CALIgula Posted April 20, 2015 Share Posted April 20, 2015 ...and his lady. So, I haven't made any threads in a while but have always wanted to make a thread about the festivals and fairs here in Northern California (specifically, the central valley). The festivals pretty much start about a month into spring and go all the way till the end of summer. Some of the festivals ive been to, and some of them I havent...last year I tried to hit up as many as possible but fell short...this year, im going to try to do a majority of them and post some flicks and video for y'all to check out....so this will be an ongoing thread until then.....i hope you enjoy. This past weekend was the first set of events me and my girl went to....on Saturday April 18th, we went to Picnic Day at UC Davis, which is about 15 miles away from here in Sacramento.... we woke up early and left Sacramento at about 8:30am to beat traffic on the 80....but the drive wasnt bad at all since we had some classic hip hop (Leaders of the New School) to bump on the way there... 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fist 666 Posted April 20, 2015 Share Posted April 20, 2015 Is Gilroy Garlic Fest on your list? I went years ago, would love to do it again. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CALIgula Posted April 20, 2015 Author Share Posted April 20, 2015 we got to campus and got there early enough to find good parking and got decent seats to watch the opening ceremony and parade... Old Glory and the California Flag.. watched the marching band come in... pretty cool choreography for such a small space... i took some film with my point and shoot camera (sorry about the quality....for some reason I had the camera set to low definition...but i will fix that for future posts).... best part of the performance was the band playing System of a Down's Chop Suey...lol...wake up!...sorry i didn't get any video footage, i was too busy vibin' to the song! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CALIgula Posted April 20, 2015 Author Share Posted April 20, 2015 the parade was cool....but my gf kept bugging me about leaving cause she was hungry (she left home without eating breakfast and decided not to bring her snacks that she usually takes with her everywhere)... picnic day is advertised as the largest student organized event in the nation...whether thats actually true or not, i dont know...but picnic day has been going on for a long time....this years picnic day (2015) was the school's 101st picnic day...so over 100 years now... UC Davis has old school double decker buses that take people around campus and the small collge town of Davis.. old school and the newer double decker buses... new school big ass fire truck... wells fargo stage coach... more.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Schnitzel Posted April 21, 2015 Share Posted April 21, 2015 sick Routemaster DoubleDecker bus! looks like a good day out! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CALIgula Posted April 21, 2015 Author Share Posted April 21, 2015 Davis, CA is a biking community....its logo is actually a bicycle...everyone....and I mean EVERYONE rides bikes around campus...in the past ive seen some pretty bad bike accidents...they even have bike cops...and you can get a BUI (biking under the influence) ticket out there. anybody interested in bicycles can appreciate this.....a little bit more about bicycling in Davis if youre intersted: https://localwiki.org/davis/Bicycling and thats the reason for the next few pics... old school bicycles.. lol...dont ask me how they get up there....i dont know.. even the juggling club has people on unicycles... more... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CALIgula Posted April 21, 2015 Author Share Posted April 21, 2015 can't forget to post my favorite part of the parade....the northern california DeLorean club... these guys were all Back to the Future Nerds (which is cool, cause thats one of my favorite trilogies)...this is actually fitting because this is supposed to be the year (2015...in October) that Marty McFly returns to the future.. they had cool personalized plates too....like "outatime" and references to 88 miles per hour....if you look closely to this next picture you can even see a guy holding a hoverboard out of the car.. some even had details on the car down to the flux capacitor and circuits... at this point my gf couldn't take much more because she was complaining about being hungry...and we had been watching the parade for over an hour and a half now so, we decided to leave but I wanted to take more flicks for 12oz, so we walked against the parade route so I could snap a few more flicks... 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CALIgula Posted April 21, 2015 Author Share Posted April 21, 2015 mini race car?.. the entomology club (insect club)...brought out their large spider...lol... kind of sad I didnt have time to flick all of the cool bicycles that were out there, but she was bitching about being super hungry...but i did manage to stop and get a flick of this guy (notice his kid is down at the bottom of this bike)... more.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CALIgula Posted April 21, 2015 Author Share Posted April 21, 2015 this mini car was used to advertise the local tattoo shop here in town...and its theme is a boat...next to the call numbers (to the left of the C) there was a little hole that would shoot out water like a squirt gun...i dont know if you can tell from the pics but he was trying to shoot water at me but i dodged it... polo anyone?... finally got to where the food was at....but my mind wasnt on the food....i was busy looking at other things....there was so much bottom-of-cheeks everywhere....where was all this when i was in college?!?!? lol....more.