Strawberry Fields Forever

Ahhhhhhh.... there is nothing more like music to my ears than a good festival! What's not to love? Fresh air, great smells, fantastic food, live music, a "flea market" like feel for vendors, and some of the best people watching I have ever experienced. More to come on that, later.

Today I went to the California Strawberry Festival in Oxnard, CA. I consider myself to be extremely lucky because in the short time that I have lived in California, I have already formed my core group of "festival going" friends that enjoy them equally as much as I do. I have been to a lot of festivals in my time and although this one didn't beat out the Pumpkin Fest last fall, it was still quite enjoyable. Let me backtrack and explain why the Pumpkin Fest was so wonderful for me. Fall is my favorite time of year and what I miss most about the east coast. Born in Worcester, MA and a die hard Boston sports fan, the thrill of apple picking, pumpkin picking, drinking cider, driving around to look at the foliage with my parents, carving pumpkins, and baking apple and pumpkin everything, was something that I looked forward to all year. You can imagine my excitement my first fall in California when I heard there was a Pumpkin Fest to attend! This particular festival was in Calabasas, CA, no charge to get in, pumpkins of every shape, size and color, pumpkin beer, pumpkin pie, and all sorts of spicy surprises! The weather was gorgeous and we sat outside and sipped beer all afternoon while listening to the best Journey cover band I have ever witnessed. It was as if the East Coast Autumn Gods were whispering in my ear... "Don't Stop... Believin..." that my pumpkin dreams could still come true regardless of the fact that the crisp cool air was not here and the fresh apple cider was non existent. It was at this festival that I adopted my ginormous, lopsided, pregnant pumpkin son that I named Arnie. He oddly reminded me of Leonardo DiCaprio in "What's Eating Gilbert Grape", and I couldn't resist. Here is Arnie's picture....
Now, the Strawberry Festival was still a huge hit in my book and I highly recommend it to future festival goers. Today happened to be an overcast day and we all dressed for summer... go figure. While rubbing away the goosebumps all day, we ate some great street meat - you know... chicken, hot dogs, etc. Festival food smells makes your tastebuds go crazy, makes your eyes grow extra large as well as your stomach. Festivals always have any kind of food you could possibly want which is why it is always so hard to choose. There were some things that I wouldn't dare put my tastebuds or stomach through like Strawberry Pizza and Strawberry Nachos, but there was some pretty outstanding Strawberry Margarita's, Strawberry Beer, and Strawberry Shortcake. For five dollars, you could build your own Strawberry Shortcake bowl with as much cake, strawberries and whipped cream as you could load in. I saw little piggies everywhere with whipped cream up to their armpits just trying to get their money's worth! My friend Rachel entered the pie eating contest and nearly came in dead last which was amazing to watch and we also checked out a Bruce Springsteen cover band that had a pajama wearing Morgan Freeman with dreads on the sax, a little nugget playing the bass, and the most ridiculous Bruce wanna be leading the band in song with tight tight tight black jeans that looked like they would rip every time he did an air kick, a mini fro, and some of the sweetest moves I have seen since the last time I went drunk karaoke-ing. Across the way, there was another stage with a hair band covering all of the classics. This particular festival was so unbelievably packed that they sold out of chocolate dipped strawberries and strawberry beer by 4:00. Although this was only a two day festival, there was no way they were expecting this many people to show up. Some folks who went last year were commenting on how shocked they were to see such crowds at this event.

Before I depart on the topic of the Strawberry Fest, or any Fest for that matter, I need to address the topic of people watching for a moment. People watching is just fun. There are no if's, and's, or but's about it. The Strawberry Fest was filled with mom's pushing strollers in 5 inch hells and what I would assume to be, three push up bra's at once. I call them, the Real Housewives of Strawberry Pickin Oxnard....

On our way out of the festival empty handed and nothing to remember our journey by, I saw a vendor by the name of, "Once Upon A Toe". For those that know me even the slightest, knows that I hate feet. But I was so mesmerized by the name, I wandered over to see what this disgusting place was. It was a place that sold and made toe rings specially fitted for your toes! I have never been a toe ring wearer but I found a ring that happened to tickle my fancy so I decided to let this poor lady brush the hay off of my flip flopped feet, lubricate one of my toes, and jam a ring onto it. I'm not sure how I feel about it but for now I will say that it is a delight. After running our freezing buns to the car and stopping on the side of the road to buy 12 baskets of strawberries, I drove us home to L.A. with my sleeping friends in the back and front seat with strawberry juice dripping down their chins....

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