival continues tomorrow, Sat., the 13th with a Mural Scavenger Hunt–a fun way to explore the many murals of PA; a SCRABBLE tournament, cioppino feed at The Cove and at Arena Theater; and a night of rock n’ roll at the theater featuring the Ralph Woodsen Experience, performing a tribute to Jimi Hendricks.
On Sunday, the 14th, the “Wind & Whale Celebration” features The Berkeley Kite Wranglers performing at Point Arena Lighthouse with a giant kite exhibition. Large hand-painted silk kites by Madeline Kibbe are on display in the Fog Signal Building. Visitors can climb to the top of the 115 ft. tower for the best vantage point to spot gray whales as they migrate north.
Point Arena, California
Yes…….65 animals “representing” varied species of rare and endangered African antelope and zebras live in Point Arena on 100 acres of land that begins only yards east of Main Street Point Arena, at the beginning of Eureka Hill Rd (or Riverside Dr as this intial stretch of road is labeled).
It’s called the B. Bryan Preserve:
Tours can be scheduled only by reservation (707 882-2297). Popular times are during feeding (4pm during winter, 5:30pm during summer), with the tours an hour and a half long (costing $20 for adults, $10 for children).
Third Eye on Reno 