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CALIgula Posted April 21, 2015 Author Share Posted April 21, 2015 at this point it was around noon..."i will stand in the taco line, you go stand in the torta line" tacos...meh. torta....yuck....not even a real torta....wtf is this shit?!... walked around a little bit....listened to some music...visited some booths...walked around and looked at some exhibits...got info.....people watched...saw these people....dont know if they were doing capoeira or were just really bad b-girls... do you know what is favela? more.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CALIgula Posted April 21, 2015 Author Share Posted April 21, 2015 a little later we went to the "doxie derby" ...an annual event where they race weiner dogs...this is actually one of my favorite parts of picnic day and go to this every year....the crowd hella gets into it... once again sorry for the poor video quality... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CALIgula Posted April 21, 2015 Author Share Posted April 21, 2015 the dog that won was named "pickles".....here he is doing a runoff against his competitor "pancake" and another dog... the best part is that in the stadium, they show instant replays and finish photos.... we did some more walking, went to some more exhibits...and eventually it was 4pm...and we were hungry again...this time we headed into downtown Davis to grab a bite to eat... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CALIgula Posted April 21, 2015 Author Share Posted April 21, 2015 on Campus is more of a family atmosphere and there are a lot of fun things to see and do...downtown Davis is where the bars are...and close to the frat houses so has a more get drunk and wild...play beer pong and grind up against random people type of atmosphere...me and my girl are too old for all that shit, so instead of going to the pubs and bars for food we dipped into a little all you can eat suchi place. yeah...i said it...all you can eat sushi....lol...dont judge me. here are the little boats that come around and you can pick sushi off of them....just make sure you sit as close to where the boats come out from or else the people on your right get first dibs...some random drunk and apparently hungry as fuck college kids came in and sat to the right of us and kept taking all the good rolls... one of my rolls... here is what was left of another one of my rolls... when in davis getting all you can eat sushi, soft shell crab is a must...so fucking good!... the college kids next to us were drunk and annoying...i dont think our generation was ever that obnoxious...the one girl got a call from her friend and was on the phone hella loud and was like "yeah, were here at some RANDOM sushi bar"....like 20 seconds go by and once again very loudly says..."yeah...downtown davis...were at some RANDOM sushi bar".....another 10 seconds go by and once again....."..over here at some RANDOM sushi bar"...this bitch was annoying...ok, we get it...youre at a random fucking sushi bar...both me and my girl were annoyed. i turned to my girlfriend and whisper that i should get on my phone and pretend im talking to my homie and keep saying "yeah bro...were at some RANDOM sushi bar".... timing couldn't have been better because literally 5 minutes later...the same homie i mentioned called me and said he just got back from his trip to Cleveland Ohio and asked where we were at and what we were doing...lol couldn't resist.....hella loudly i said... "oh, you're back?....us?....oh, were just sitting here eating sushi at some RANDOM sushi bar".....my girlfriend chuckled....10 seconds later i said...."yea man, just in downtown Davis at some RANDOM sushi bar"...this time my girlfriend nudged me with her elbow....told homie that i would hit him up later on and i had to get off my phone cause it was rude to be on it at the restaurant...the college kids next to me didnt say a thing and after that stopped being obnoxious and left shortly after... then i thought "enough of this boat shit...fix me some specialty rolls my nigga!" Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CALIgula Posted April 21, 2015 Author Share Posted April 21, 2015 got two specialty rolls.... this one had spicy tuna that wasnt even spicy :( after these two rolls....we both tapped out....we were full....not suffed...but hella full. drove back to campus after my gf almost beat down a drunk pedestrian girl who shot us a dirty look because we stopped for her to cross the crosswalk...i hate drunk college girls who feel a sense of entitlement...sorry daddy's little princess, but my girl will knock you the fuck out...lol... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CALIgula Posted April 21, 2015 Author Share Posted April 21, 2015 got back to the parking structure on campus and took a quick little 15-20 minute nap. got the blanket out of the trunk and went to an event they have every picnic day called "battle of the bands" where for 8 hours straight about 5 or 6 schools from northern california (including berkley, chico etc) go back and forth battling each other in front of a crowd of people chillin out on the grass.. they also wear funny costumes... the later it gets the crazier it gets...the band members will run onto the grass around the people laying out and sitting down and will play music around them...this goes on till 10pm...and its fun to kick back and listen to them play...we usually stay till its dark out, but this year we were tired cause of all the walking we did for the day so we left and went back to Sacramento by 6pm before the sun went down. heres some video of them playing... