While I have not been to the farm stand, I have bought Spooner berries at Metropolitan Market and…read moreat their stand at the Proctor Farmers Market in Tacoma recently in which they are sold by the pint or as a flat. The strawberries are sweet, but not overly so. Better than the usual grocery store strawberries. While the golden raspberries are delicious, they are very delicate. A few of them were crushed in transport leaving a wet mess. If you are looking for local berries, Spooner is a grower that you can depend on.

This is another farm that has moved to a more upscale, enclosed building with a/c model, etc. It's…read morebecome pretty gentrified/commeercialized in its presentation. Not what it what years ago, but still good.

This particular Chinatown International District event - which usually occurs around the time of…read morethe Moon Festival - has been around since 2006 though I've gone here starting back in 2011. Past night markets have spanned throughout King St starting from - but not including - 7th Ave all the way down to 5th Ave, spanning outwards on 5th, 6th and Maynard to the blocks touching both Weller and Jackson Streets. This year (and several other years before that) there were no fair contents on the stretch of Maynard touching Weller. Basically, there's 6 blocks of food and merchandise vendors for night market goers to enjoy, and there's less content year after year. Logistics wise, people come and go throughout the fair, though this day was particularly crowded because of two home games in both T-Mobile Park and Lumen Field occurring within the time frame of the night market. It gets very, very crowded the closer you get to the end as certain performances are scheduled within that time. I don't mind this though, since crowds where you're shoulder to shoulder with others is what night markets in this continent are all about. As with previous years after 2018 or so, the main stage is at Hing Hay Park instead of the parking lot at 6th and King close to Jolidaze and Oasis. I actually miss having the stage at its former location, but Hing Hay Park is definitely more aesthetically calming for big performances. If you want to watch performances, you should come here early to snag a spot, or hope people leave so you can get a spot where you can see better. Food wise, there's more local Seattle (or at least WA-state native) eateries than what was in this year's nonlocally diluted Bite of Seattle: - I started off getting spicy mango takoyaki from a stand very close to Bao Box (based in Covington, WA), though both stands share the same POS system to order from. Takoyaki is standard, and the spice hits hard but much later than you think. I wish I could have tasted more mango in the mango sauce, though. - The mango coconut smoothie from Mangosteen (which used to be in Chinatown) is pure heaven! It was relatively warm this year so this drink especially hit the spot. - I also got some pandan waffles from a Seattle-based stand called Dragonfly. They sell Vietnamese waffle mixes along with the waffles of those flavors themselves. I love pandan flavor on waffles, so this was a big hitter for me as well. Entertainment wise, I'm divided on this since I'm considering years of attending this event. The lion dances from Mak Fai are always fun to see year after year, and though I missed this year's Apex Diabolo performance in person I'm sure they were really mesmerizing to watch as they always are. Honestly, I would much prefer watching the dancing competitions from The Beacon back then instead of the K-pop random dance play event this year, both of which occur as the last performance of this event. I did, however, have some fun at the variety show and got to listen to some awesome local API artists sing their hearts out; it makes me miss more of the singing that used to take up slightly more time slots on entertainment in past years. Unlike the Bite of Seattle, I'm down to come back here year after year regardless of the lack of changes with the vendors. There's a ton of local eats, merch booths are very interesting, and we still have an eclectic set of performances to boot. This event isn't something worth staying the whole duration for, but you can enjoy yourself and the crowds very easily here.

Looking for summer fun, entertainment, eats, and getting smoked out by all the grilled eats?!…read more.. come to the ID during this festival! My friend and I were eager to try all the sweet and savory eats while being entertained by the on stage pop locking / breakdancing. Be prepared for the crowds! The space is limited to a few blocks leaving little room to move about and few places to find refuge. Wonderful smells from all the eats offers temptations, whilst the smoke from the grilled eats literally 'crowds' you :0/ thankfully industrial fans were about Overall a great experience! Hopefully next festival will offer more areas to escape

My first real horse race!…read more So much to see, to walk around, observe other types of races, admire the horse displays, hunt for the many food kiosks, restaurants and finding the Elysian kiosk/cafe. I went to their website and purchased a grand stand premium ticket that came with a brochure recommended pick for the horses and a dedicated grand stand personal stadium seat. Grand stand and General seating has access to almost all levels, cafes and ground access areas with non reserve tables and bleacher seating. I went down to the pit and was able to "pet" a racing horse! Oh, yes, the betting part. So there are lines when you want to place a bet with a person or multiple machines that accepts cash and one can make selections on the screen. First time for me and I ended up placing 6 more bets after that! I think I am hooked!

