Strawberry Fields Forever...

I'll admit it, there are a few things about Southern California that I find to be undesirable. The summertime heat waves, for instance (case in point: this past weekend). There's also the traffic and the smog, and the high cost of living. However, I am beginning to learn that the reason so many people live in Southern California is that these undesirable things go hand-in-hand with a number of lovely, wonderful, awesome things that the region also has to offer. Things like Disneyland, the beach, and the sunny un-winter. The year-round flowers and palm trees. The museums, cultural amenities, and recreational opportunities. The buzz of entertainment, glitz, and glamour. And perhaps most importantly (I realized this weekend), STRAWBERRIES.

Despite the many unpleasant attributes of this region, one of the things in which I delight the most is that it is the heart of strawberry country. That means that when late spring comes, so too do baskets and crates of fresh, red, aromatic strawberries, direct from the farms. And lemme tell ya, I LOVE STRAWBERRIES. I've loved them since I was a little kid. I could eat an entire meal of just strawberries. Toss them into pancakes, waffles, cakes, or beverages, and I'm in heaven. So of course, when I learned that the annual California Strawberry Festival was taking place on May 17th in Oxnard (just an hour away), I HAD to go. Tim was gracious enough to allow a little Saturday afternoon field trip (despite the horrid heat), so we packed up and headed north.

Wow! It was great. It's really a big to-do. There were booths upon booths of artisans and handicrafts, along with souvenir stands, some rides, a couple of concert stages, and a number of sitting areas. And most importantly, there was a LOT of food available, and there were a LOT of strawberry treats!! Seeing as the festival is only once a year, Tim and I totally splurged and tried several of the festival's strawberry delicacies. We got strawberry smoothies and strawberry shortcake, of course. But would you believe that we also tried strawberry pizza and strawberry nachos?! Wild!

So, yay! It was fun. Here are some photos from our day:

The festival

Another scene from the festival
The strawberry nachos stand
The "Berry-Go-Round" (hahaha... get it? Berry, instead of merry. Haha. Good one.)
Sipping my strawberry smoothie
Our slice of strawberry pizza
The strawberry nachos (which were my favorite)
The make-your-own strawberry shortcake
Our little festival-goer in one of his new outfits
A contented look following a good burp on Dad's shoulder!