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CALIgula Posted April 21, 2015 Author Share Posted April 21, 2015 All in all, it was a fun day....we tried to stay in the shade as much as possible and stay hydrated but it was 87 degrees outside and the heat kind of got us tired and we left early. And we did a LOT of walking....according to the pedometer on my cell phone...i did over 17,000 steps. My girlfriend's cell phone said she did about 17,000 steps too (but i think i beat her by about 300 or 400 steps). So this was Saturday the 18th....stayed tuned for Sunday the 19th (yesterday) in a bit.. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CALIgula Posted April 21, 2015 Author Share Posted April 21, 2015 Is Gilroy Garlic Fest on your list? I went years ago, would love to do it again. Don't want to foreshadow too much, but in short, yes...haha. sick Routemaster DoubleDecker bus! looks like a good day out! great day out...if you ever make it back here to the states during one of these festivals, you should roll with us! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CALIgula Posted April 21, 2015 Author Share Posted April 21, 2015 Sunday the 19th, we took interstate 5 South and went to the Asparagus Festival in Stockton, CA. Which is about 50 miles away... Some of you may remember me posting pictures from the Asparagus Festival about 6 or so years ago, but most of you may not. Well, the Asparagus festival has been going on in the city of Stockton for the past 29 years...the asparagus festival actually helps raise a lot of money every year for local charities and it brings people out from the central valley and the bay area. For many of you who may not know much about Stockton, CA....well...how can I say this....its a little...um....a little bit ghetto. Well not all parts of Stockton, but lots of it. Forbes named stockton the 8th most dangerous city in the U.S. a few years back, and has one of the most violent crime rates per capita. If you've been following the news in recent years, you know that the problem did not improve when the city filed for bankruptcy. Long story short...even though the Asparagus Festival has been a tradition in Stockton for 29 years, with the recent poor attendance to the festival and increasing costs, it was cancelled after last years festival. Well, one guy decided to save the Asparagus festival and changed the venue and threw what is now called the "San Joaquin Aspargus Festival" named after San Joaquin County... read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/food-drink/appetizers/article2600991.html http://fox40.com/2014/07/22/asparagus-festival-to-continue-in-2015/ So this is where we went on Sunday...heres a billboard in Stockton for the event... more... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CALIgula Posted April 21, 2015 Author Share Posted April 21, 2015 We made the drive out....pulled up and paid $5 to park...walked up and paid $20 for both me and my gf to get in...we were tired from the picnic day from the day before but really wanted to check out the Aspargus Festival and see if it was still as good as it used to be....we got there kind of early so it wasn't too crowded just yet.. the asparagus festival used to be held in downtown stockton where they would shut down all the streets and have the events right there in downtown....this year it was at the county fairgrounds, so they decided to open up all the carnival rides too apparently. some of the old vendors from years past showed up and some didnt...here is one guy who showed up from the previous years....not really a vendor but this is a great hustle....some of you may remember me posting this before... the idea is you ride the green bicycle from the start line to the end (where the guy is sitting on his bike)....3 tries for $5...if you make it to the end, you win $100...seems easy enough right?....well actually no....its called krazy bike for a reason...he has the bike rigged so if you turn the handlebars to the left, the bike goes to the right...and if you turn right, the bike goes left...so its like a carnival game that seems easy enough. but its not.....a few years ago i watched for a solid hour while one person after another would hand the guy $5 just to lose (if your foot touches the ground you lose)...the problems is that when we feel were about to fall, our brains automatically try to correct the fall by the way were used to...not counter intuitively.... regardless...its a dope hustle....this guy makes his money... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CALIgula Posted April 21, 2015 Author Share Posted April 21, 2015 One vendor I was really glad to see was lockeford sausages (/no homo)...from lockeford, CA. I actually told my gf on the drive out there a couple of times that we need to get a lockeford sausage (/no homo). one of the first vendors we saw and we got a sausage while there wasn't any line! heres the guy working the grill... and heres the sausage we got (with onions...and without sauerkraut...im not really a sauerkraut fan).. had to condiment that bitch up though! ...delicious! then on to the reason we drove 50 miles...the asparagus!!... