First time participating in this event. It was a lot of fun. I would say the only thing I would say…read morethat caught me off guard was the initial start point was a little cramped, so I couldn't get around a few walkers that were in front of me. Also the route changed a little. I was expecting to go left on Eucalyptus according to the map, and how I trained, but we turned right going around the church (I think it was a church) then coming back to Eucalyptus. Oh well, just a little mental adjustment and reset then by the time we got back to Eucalyptus I remembered the rest of the track (probably had to do with the closer of the trail. My experience over all was a 5 star. There's another event I'm preparing for coming up in September (another 5K in Vista) but non the less I really enjoyed my experience and will try and get conditioned for the 10K for next years Strawberry Run.

This Strawberry Run is sweet!…read more C'mon, strawberries, free strawberries--farm-fresh, sun-ripened, heart-shaped, and vitamin C-packed--applaud your 5k/10k finale! After all, this celebratory race, coursing first through the WAVE Waterpark and soaring then around Vista's Kite Sculptures, ends within Vista's Strawberry Festival itself. I mean, bananas and apples are wonderful, but strawberries after your run... C'mon. =] But it's not just that... Vista's chip-timed run awards everyone finisher medals, performance t-shirts, goodie bags, and even more fresh fruit. There's free beer for runners 21+ (Vista's own Prohibition Brewing Co.'s "Dirty Blonde" and "Extra Pale Ale" were winners!), cash prizes for placers, free Rubio's tacos coupons, live music, and festival vendors in the hundreds. Upon finishing your fun run, you have every reason to stay awhile, relax, people watch, and enjoy the sunshine. So that's just exactly what we did. In my division: 10th of 30 Overall place: 254 of 988 Time: 29:32:6 =]

What a fantastic gem! We've visited a few times since they reopened under a new management team…read morewith new docents. They're all volunteer, so they're only open on Saturdays. When you come in, you're greeted by a docent who gives you the option of a guided or self guided tour. There is a printed tour guide with a ton of information that tells you about all the rooms and buildings. The docents can answer questions (there is a ton of bizarre stuff there!) Our favorite visit was at Halloween weekend, where we went on tours of the museum by candle light. It was creepy yet fun!

I love this place, the new management has cleaned the place up beautifully. My kids were able play…read moreon type writters, dial old rotary phones and had a great time in the school house.

Neat event, I got what I went got, good BBQ food…read more Through yelp we got VIP entrance, I was +1 with Karen N, thank you very much Karen. We were accompined with our YelpFam, Karen N, Jen G, Shalayna. Also met Jason, Jessica and Emmett. Meeting these ppl made this event made a 5 star. Never been to this place, it was very hot n dry day. Thankfully there were beer station at Salon, the beer garden. My favorite is Bad to the bone, the pulled pork is awesome and sausage was even better. The sample size was very generous, and I spent all my tokens trying Pulled pork and Sausage. Only one section accepts tokens all others take only cash. Live music was playing while we sip and bite. Looking forward for the next year event. Thanks again Karen N for taking me as your +1