I wish there was a little bit more covered seating for the non-reserved seats - but them's the…read morebreaks. The price is right for general admission, very inexpensive, with free parking - or very reasonably priced preferred parking. There is a shuttle from the free parking if you don't want to walk as it is a bit of a hike. We have been here twice. Once for the relay races (which are coming up again in about a month); and this time for the bulldog races (hilarious and adorable). There are multiple spots to get a drink or food. There is also a merch stand, bathrooms, and of course, betting options for those betting. You can easily view the winner's circle and the live trumpeteer.

We always have a good time at VegFest! It was actually really nice that it was in Puyallup this…read moreyear. It's always really chaotic at the Seattle Center, so this was way less stressful. There were plenty of samples, coupons, memberships, and so on. I was bummed that this year there were not restaurant coupons, though. Typically there are several buy one get one entrees for veggie food in the area. Aside from that, we had a great time.

Wow! What a lovely day. Pack with a lot of patience because parking was tough. We arrive not that…read morelate, but ut took us a bit yo get to a lot even when we already got a map for the available parkings. Slow movement but we got there.Some stress are closed. There are lots and lots of booths. Plenty of things to see, purchase, and eat along. We had some dumplings, lactose free dole (yaaay!), and cotton candy. Everything was great! I wanted some BBQ but lines were huge!!! We lost an hour for the cotton. Candy. Kids were playing in the meantime, but I suggest to keep an eye because there's gazillions of people! It is a fair!

Salmon Days!! Always a fun time while we watch our salmon friends move through the area (and you…read morecan eat them). This is the first year I've got in many, many years and I'm glad that I did. Like any other festival that shuts down a large area, the parking is pretty crazy. I got there nice and early to find a good spot and walked about a mile. Overall good selection of vendors! Most of them were artisanal and not something you can buy from a direct-from-China shop. The food court had a lot of great options, and, of course the Kiwanis salmon BBQ. They also had a large field section with games for the kiddos and a water dog competition! There were lots of salmon going through the ladder, so that was nice to watch for awhile. Overall Salmon Days is a great festival to get out and do something a little different!

This was The 4Th Annual Tacoma Craft Beer Festival at the 21st Street Park on the Foss Waterway. It…read morefeathered over 50 breweries from allover. The festival was on Labor Day weekend this year which gave it more of an issue to compete with other happenings on the long holiday weekend. As an avid beer nerd there are several things I look for in these types of events, one is is it at a place that is easy to get to and has plenty of parking and then inside has plenty of places to sit. The next is the level of literature about the beers and the breweries featured. And third the "extras" like food and entertainment. Tacoma Craft Beer Festival is at a nice park next to the Foss Waterway which has a major road that goes overhead creating a large shaded area to sit under and that creates an area for the food vendors and honey buckets to be placed. Most all of the breweries are under there own tents and are spread out among the park with almost all on the grass. The stage for the bands was placed a little further away to have more an area for people to listen and not be in other people's way. They had a good list of breweries from all over, local, national and the world. My only real complaint for this year is they did have a map of where all the breweries were in the park, they did not have a list of what each brewery was serving, (This is something every other festival does.) All in all a good summer day spent drinking a lot of good beer.

