Got milk?
Celebrities from Britney Spears to Kermit the Frog proudly don gleaming white milk mustaches on billboards and in magazines, encouraging children to power up on cow juice because it is rich in calcium.
But milk drinkers in Seattle, young and old, enjoy an added benefit: the empty cartons.
In order to enter the annual Seafair Milk Carton Derby, participants must build a boat out of at least 50 half-gallon milk cartons, or the equivalent. Derby sponsors note that a half-gallon carton floats approximately 4 pounds of weight.
The derby takes place tomorrow at Green Lake from 10 a.m. until 4 p.m. and officially kicks off this year's Seafair.
The rules for the derby are simple: The boat's primary flotation must depend on the milk cartons, although boat builders may construct a wooden platform atop the cartons, and each craft must be human powered. No engines, motors or propulsion power will be allowed.
Participants can sign up in five categories: racing, open, military, commercial and showboat.
Team Hikenutty has competed in the race twice and loved it, both times. The first time it was a pirate themed vessel and the second time we built a Boeing 787. The Derby and its festival take place each July and are considered the opening event of Seattle's Seafair - a grouping of over 30 festivals that culminate with the Seafair Cup, a hydroplane race on Lake Washington.
See the photo gallery for photos of the event and also of the construction of our paper mache' plane.