Great Day in Elk 2023

The Great Day in Elk was this past Saturday. My granddaughter and her parents came up for the event, her first Great Day. It was a really fun day and I think she enjoyed herself immensely. I missed the first post-Covid event last year due to a conflict with another event but this year we all got to go.

We made it to Elk in time to find good parking and then walk down to see the parade. The parade was longer than the 5 minutes it has sometimes been; partly this was because of a VERY slow walking “Captain Cat” with the CalFire crew - not only did he stop for lots of photos, he just walked super slowly. But overall, there were more entries and therefore more things to see. Besides the requisite fire trucks, there was the Grand Marshall Judy Bonney, a group of kids on bicycles and one on a unicycle, a boat full of pirates, the Beach Barbies, groups from the Greenwood School and the Mendocino Cardinals, plus representatives from the Mendocino Film Festival, Marine Mammal Rescue, the Matson Mercantile, all followed up by the Greenwood Civic Club’s caboose.

The grounds of the Community Center were packed, both with attendees and with things to do. There was the lunch of tamales, the sweet shack with scrumptious goodies, the t-shirt and other swag sales, the soup and foccacia stand, the hot dogs, the silent auction, the beer/wine and margarita sales, plus a huge area for the kids, including crafts and games. Finally, the stage with live entertainment and later in the afternoon, the cake auction.

We got ourselves some of the delicious tamales and then headed to the kid area where our granddaughter immersed herself in everything from having a unicorn painted on her face to making clay sculptures and paper crowns. We perused the silent auction and placed a few bids (but didn’t end up “winning” anything) and then joined a group from Boonville for the cake auction.

The cake auction turned out to be the highlight of the day. Two cakes apparently set records, one made by Ellen Saxe Karish and the other by Yarrow Rubin, both selling for over $1,000. The first cake, Ellen’s, was fought over by the Boonville group vs. the Elk contingent, with Elk ultimately winning. The second cake, Yarrow’s, saw another round of hot competition, with the Boonville group ultimately victorious.

Once the cake auction was over the crowd thinned considerably, and by 4:30 PM we were on our way home, happy but tired from another Great Day in Elk.