Lavender and Blueberries

Not too far from us is a place called Apple Hill. During apple season it is a happenin' place where you can pick your own apples and enjoy lots of fall favorites. Throughout the year they have other events and festivals. I saw they were having a lavender festival at Bluestone Meadow, so we decided to drive over for the afternoon.

After waiting around awhile for a pair of sheers and a basket, we picked our own lavender. It was a lot of fun seeing all the different varieties up close. They smell similar, but when you have them bunched together you can find the small subtleties between them. The lavender farm also had llamas and alpacas. I can never remember how you tell the difference between the two, but they are both really cute!

After lavender picking, we drove down the road a bit to a blueberry farm called Pine O'Mine where they had pick-your-own blueberries. I hadn't picked blueberries since I was a little kid visiting my grandparents in Maine. Picking blueberries was so relaxing! We came away with a bag full.

It is always fun to support local companies and farms and enjoying locally grown fruits. I encourage you to find places like this where you live!

Banana Festival

Sacramento hosted the 5th annual Banana Festival this weekend. Charles and I like to check out festivals so we slathered on the sunscreen (we're white and burn easily) and headed down.


Some festivals are great. Others are just OK and then there are some that just suck.

The Banana Festival was probably somewhere in the middle. Here is my critique:

First negative was that they charged an entrance fee. It was only $5 per person, but it was a pretty small festival.

The second negative was that they promised a whole bunch of banana treats and goodies and I did not really see any of the promised items. I was looking forward to trying to decide what I wanted. The food booths were plentiful (considering the overall size of the festival), but they did not have good signage so I did not know what half the booths were actually selling. Plus they did not have two festival staples--kettle corn and fudge.

They did seem to have a good entertainment schedule. When we arrived a small circus group from San Fran were performing. It was a little strange and after we found out where they were from it all made sense.

Overall, we both felt we could have spent our time doing something more interesting. But you never know until you try something.

Happy World Strawberry Festival Day!

Ok, so I don't think that there really is a World Strawberry Festival Day, but it sure seems like today is that day. Charles and I picked up a brochure for the Strawberry Festival about 30 minutes away from where we live. We like going to festivals, so this was right up our alley. He also found out that his tech school classmate who is stationed in England went to a Strawberry Fair today and his brother who lives in Germany went to a Strawberry Festival today--hence, World Strawberry Festival Day.

The festival was very well organized. They had parking around town and shuttle buses to take you to the actual festival. We definitely took advantage of that because parking at festivals is always a nightmare. It was the first time I've been on a school bus in a very long time. The festival was at a great location. The town seemed very quaint. Some of the houses we passed reminded me of Summerville and the south. The festival was right along a river which was great.

The festival had some interesting vendors. We didn't purchase anything, but there were definitely things I wanted to purchase like some really cool blown glass flowers on a stake to put in your yard. I really wanted one of those but they were over $100. However, at fairs and festivals there are always some booths with things that no one in their right mind would need. The high for today was 90 degrees and it was super sunny. However, there were people selling sweaters and jean jackets. I felt hotter just looking at those things. Also, there were at least two booths selling tie-dye shirts and stuff. Do people like tie-dye that much?

Because it was a Strawberry Festival there were all kinds of strawberry foods to enjoy. They had chocolate dipped strawberries, strawberry pie, strawberry donuts, strawberry shortcake, strawberry cheesecake, strawberry lemonade, strawberry ice cream and strawberry popcorn. And there was a booth selling fresh strawberries. That booth smelled the best!

We also had some pretty good pulled pork at the festival. We're huge pulled pork fans and it can be hard to find in a non-BBQ part of the country.

Overall, it was another great date day with my love!