ANNOUNCING A SAN FRANCISCO-BAY AREA PICNIC & POTLUCK IN CELEBRATION OF BILBO AND FRODO’S BIRTHDAY
Tolkien fans from TORn, Imladris, TORc, the Official Fan Club and various other fan groups are organizing a pot-luck picnic to celebrate Bilbo and Frodo Baggins’ Birthday and you’re invited!
RSVP: PLEASE let the organizers know that you plan to come…PLEASE reply to either of the email addresses below and let us know your names, how many adults plan to come, and how many children will attend. It really helps in the planning!:-)
Yarrow at platypus94121@yahoo.com
BeastyBunny at jschuler2000@yahoo.com
DATE: September 22 (of course!)
TIME: 10:00am – 3:00pm (plus, after 3:30pm, hiking/hobbit walking-parties along coastal trails at the Marin Headlands)
WHERE: Marin Headlands Hostel. This is a fabulous place…a little like Rivendell, the Gray Havens, and the Misty Mountains combined. It’s often foggy and bitterly cold there (but usually not at the end of September), and eagles are frequent visitors in the fall.
The Headlands Hostel has a fireplace, a piano, comfy couches, a huge kitchen, and an inside dining area with picnic tables; a downstairs recreation area with ping pong, billiards, foosball; and outside…ahhh, outside…barbecue pits, vast green playing fields, coastal trials leading to the sea and abandoned WWII battlements (reminiscent of Amon Sul), and a lagoon filled with rapters and egrets and pelicans. Plus, it’s only a 10 minute drive north of San Francisco over the Golden Gate Bridge.
ACCOMMODATIONS/OVERNIGHT STAY: picnic guests MAY be able to rent very cheap rooms or a bed in the common rooms at the hostel (depending upon hostel occupancy, of course). Click here to find out more about the facilities, and to check on reserving a bed overnight.
PARKING: Is plentiful and free.
ENTRANCE FEE: Each ADULT picnic guest is cordially requested to contribute $5.00 to help offset the cost of the day rental of the hostel. Please pay the fee at the picnic (no need to pay in advance).
FOOD: This is a potluck, and guests are also requested to bring food. A web site will soon be set up to help organize the planning of food. More info to follow.
LEMBAS BAKE-OFF OR MUSHROOM DISH COOK-OFF?: Our last SF LOTR picnic included a lembas bake-off competition, but there is movement afoot to change the competition to a mushroom dish cook-off. A VERY nice LOTR prize will be awarded the winner of the Bake-off (or Cook-off?) competition. More info to follow.
MUSIC: Yes, please. There is a piano at the hostel. Any LOTR musicians out there? Tehanu’s bringing her horn and her piano-playing boyfriend, plus a vocal/piano score of the LOTR soundtrack. Anyone else interested in playing the piano, or bringing their violin, or guitar? The hostel is an ideal place for music.
VOLUNTEERS: Needed! Please let us know if you are willing to volunteer. We’ll post a list of volunteer tasks that need to be covered very soon.
DANGERS: Besides the lurking, skulking Nazgul (you know who you are), there are other dangers at the Marin Headlands: the small chance of bitter, biting cold (along with summer hiking gear, hats, and sunscreen, you may want to bring a winter coat; it’s unlikely, as the end of September is USUALLY warmish and sunny, but you never know…sometimes Caradhras is particularly cruel); and poison oak everywhere. Tolkien forgot to write about poison oak in Middle Earth, but the stuff is so nasty it would make the Urak-hai blanch (poison oak was undoubtedly an ingredient in the recipe Melkor used to change elves into orcs). You should stay on the paths and wear long pants to protect your legs, or you’ll look like an orc, too.
QUESTIONS AND CONCERNS: please feel free to email either of us at the following addresses:
platypus94121@yahoo.com jschuler2000@yahoo.com
Hope to see you at the celebration!
