Here a llama, there a llama, everywhere a llama llama.

Saturday was Llama Fest. I don't know why I got it in my head to go this year, but it's something I heard about long ago and have since wanted to go. Personally I enjoyed the experience, despite some minor setbacks. Beginning with the heat.

I think it hit somewhere above 100 degrees...like 101...which is plenty hotter than 100. This and it being held at a Hindu Krishna Temple (on the fringe of the Fork of Spain) made it feel like we were in the middle of the desert. It was a pretty cool looking place, although the pictures of their blue god scared me quite a lot, I don't know why. We (Duckling, FK, Pinkie, and I) first went into the temple, because we got their half an hour early. It was nice because not a lot of people were there yet, and after it started the place was packed. We had to take off our shoes to enter, and on the first floor was a gift shop...weird; both being in a temple shopping and shopping without shoes on, with a stone--or otherwise hard but smooth and cool-to-the-touch--floor. A lot of llama stuff. Surprisingly the only thing I bought was a snow cone. I wanted to get my sister one of the little dollar llamas that were woven out of string or whatever, but by that time the fest was in full swing and I wasn't going to wait in the line for something like that. Also, they sold out of small shirts pretty quickly, and as much as I want a llama fest shirt, this years was not as cool as the one hanging on Arbogast's wall. I'll have to go again with my sister when they have better shirts.

So with 10 or so minutes till the start we went upstairs to the actual temple part of the temple. They had this central piece at the front with quite a few colored statues of gods lined along a wooden carved inset that was quite impressive. I'm a little sad I didn't get a picture to explain it better, but I wasn't sure if that was an insult to their religion or not to be taking pictures in there. I'm thinking not, because I saw someone else do so and they did allow the public in their holy place. Next to this central piece, on either side, were statues, presumably of gods, one a man and the other an elephant man. The other walls of the room were lined with very ornate (possibly Persian?) padded chairs and sofas that had hard frames that could have been made of wood, but I really didn't inspect that particular part of them all that well. It was highly impressive though.

Then we went outside and sat down to watch the llama judging. They did form, look, and all that stuff, then had an obstacle course they judged them at. I thought it was cool (I'll admit that on occasion when bored at home I've been sucked into watching the occasional dog show, which is what this reminded me of in a slightly convoluted way). Other than that there were a lot of llamas and a lot of judging which made it go by more slowly than weÂ’d hoped for, yet it was enjoyable. It was here we really noticed the heat though. Pinkie in particular is not one I would recommend hanging out with when she's hot because she gets incredibly cranky, but FK was also somewhat irritable--I think it must be a family thing. I've noticed that they're always hot regardless of whether or not it is hot, so when it actually is...beware. I don't know why it didn't bother me at all, but while I recognized it was incredibly hot, I also really was enjoying it. Maybe it's because I've been drinking incredible amounts of caffeine lately and thus have felt the need to over-compensate in my water intake, which can't help but prevent dehydration. I noticed the other day at Frisbee this was the case; I've never played so well in League in my life, except for the time I played in the pouring rain, while at the same time feeling so good. Then again, it could have been the fact that the humidity that's seemed to accompany the heat this summer (making it more oppressive) just happened to be absent. I like dry heat, but detest wet heat.

We actually weren't there very long, because no one else seemed to enjoy the heat as I did, and we only briefly went to look at the llamas up close. It took quite a bit of convincing even to get Pinkie and Duckling to come with me and look at baby llamas, and IÂ’m not sure we even found them. I would have liked to have gone into the pens to pet the llamas, but I realized my compadres wanted to leave, so we left soon after. We then went to a diner down there before heading home, and I for one enjoyed the food.

It was a pretty exhausting day at that, but that may have had as much to do with not really sleeping the night before as it did with the heat. That said, I would go again next year, but I doubt my companions this year would be enthusiastic at the prospect of going again, when it's sure to be that hot again, so I won't drag anyone into it next time. Except possibly family members.