Jamie Hale/The Oregonian

It's hard to know a kite when it's so far away, way up in the sky, so hard to make out. You can squint but it hardly helps. Is it shaped like a sparrow? Or is it just a flying triangle? Unless you're at the strings, the kite remains estranged, an abstract object just above.



The World Kite Museum – which also hosts the Washington State International Kite Festival every August – seems to exist for the very purpose of bringing it all down to earth.



Inside a two-story building in Long Beach, Washington, the museum is stocked with kites of all kinds. It doesn't take long to tour the whole place (you could see it all in fewer than 15 minutes) but if you take your time you'll discover intricate details involved in each creation.

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Jamie Hale/The Oregonian

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Jamie Hale/The Oregonian

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Jamie Hale/The Oregonian

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The kites at the museum are made for artistry as much as functionality. You can buy mass-manufactured kites in the gift shop downstairs, where dozens of them hang from the ceiling, but the museum collection is a bit more sophisticated.



At the top of the stairs you'll find geometric kites of all shapes and sizes, like graph-paper doodles come to life. It's hard to imagine these creations will fly, but presumably they will, with the right gust of wind and well-practiced hand, just like everything else in the building.



A few steps away, beneath a sign that reads "Japan's Giant Kites," is a big, colorful Japanese kite, rising above the steel beams of the room. More than a dozen strings are connected to its sides, all gathered at the end of a single long rope. The kite is so massive that you wonder how many people it would take to fly this beast, or how strong a single person would need to be to hold on.



Scattered through the museum are information panels and video screens, but it's hard to take your eyes off the kites, hanging on every surface.



Against the far wall, where afternoon light shines in through the windows, there are more giant kites. An enormous phoenix and its outspread wings take up the whole corner. You would be excused for gasping at the sight of the thing, even for mistaking it for an actual creature.



Nearby a howling dragon hangs from the ceiling, a red-eyed horse galloping sideways just beside it. It's a veritable stampede of wild beasts, and the question returns: How on earth do these things fly?

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Jamie Hale/The Oregonian

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Jamie Hale/The Oregonian

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Jamie Hale/The Oregonian

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Gape at the big kites and you might miss the small ones, tiny works of intricate art shaped like butterflies and bats, an errant Pikachu in their midst. They're hand-painted and adorned with ribbon, thin string spooled and attached delicately to their wings.



It's just as hard to imagine these small kites in the air. Wouldn't a gust of wind simply blow the thing away? At a certain point you need to put your trust in the makers. If they say it's a kite, it's a kite – and surely a kite must fly.



As you round the corners and head back to the start, the Kite Museum is revealed as an exercise in wonder. Every kite in the collection, while grounded indoors, still breathes with a spirit that's born in the wind.



The Washington State International Kite Festival will run from Aug. 19 to 25 at Long Beach; admission is free.



The World Kite Museum is open 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily (closed Wednesdays and Thursdays from October through March); admission is $5 for adults, $4 for seniors and $3 for kids; located at 303 Southwest Sid Snyder Drive, Long Beach; 360-642-4020; kitefestival.com.



--Jamie Hale | jhale@oregonian.com | @HaleJamesB

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Jamie Hale/The Oregonian

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Jamie Hale/The Oregonian

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