JOYCE — It’s time once again to get dazed in a town that doesn’t take itself too seriously with streets named Bytha Way and Itsa Road.
Starting at 7 a.m. Saturday, the annual Joyce Daze Wild Blackberry Festival gets under way 15 miles west of Port Angeles on state Highway 112.
Community members will be gearing up for the festivities today by putting the finishing touches on about 200 wild-blackberry pies — the cornerstone of the daylong celebration.
The pies will be served out of the Joyce Museum, with plain slices going for $3.50, and others á la mode for $4.
Those who have attended Joyce Daze in the past said to get your sweet wild-blackberry tooth filled early, because the pies go fast.
There will also be a homemade blackberry pie contest, and entrants can drop their pies off at the museum between 9 a.m. and 10:45 a.m.
The contest is sponsored by the Peninsula Daily News, and the first-place winner will receive $100 worth of Downtown Dollars that are good at 80 merchants and restaurants in Port Angeles.
Even if you miss out on the pie, there will be plenty to eat throughout the day with a $4 pancake breakfast from 7 a.m. to 11 a.m. at the Crescent Grange Hall, and a $10 salmon bake hosted by the Crescent Bay Lions Club at 11 a.m. across the highway from Joyce General Store.
Royal service
For an extra treat, those who attend the breakfast will be seated and served by royalty — the Joyce Daze Blackberry Festival royalty, that is.
Queen Sara Kempf and Princesses Tessa Williams and Stacey Waldrip will seat people and serve food at the breakfast until 10 a.m. before heading off to get ready for the Joyce Daze parade.
This year more than 40 entrants coming all the way from Port Townsend and Forks will take part in the Joyce Daze parade at 1 p.m., said parade organizer Kimi Robertson.
The parade will travel eastward from the Crescent School campus to the Clallam County Fire District No. 4 firehouse.
But the parade is just one of the many things to do and see at the festival.
Art connoisseurs can get an eyeful with about 40 to 50 pieces of original work by local artists at the Crescent Grange Hall.
Some of the pieces will be for sale, along with a number of other crafts being sold by vendors at booths throughout the town.
For the little kids, there will be free fun and games with prizes behind the Family Kitchen restaurant.
And for the not-so-little kids there will be a mustache, beard and goatee contest to the west of the restaurant starting at 10 a.m. (see Page 3 of today’s Peninsula Spotlight magazine, included with this edition).
The entry fee for the mustache contest if $5.
Two local bands, Luck of the Draw and Cedar Grove, will entertain crowds at the Joyce Depot and Crescent Grange Hall for most of the day, Joyce Daze organizer Kathy Walter said.
Sporting activities
If all the food, music, art and contests weren’t enough, there will be two sporting activities for outdoor enthusiasts.
For those who want to hike, meet up at 9 a.m. in the Joyce Bible Church parking lot, 50350 Highway 112, for a three-mile jaunt on the Olympic Discovery Trail.
If mountain biking is more to your liking, you can still meet in the Joyce Bible Church parking lot at 9 a.m., but for a six-mile ride through the hills above Joyce.
There’s no doubt that by the end of the day, you’ll be dazed by the hospitality of the citizens of Joyce — so notice the sign on the way out of town that says, “Come back soon and re-Joyce.”