Hola, Avocado Festival!

This past weekend my gal pals and I took a mini road trip up the Californian coast to Carpenteria. Carpenteria is a charming beachside town located just south of Santa Barbara, and is home to California’s annual Avocado Festival. This year is the Avofest’s 26th year, and it’s the largest free street festival in California occurring every first full weekend in October.

The view during our drive!

The drive is just shy of an hour and a half from Burbank to Carpenteria, and the scenery is beautiful! Mountains on one side and the ocean on the other. And with the weather at 70 degrees, it was a perfect day to hit the highway and head up the coast! Too bad we couldn’t have kept driving until we reached San Francisco…another weekend perhaps. 😉

View of the mountains from Carpenteria

Avofest!

Ready to eat some guacamole!

We arrived at the Avofest just in time for lunch! There’s a trolley that takes you from the parking lot ($10 per car, not bad) to downtown. Our first stop: Holy Guacamoly! What’s an avocado festival without avocado’s most famous employment? And boy, it was some great guacamole!

Rachel and Stephanie with the (slightly creepy) mascot

Yum!

After our snack  we headed to Sly’s Bar for some Avocado Honey Ale beer. The title of this beer is a bit misleading actually. No avocados are in the beer, but rather a specific type of honey from the pollination of the avocado plants is what makes this beer unique.

Time for a cool refreshment!

The infamous avocado beer!

Sara and I enjoying our drink 🙂

After our cool refreshment, we wandered around the festival checking out the clothing, jewelry, craft and food stands. There’s a lot crammed into Carpenteria’s small and charming downtown. It is a bit overwhelming. But very enjoyable, as live music plays over the festival and the smell of delicious food wafts through the air. Most of the food items, such as tacos and sandwiches, include avocados of course. And there’s even avocado ice cream and avocado pie to enjoy!

Downtown Carpenteria

After wandering around for awhile in the sun, we decided to grab an early dinner before heading back south to LA. We chose a Mexican restaurant right along the main street of the festival. We could still hear the live music from inside and it was nice to sit and enjoy good company. Then we made the drive back home. All in all, it was a successful little road trip with great friends and good food!

Rachel, Sara and I at the AvoFest