Jeff got this ad in the mailbox advertising a new restaurant; claiming to have “boardwalk fries” and even naming it the restaurant. Now Jeff literally worked on the boardwalk at Rehobeth Beach, DE making such fries so the bar was set pretty high. While they were not quite at the level one expects on an east coast boardwalk, the fries were pretty darn good. And they also had the new programmable soda machine with a touch screen. You can now pick say, Mt Dew and add vanilla to it (why one would do that, I have no idea, but you could if you wanted to.) Can flying cars really be that far behind? With all that power I still got a diet coke, but I went a little wild and added cherry to it. Jasmine went crazy with the Fanta option.

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Of course there was an adult costume contest. Halloween only comes once a year. Most pulled out their Ren Fen clothes so there were lots of hobbits – some of whom said funny things – like “I’m the 3rd cousin twice removed of Bilbo’s mom”. Then there was the Nazgul – who talked in growls and gasps – pretty imaginative. The audience digged that one and two fighting Urikai – who hammed up the crowd. Then, of course, you can’t have a Tolkien costume contest without the obligatory Gandalf.

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One of the key reasons for us attending was to enjoy contests for best costumes. We put together an impromptu elf costume for Jasmine but she declined to enter the contest.

One kid stole the show, he approached the commentator meekly in a rather average dinosaur costume – the MC asked him what character he was – the kid roared SMAUGGGGGG! – it was so loud and unexpected the audience cheered. Here are a few more kids being cute in their costumes.

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After finishing the 3+ hr Fellowship of the Ring and lunch we decided to skip the other two movies (especially since they are scarier). But the Tolkien festival had lots going on.

We went to the ballroom to catch some of the Hobbit performances. They had a great sound effects section. Listen to some of the videos. Really amazing.

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A local restaurant chain called McMenamins turns existing buildings into restaurants and where possible adds movie theaters. The Kennedy school was at one time a grade school now converted into a pretty cool place to go. In honor of JRR Tolkien’s birthday (he wrote the Hobbit and Lord of the Rings), McMenamins had a festival showing all three movies. Emily had other things planned so it was father daughter day.

We barely got there in time to get tickets; so we had to sit in the front row; but it’s a non-traditional theater with loveseats couches and fluffy chairs. We sat on a comfy two person loveseat which worked well as Jasmine did lots of hiding during the more intense scenes of the Fellowship of the Ring. But one scene in particular stood out and when we got home she did a little enactment for Emily – “None shall pass!”

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