'08 Tomato Festival

Here's a few pics from this year's Tomato Festival. We really didn't take that many, I don't know how that happened!

I've got no pics from that morning's 5K run. We ate some pretty raunchy Chinese food Fri night (that had Brent puking around 1 am) so I decided to sleep in and not run. The race comes up our block and turns around about 3 houses before ours. Since it's organized by the supremely craptacular East Y there's a) no notice to those who live on our street of said race and road closures and b) pretty terrible street volunteers. We waited for the first runners, and the 3 teenage volunteers who could not have POSSIBLY cared less didn't explain to him where to turn back around (or acknowledge the runners whatsoever). Clearly if you think you're going to be first look up the race map BEFORE - it's been posted for weeks. I'm not sure his final time, but we didn't think he looked all that swift anyway, and the big race in tow (aka the competitive race) was in Smyrna - a great race I've done several times. Anyway, the guy kept going all the way to our house, the cop tried to set him straight but he was mouthing off so much he didn't listen, then another cop tried to keep him from going around another wrong way before he finally got headed the right direction. He kept mouthing off and yelling for about as far as we could see, and after the first 7 or 8 runners were totally rude to us - the only people out cheering WHAT-SO-EVER we said screw it and walked up to the new coffee joint for breakfast instead.

Our friends S&N came around 11 to head down to the Tomato Fest. Woo hoo!!! We had a great time and were down there until around 4 or so. I was SO glad I put sunscreen on! Here's a few pics from the fun-ness that is the festival:

S & I with "Melba Toast", to me the unofficial icon of the Festival.












Brent's submissions for the art show this year:








The artist with his section:












The festival was CROWDED! Pretty much all the activities take place between 10-3. There's lots of contests, music, activities, etc. We had various tomato samples & tastings, shopped the booths, enjoyed some of the music & contests (like ugliest tomato, haiku contest, etc), of course visited the gallery & kids art show, had I Dream of Weenie dogs for lunch, Las Paletas Popsicles for dessert, and then snow cones to top it off! Good times!!!








This homeless guy lives in our neighborhood. He's a very nice guy and I always feel bad for him with whatever is wrong with his foot. I like this pic because he's just stretched out and enjoying the day like everyone else. (We actually have a better pic where people are completely crowded around him but it's SO full of people that you would never even be able to pick him out.) The theme of the Festival is the Tomato: a Uniter not a Divider and I think this one pretty much sums it up.









Neighbors sharing their bounty:








All in all, it was another great year at the Tomato Festival. I can't wait until next year!!!!