December 12-13, 2015 Independance, California

The day of the International Fruitcake Festival has arrived.

It dawned clear and beautiful and the sunset was sensational.

The legion hall decorated for the Fruit cake festival awaiting participants and the giant rotating fruit cake on the ceiling. The Theme this year is Fruit-con, after Comic Con.

Judy was comic books we had all read as children, John was the Green Hornet and I was Electra.

Our fruitcake was called Super Fruit cake-not a bird or plane, one of the winning fruit cakes was Kryptonite Fruitcake, and a glowing fruit one. Judy and I with ours. I made the fruitcake in 2013, we were hoping for the oldest fruit cake category prize,  but there was an older one. I make the fruit cake and send it to Judy, we have in the past  won the farthest traveled, but this one was made in Shoshone, not very far away.

Bryan the Fruitcake Kind with his crown. He burst through a brick wall as his entrance. Each year a theme item is added to the crown, at this point it is too heavy to wear, so he posed with it and left it in a ceremonial place on the stage.  The opening of the archival fruitcake. It is 11 years old, it is stored in a biohazard container with brandy and powdered sugar. The king picks some one each year to taste it.

The price of admission is either a fruitcake or eggnog-alcoholic or non served at the bar.  The judging of the fruit cakes is done by the counties real life judges. It is all very serious, with clip boards, a nut-o-meter  since one of the categories is the most solids, and one judge-the county sheriff  wore protective gear, including a hard hat.

Judy and I with the Fruitcake man shrine we built. They left us unsupervised with a box of decorations and told us to use them all. There is a photo of the fruitcake man on the front.  It was a big hit. Costumes are a big part of the festival. Nancy as the Super Librarian, it said pay your fines or die on the back of her cape and Bryan as Batman, he was the King.  We also have a road runner, Wonder bread woman and the Pillsbury dough boy.

Not sure who the white/dotted red face was, but it was cute, Linda and her sister with Captain Fruitcake. a family with superman, wonder woman(the father) and their ninja turtle boys, The Artist whose pallet said I am an artist, what is your super power?, and the Fruit cake jokers.

   John shed his mask and was Marlow. The winners of the costume contest were the Pillsbury doughboy, Dick Tracy, some kind of super powder-puff and Wonder woman.  

Back in the Alabama Hills on Sunday another storm blew in.  It just kind of hung on the mountains to the west and the sun shined on the other side of the valley. We went for a hike on the Arches Trail while it was spitting rain on us. John with Mobius Arch.

  John with another smaller arch. In the evening we had dinner with my sister Judy and then went to see the War of the Worlds broadcast at the Double L Saloon in Lone Pine. It was wonderful.