I believe this is the same festival as before, it having moved into Cheney Stadium since the…read moreprevious year presumably to handle a bigger crowd. Cost was alright, $30 for 10 tastes was fairly reasonable, my only real complaint here was the additional $10 parking fee, which I felt should have been included. Beer selection was great, and we all found a new favorite from a local brewery none of us had never heard of (real ginger ale at 11% FTW). Crowd was good and setting was pretty mellow, though it might have picked up later (we left around 5). There was live music for most of the day, but they were having some issues there. First off, of the 3 bands, one was okay, one was terrible and the last seemed to be having some serious technical problems. It didn't help that the sound system was also horrible, everything sounding tinny and piercing. Logisitics also did not seem that good, it seeming to take quite awhile to swap out bands. Seeing the question about dancing below? It might have helped to lay down a temporary dance floor assuming there eventually were danceable bands playing.

I attended this event on Saturday, Feb. 24, 2018 at the Bell Harbor International Conference…read moreCenter, on 2211 Alaskan Way, Seattle. I heard so much great things about this event and I was asked by my friends to join this year. This was my first time and there was really nothing memorable other than standing out in the cold with my $85+tax ticket and then to find out that the place is jam-packed with people like Black Friday Walmart once you make your way inside. I am not sure how people can drink (alcoholic beverages) and carry around fancy restaurant catered food through multiple floors and thousands of people. The whole experience reminded me of a being in a club, actually worse. Coat check was free and that was the only good part. There were two volunteers, an elder lady and a young gentleman from Northwest Harvest and they were very kind and efficient. The venue itself made it extremely difficult to navigate through different food /spirits /wine tables. I heard many people (whom I assume attended previous events) complaining that "this is F***ed up. They shortened the time (from 1-5pm to 2-5pm for general admission and raised the price; and VIP admission is from 1-5pm with $110 price tag per ticket); and they really need to bring this back to Seattle Exhibition Center (where everything was on one large floor, not divided into 3 different areas / 2 different floors).!!" As for the wine and food "experience" nothing stood out. I did not even see Chateau St. Michelle or Columbia Winery. Probably explains a lot when those big name vendors didnt bother signing up this year. Most of wineries featured were young wineries that I had absolutely no interest in trying. I did enjoy DeLille Cellars and Corliss; and 4 wineries that made out to Seattle from Oregon (Lange and Duck Pond to name a couple). There is no way you could enjoy all the wine and food they offer in 3 hours when it takes 30-minutes to get in and they start quickly clearing everything around 4:40pm. So you basically have 2:30-4:30 to fight your way through the crowd and dont even really get to chat with wineries about how their wine is barrelled or aged. This is not the experience I was looking for and I actually enjoyed the cheaper event I went a year ago at the McCaw Hall. I dont need fancy food if I can barely get any tasting of wines which is what I really came for. Oh here are photos I took of Top Pot doughnuts table; and two bottles of Wine I enjoyed.

This review is for POP! Seafood 2017 only. I was actually very excited about it and it was kind of…read morea let down. There were more wines/champagnes than food. I am a seafood lover, but not necessarily very comfortable in the raw seafood territory. Most of the stalls had types of poke and lots and lots of raw oysters. I think I was expecting more of crabs/lobsters which I did not see. It's definitely a fun event. It has a cocktail party ambience and dress code. Make sure you carry your printed pass and Id. They have a coat checkin at the entrance. If you like raw oysters you would love it. But I would still argue it's not worth $85 per person. There is only so much alcohol I can take to get buzzed yet stay in my feel good zone. Grand tasting would better suit my taste buds. For next time!

The Daffodil Parade is an awesome event that happens every year in Pierce County, spanning 4 cities…read moreand this year is the 83rd year that it has taken place. Such a great annual tradition! I was surprised to look it up On Friday night & realize that it is this weekend, April 9th on Saturday in 4 locations around Pierce County. This is a can't miss opportunity for us. It's such a fun one with the Daffodil Princesses on a big float & all the other cool floats filled with spring flowers & bands from local area schools! It's definitely our one of favorite parade of the year here in the Northwest. My girls love seeing the Daffodil princesses all dressed up! The Daffodil Festival, April 8-10, 2016 Here's the schedule for the parades: Tacoma - 10:15 AM Puyallup - 12:45 PM Sumner - 2:30 PM Orting - 5:00 PM