Fungus Fair Fun--Or Not

Mark and I took the trio to Girdwood with us to check out the annual Fungus Fair. The name implies that attendees will have a good time: FUNgus Fair. Unfortunately while rain is excellent for growing mushrooms, it rather killed the fun factor on our trip.

Mushrooms are a new interest of Mark’s so he wanted to check out the fair and maybe make a few contacts to help him identify some of the mushrooms he has photographed over the past two weeks. The fair is a relatively new event (4th year) at the Alyeska Day Lodge. There were 40 or more samples of local mushrooms to view, books and t-shirts for sale, and lectures to listen to. The trio checked out the mushrooms and then became bored while opa checked out the books. We listened to part of a lecture and sampled some pickled mushrooms. Viva said the one sample (served on a cracker) tasted like pizza. I do not agree with her. It was tasty enough, but pizza flavored?! No.

There wasn’t a lot to do at the fungus fair, but we hadn’t really expected there would be. We lured the trio to Girdwood with a promise of a visit to the playground there—a few different parents have told me that the Girdwood community playground is nice enough to be worth the 40 minute drive up the highway. I did not think the playground was that special.

Unfortunately although it wasn’t raining in Anchorage, it was in Girdwood. The children opted to play in the rain, but it was rather wet and therefore the slides were not useable. I tried to dry one off, but it was still quite wet. Only Viva went down. She doesn’t care if she gets wet.

We tried to purchased cookies at the Bake Shop, but opa had no money in his wallet and the shop did not take credit cards. Seriously?! Turns out it was just as well because when I asked how much the cookies were—thinking I might be able to scavenge enough coins out of my parking meter stash in the ashtray—I was informed they were $3.75—EACH! Insane. I told the children they could have cookies when we got home—as many as they wanted. Jake ate seven. (They were small.)

Next year Mark and I will go to the fair on our own. Or maybe we’ll skip it. Unless the lectures are particularly fascinating (which seems unlikely), we can find lots of mushrooms to look at much closer to home.