Flight of the Vampire and More Halloween Fun

We began our first full day in Brevard early.  Grace, Lauryl, and I ran in the annual Flight of the Vampire 5k held on the campus of Brevard College.  The weather was perfect and it was a spectacular way to see the homes around town.  As we were waiting for the race to start, I met a sweet woman who was also fairly new to the area from Florida.  We talked the whole first part of the run and we met up after race and introduced our families.  Not even in town 24 hours and we made friends...craziness!  


Following the race, which was a blast, we saw our first white squirrel!  They are truly spectacular and bazaar all at the same time.  They are all over the college campus and we've even seen them other places around town.  The tale is that they came to the area from a carnival animal truck that overturned back in the 40's.  A pair of the squirrels were found and given to a local resident that tried to breed them unsuccessfully.  The squirrels eventually escaped and began breeding in the wild. They can now be seen throughout the town of Brevard.   According to the town website, biologists know of no other species of all white squirrels in the world.  They are not albino as they are white with some gray fur and they have brown eyes!

They next adventure of the day was attending the Halloween festival downtown.  We all dressed up for the occasion and Grace and Lauryl decided to enter the costume competition.  Grace took second place in the storybook category with her rendition of the poem "The Raven" by Edgar Allen Poe.  With Raven feathers and lines of the poem written on her arms and legs, she embodied both the raven and the lost Lenore.  It was a great way to show she really learned something when we studied the poem.  Lauryl dressed up as the character from the children's book Pinkalicious.  Camden went old-school as Skeletor, donned with a glow in the dark hand painted mask he made.  Because Grace won, we all got to walk in the costume parade through town.  Way to make our mark already!

After the parade we got lunch at Mayberry's.  They have the most delicious sandwiches and it's a place that truly embodies the essence of the town.  The kids did some trick-or-treating at the stores and we ran into our new friends at the pumpkin roll.  In the evening there was a music festival "Osktoberfest" sponsored by Oskar Blues Brewery,a new brewery coming to town.  We ate Brauts and drank  beer while listening to an awesome band. The kids even got to play on the inflatable slides. Once again we met up with the couple we met earlier in the day to bring the day to close.  What a wonderful introduction to a wonderful little town.  We are becoming fast fans of this area!