I came with a friend to check out this BBQ event. I had never been up to Vista before, let alone…read morethe Antique Gas & Steam Engine Museum. The weather was beautiful as a relatively mild breeze kept the temperature in the low-80s. I was so afraid that it was going to be well into the 90s with a scorching sun. We ended up parking in a satellite parking lot down the road which cost $5 instead of $10 in the main parking area. They used a tractor to haul a platform wagon with benches to shuttle us over to the event grounds and back. I loved the fact that the setup was dog friendly so we had a leashed pup with us. After getting our poker-like chips/tokens at the ticket tent, we wandered around the property and checked out the antique exhibits in the barns and warehouses. There were lots of neat, old fashioned vehicles and machines from the early 20th century on display. We then passed by the Tin Roof stage where various competitions were being held (e.g. Miss Q country style beauty contest, watermelon eating, best denim butt contest, etc). Back we went to the row of tents where about 10 vendors were selling their food for 1-4 chips each. To my surprise, the area was not at all crowded, and the lines were quite reasonable. I was under the impression there would be more booths than this, but apparently many teams were present only for the BBQ judging competition and not for selling their meats to the public. :( Of the different items we tried, a few spots stood out... 1) Bacon wrapped meatballs and bacon lollipops from Butler's Barbecue: These were each sold at 2 for 1 token. I wished more vendors had deals like this. The small bites were perfect snacks to get the appetite going for the larger servings. 2) Pulled pork and sausage from Jolley's Bad to the Bone Barbeque: The portion sizes were very generous for just one chip each. The pork was pulled thicker than what I was accustomed to, but the meat was moist and seasoned well. The sausage came as two links that were spiced nicely. 3) Bread pudding from a tent that hung a U of GA flag (no name posted): This was a nice sweet treat to contrast all the salted meat we were ingesting. The crust had a nice caramelization to it. Thank goodness I had heeded Jen G's advice and brought a stash of Ziploc sandwich bags. We had more tokens left than what we could eat on-site so the two of us began redeeming chips and placing the food in the bags to take home as leftovers for a future meal. Initially, we were worried that we would go through our allotment quickly because many items cost more than one chip each. Bringing our own bottles of water along with a picnic blanket to sit under the shade helped us stay cool and relaxed during the afternoon. The lengthy drive to Vista was worth the unique experience. It's always great to meet up with fellow Elite Yelpers at such events. Last but not least, the dog ended up very well fed from the BBQ, probably even more so than the both of us. :)

Over the years we've come to the strawberry festival and we tend to come a little later in the day…read more& after the run event takes place. But how fun for those who do participate in that part of the event. I'd have to say this year they had a fantastic turnout, from the marketing, and the business being true to the strawberry theme. Being that the majority of the business, that had a pop up there, had some sort of strawberry something or other to be sold. Many people came in theme too ~~ with their very creative outfits. I especially loved that! And if you didn't come in theme you had lots of options to buy something and join in on the berry fun of it all. You can see in the photos that I posted just some of the things that we enjoyed. I like to sample and then circle back to buy if I can't stop thinking about something I spotted or tried. We took some cards and also followed some on their social medias in order to revisit supporting them at a later date. *Only qualm is people's impatience and driving erratically nearby & the fight or flight mode that kicks in because of issues with getting just the right parking spot. And one that's close enough to the event no less! We finally did get good parking karma tho. My Goodness! Overall it was a great event. It checked my boxes...if it has...Good food, Company, and Live music. I'm in!

Our first time checking out the Vista strawberry festival. We checked the website and it said it…read morewas a dog friendly event so we took our fur child in his stroller and after standing in line to take the shuttle from the court house parking lot to the festival, we were told we were not allowed to take our dog on the shuttle (although a lady got off the shuttle with her dog). So we took our car to where the shuttle dropped off everyone (mall parking lot) and was able to park closer to the event. It worked out in our favor later on as the line to the shuttle back was super long. The festival was surprisingly huge with a lot of vendors but out of all the places we only saw one single place selling strawberries. It had all the overpriced festival food and a lot of people. We did buy a half pack of strawberries and they were super sweet. I just wish there were more "strawberries" and the strawberry festival.

My friend and I attended the California Wine Festival - Carlsbad on 24Jun2023 and had an amazing…read moretime! The venue for this event was on the lawn of the beautiful Park Hyatt Aviara Resort Golf Club & Spa. This was a 2-day event (Friday & Saturday), but we only attended the Saturday event. There was a nice selection of restaurants and wineries, as well as other vendors who participated. My favorites for drinks were: #1: BigShot: Aussie craft spritzers - the combo of ginger and lime were sooooooooo good! My friend & I each had 2 glasses. #2: Pasmosa: Very refreshing sangrias! My favorites for food were: #1: Inferno (wood fire pizza): The mushroom truffle pizza was delish! This business does catering only, so if anyone wants to host a pizza party, they are the perfect vendor! #2: Chicken & Waffle: This is a food truck only business that sure knows how to make some tasty wings! My favorite dessert: #1: Jeni's Ice Cream: They have really unique flavors. The samples were 3 scoops with waffle wedge. Yummy! #2: SiSi Cakes: This business is online orders only. Their banana cream dessert was pretty delicious! Overall, we had a great time. There was live music and an open area for dancing. The team running the event were very pleasant and organized. The only thing I felt missing was some sort of backdrop or props for photo ops. The VIP section was not as impressive as I had hoped. The only advantage of being a VIP was having covered seating. Food wise, vendors inside this closed off area could have been more generous with their servings. For food and wine lovers, this is a fun event that I would recommend!