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CALIgula Posted April 21, 2015 Author Share Posted April 21, 2015 grabbed a map and apparently, all the asparagus was hiding in this building right here... the line for the deep fried asparagus was hella long, so I got in the line for the asparagus ice cream while it was still short (since we were there early enough)... I notice its hard to read the sign, but its $3 for a scoop of asparagus ice cream... my gf tried the asparagus ice cream last year and hated it, so she wouldnt even try a bit...so i had the whole cone to myself! holla! :D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CALIgula Posted April 21, 2015 Author Share Posted April 21, 2015 decided that we might as well get in the asparagus line while it was still early.....this is where the event was not as good as previous years....before they would have like 5 booths for deep fried asparagus next to each other at different locations, so the lines wouldnt have more than a 10 minute wait. we had to wait it line to order and pay first, then get in another line to pick up the food....total wait in order line only 4 or 5 minutes, but wait time to pick up food was 25 minutes....i hope they change this in the future....lots of people were pissed about the wait....some redneck guy was talking loud about how the wait was bullshit....'murica...fuck yeah! previous year it was $6 for 3 spears of asparagus...this year it was $7 for 6 spears...so that was much better. worth the wait!.... my gf is really picky about her ranch, so i only put a little bit of ranch on there....really wanted to drench it in ranch but oh well... now you see it.... and now you don't! so good!!...the 50 mile drive was worth it just for these. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Schnitzel Posted April 21, 2015 Share Posted April 21, 2015 you know how Asparagus makes your piss smell - I can't imagine the smell of the mens rooms there keep posting up. This is a great thread You've kind of inspired me to check out some events round my way. Missed a wicked Lego thing recently. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CALIgula Posted April 21, 2015 Author Share Posted April 21, 2015 another problem with the new asparagus festival though was the fact that they cut back on the different types of foods.....in the past, they had the asparagus ice cream, the deep fried asparagus and the asparagus margaritas just like they did this year... ...but this year, they didnt have the asparagus burrito with asparagus salsa....the asparagus steak sandwich....the asparagus pasta etc...boooooo! also, in the past the theme was asparagus everything...they had asparagus mascots, asparagus cooking shows, asparagus art etc etc....but this year they just had the asparagus off in one building and everything else just seemed like the state fair so that was kind of disappointing for me....i can do the state fair in sacramento...i came here for the damn asparagus! they also for some reason had 3 separate car shows going on....how that relates to asparagus, i have no idea... here are some people looking at cars... heres a chopper...which also has nothing to do with asparagus'...but looks cool ... a race car... after walking around a bit, i had to pee...went to the portapotties imagining that it was going to smell like asparagus piss, but since it was still early in the day, it wasnt too bad. there were a lot more rednecks there than usual...dont know why...in the past the festival has been more hood...maybe since we went on a sunday, we missed the hoodness of the festival the previous day....went into the porta potty and saw some racist motherfucker had scribed a 14:88 into the plastic replacing the dots with tiny swastikas....i took out my knife....and crossed it out a few times and scribed "bitch" under it...i hope whoever did it goes back and sees it...lol. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CALIgula Posted April 21, 2015 Author Share Posted April 21, 2015 i flicked this cool little mural... these are what asparagus roots apparently look like... yum. and these are the different types of asparagus....didnt know there were this many different types.... sorry about the glare....from left to right the signs say small, standard, large, extra large, and jumbo..... more.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CALIgula Posted April 21, 2015 Author Share Posted April 21, 2015 another car....i actually really like this car... so mobster. this was kind of cool to see....a giant shopping cart....which was actually a hot rod...notice the seat, steering wheel, and speakers in the top part of the shopping cart.... this carved tree was kind of cool too....the detail on those eagles were on point!... more... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CALIgula Posted April 21, 2015 Author Share Posted April 21, 2015 and its not really an asparagus festival without roller derby....i guess :confused: lol... get up! more.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CALIgula Posted April 21, 2015 Author Share Posted April 21, 2015 at this point, we had been there for a few hours and it was starting to get really really crowded...so i took a picture of the crowd and think i found cope2!! (see red arrow).... even McGruff the Crime Dog was there!...and apparently he wears Nikes?.... help take a bite out of crime! i even did some benching at the asparagus festival, but booheadzoohead got in my shot :( flicked the engine though... more.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
One Man Banned Posted April 21, 2015 Share Posted April 21, 2015 you know how Asparagus makes your piss smell - I can't imagine the smell of the mens rooms the THIS. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CALIgula Posted April 21, 2015 Author Share Posted April 21, 2015 fuck it....nothing here has anything to do with asparagus...so we might as well go to the petting zoo....which also has nothing to do with asparagus... they call it an asparagus festival....i call that bull! get it? the girl that was scratching the horses back was scratching it for literally at least 5 minutes....i seriously thought the horse was about to cum right there... this bull was actually watching the girl scratch the horse's back and genuinely looked jealous..haha horsies... goaties.. more... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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