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Hometown Happenings | Pad Patter 9.24.15

scrapsandsass

scrapsandsass

Oh Ricky you're so fine ...
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Feb 11, 2011
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We live in Puyallup, which is home of the Washington State Fair. It takes place for three weeks-ish every September. It is one of the biggest fairs in the country (I think we're around #6 or 7).

We live six blocks from the Fair, which means that for three weeks, we struggle and fight to be able to park at our own house because we only have on-street parking, and our city isn't savvy enough for permit parking. When we had two cars and my daughter's, we got pretty tricky about how far apart we'd park our cars so that when my daughter got off of work, we'd go out and shift around until she could park her car. Living next to the Fair also means that we have to start taking back roads or avoiding certain places because of traffic, and on the weekends you might as well forget about trying to get anywhere in a timely fashion. :tantrum

The upside is that we can walk to the Fair. Which really isn't much of an upside :giggle When you've lived here and gone every year since forever, it no longer becomes an exciting proposition.

What sort of things happen in your community? Do you have big events that take place every year? Or are you in a quiet area where you aren't disrupted? Do you have any landmarks in your area that draw tourists? Parades? Community festivals?
 
Fall is my favorite time of year. We have all sorts of fun fall activities. There is the county fair, the state fair, we visit a few local pumpkin patches, there is a corn maze run. The fall craft fair is soon, and there are lots of other festivals happening between now and October that we plan to attend. Fun times in the fall here in Texas... even though it's still 90ish during the day.
 
I can totally see the good and bad of living so close to the fairgrounds. Wow. Traffic is never fun. It drives me bonkers to be wasting precious time in the car.

scrapsandsass said:
We live in Puyallup, which is home of the Washington State Fair. It takes place for three weeks-ish every September. It is one of the biggest fairs in the country (I think we're around #6 or 7).

We live six blocks from the Fair, which means that for three weeks, we struggle and fight to be able to park at our own house because we only have on-street parking, and our city isn't savvy enough for permit parking. When we had two cars and my daughter's, we got pretty tricky about how far apart we'd park our cars so that when my daughter got off of work, we'd go out and shift around until she could park her car. Living next to the Fair also means that we have to start taking back roads or avoiding certain places because of traffic, and on the weekends you might as well forget about trying to get anywhere in a timely fashion. :tantrum

The upside is that we can walk to the Fair. Which really isn't much of an upside :giggle When you've lived here and gone every year since forever, it no longer becomes an exciting proposition.

What sort of things happen in your community? Do you have big events that take place every year? Or are you in a quiet area where you aren't disrupted? Do you have any landmarks in your area that draw tourists? Parades? Community festivals?
Click to expand...
 
There are some regular events in our town (a first-tier suburb of Copenhagen) that are pretty fun. Nothing as huge and disruptive as a state fair (and I did live close enough to the MN state fair for a while to have a taste of what you're talking about!) but just citywide festivals and races and stuff. I think they're fun. In Copenhagen proper there are occasionally big things that screw up traffic and stuff, but not out here.
 
Perfect timing for this topic! Tomorrow starts Oktoberfest for the parish where Clara goes to school (and no school tomorrow!). They shut down the street in front of the church and it starts at the intersection at the end of our block. We have a garage, so we're fine with parking, but we'll have a lot more traffic on our street as people come up to that dead end and need to turn somewhere. We walk most places, so the blocked streets won't impact us much.

Our last house (only a block and a half from here) was on the route of the naked bike ride each year. That was interesting. :-) We were also on the route that Cubs fans wandered down after the game. It's amazing what a difference a block and a half makes.
 
I feel for you, Kimberlee. I've only been to the fair twice in 29 years of living in the Seattle area. I stay away from the highway just to avoid the southbound traffic. I'm staying away from the freeway this week now that the President of China is in town.
 
We live on the backside of an island near Montreal. The Royal Montreal Golf Course, which apparently is a big deal golf course(I don't golf.. ) sponsored the presidents cup a few years back. Well what a mess, they closed the main road that crossed the island everyday at 7 am which meant we had to go the back way all around the island to get to the bridge to go to work. There were lots of heads of state from everywhere arriving so we had to have security permits to get to our house, and they only gave each family two, because folks we selling parking spaces in their driveways for hundreds of dollars. Since we had three drivers at the time we had to take documentation to the security folks to get the third permit. Without a permit no one could get home. We had to go through three security checkpoints twice everyday to go to work and come home. Exciting, but what's mess.
 