Ashley was dead on and made everything fun and positive. We had a few skeptics who were somewhat…read morenervous but ended up spending more time with her. Everyone came out smiling and and enjoyed the experience.

Psychic was charming, showed up early, looked fabulous and gave positive readings that were so…read moreaccurate. The psychic was the hit of the party. She was so popular we kept her an hour overtime. I will have her come to my next girls' night. My husband wants her to do the next corporate event his company has. The guests were talking about their readings for hours afterwards. It was a complete hit!

My friend has been a screener for the festival for many years, and I've attended several events…read morewith her. All of them have been great! This was the culinary movie screening, which was new for both of us. I thought the way they adapted it for Covid was admirable and creative, and all the volunteer staff did an amazing job! For $50 per car, ($25 each in our case, since we were two people), we each received a "swag bag" from Jamul Casino, and a bag of food that would easily feed two people. So for two people we had 4 meals! Great deal and fun experience! The food was very food, which surprised me... I wouldn't have expected that from a casino catering service. The movie experience was as good as could be for an event taking place in a shopping mall parking lot (instead of a real drive in). There was a little too much light from the neighboring buildings, but the sound was good (broadcast over the car's radio), and the movie was enjoyable. It was called "Love Sarah" and was a character study of people moving forward after the death of the titular Sarah, with whom each person had a close relationship. The setting is a fledgling bakery, hence the "foodie" part of the movie, a little reminiscent of the movie Chocolat. It's not flashy or epic, but it is a lovely, intimate film. I would definitely repeat this experience again next year.

I have been going to the SDIFF for many years, seen some great films, you can go on their website…read moreto get tix sdiff.com there might be some promo codes on groupon and other sources. You can pick individual films or a whole day and night of films for $75.00. (Friday, Saturday or Sunday passes) Includes panels. This year 2018 it goes on Oct. 12, 13, & 14th. There are some great films this year, on many selections you can view a trailer. Also a great place to meet some great actors, I met a few last year. Be sure to get your tix ahead of time if you find a movie or more you really want to see.

The Ramona Junior Fair and their supporting events are a throwback to a time that's all but lost in…read morerural America. It's where the 4H, FFA and Grange youth organizations all get together to compete both individually and at the club level on all manner of skills and crafts related to farm life, including animal husbandry, crafts, foods and industrial arts. It also gives exposure to the urban folks of what country life, especially for youth, has for its core values. The annual pie auction and accompanying BBQ, held mid-July (2013: 13 July) is a great way to support the organizations and their scholarship funds as well as get some incredible, at times exotic and always delicious homemade desserts. The BBQ held immediately before the auction is an old fashioned pit style BBQ that cooks in the ground for almost 24 hours. It's just $7 for adults featuring beef, pork, turkey, fresh picked sweet corn, homemade beans and salad - you won't find finer BBQ fare anywhere at any price, really! The 2013 fair is July 27 through August 4. It has traditional midway rides, food vendors, folks selling all manner of goods and the livestock and crafts/arts judging. The fair culminates in the annual livestock auction, held on the last Saturday during the fair. It is another opportunity to support youth college scholarship as well as to obtain the very best organic veal, beef, pork, lamb, goat, chicken and turkey that money can buy. Sooooo tasty and all for a good cause.