We have Autumn Fest coming up this weekend. It's just a little street fair with a dunking booth and some vendors and things. We also have a Summer Fest, which is pretty much the same thing. Our state fair is in August and we live about an hour and a half from where it is. I haven't been for several years, but used to go fairly regularly. From April-October on the third Saturday of the month, we have Cool Cruising Nights. The cool thing to do in my younger days was to cruise the main street on the weekends, but sometime in the 90's they put a stop to it because some complained it was a nuisance. A group got together a few years ago and talked the city council in to letting the cruisers come back one weekend a month. It's becoming a really big deal with vendors and live music and movies. People who used to cruise come back from all over the country for these weekends.
 
I totally feel your pain with some of the things you've mentioned Kimberlee! I work in a close by downtown area that has a Tulip Time Festival. While it is absolutely a GORGEOUS place to be with millions and millions of tulips, it is a nightmare to get in and out of work! It is the largest tulip festival in the US, and is America's third largest town festival.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tulip_Time_Festival

Secondly - not as close to home and doesn't effect us in our daily lives, about 30 minutes away a town is hosting it's 7th Annual ArtPrize. Over 1,500 works of art from artists all over the world in over 160 venues - all throughout the city - outside and inside. I went today on a field trip with my daughter and there are some awesome pieces of art/sculptures, etc...! The city gets crazy busy, so I am thankful I only have to go downtown if I want to see the art!
http://www.artprize.org/
 
I haven't experienced this myself in awhile, but my hometown is home to Notre Dame so football weekends are pretty crazy there.

Forget having out-of-town guests (or getting married) on a football weekend since the hotels book up months beforehand. The restaurants get really full, too, after the game is over so you have to plan to eat mid-game or stay home and eat. On the other hand, going to the mall, etc. is pretty nice when everyone is either at the stadium or at home watching the game. :)
 
I live in a small beachside town on Lake Michigan, so we have some kind of small festival or event most weekends in the summer and about once a month the rest of the year. They are fun little festivals, but apparently over the last five years or so, the word has gotten out more and more and more and now it is nearly impossible to park in my little downtown area in the summer because of all the tourists. I mean it's great for the the businesses, but is super annoying when you really can't go to your favorite pizza place on a friday night anymore because they have 2-3 hour waits. We all LOVE when school starts again because we can park downtown again. Lol. This weekend they are having a wine festival because we have a ton of wineries around us too and as part of that they are doing some kind of bed race. I think people decorate the beds and put them on wheels and have teams of people pushing them in a race. Sounds really silly, but funny.

We also have a Jack Nickalaus designed golf course that I guess is a big deal. We've hosted a Senior PGA tournament for the last two years and that weekend can get pretty crazy too, but thankfully it's only one weekend. :)
 
MandaKay said:
Secondly - not as close to home and doesn't effect us in our daily lives, about 30 minutes away a town is hosting it's 7th Annual ArtPrize. Over 1,500 works of art from artists all over the world in over 160 venues - all throughout the city - outside and inside. I went today on a field trip with my daughter and there are some awesome pieces of art/sculptures, etc...! The city gets crazy busy, so I am thankful I only have to go downtown if I want to see the art!
http://www.artprize.org/
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Um... how did I not know about this art prize thing? I'm actually going to GR tonight for a confirmation retreat with my son. I doubt I'll have time to pop out and check it out, but it sounds super fun. How do you decide where to start?
 
Oh great question! We are a little not too exciting kind of town, but we are really close to the Hudson, so lots of things happen there. They recently finished the Walkway over the Hudson (converted an old railway to a walking/bike path) and it connects literally miles and miles of trail/bike path that starts in our town (5 miles from my home) to counties on the other side of the river. We also have a lot of historical sites & mansions/homes in the area from former president FDR, etc. We have the Culinary Institute of America where you can make reservations for lunch and dinner or take a tour. The Appalchian Trail goes through our community. Oh and we are hosting some of the Special Olympics Winter Games of 2016 locally. A bunch of us (and our kids) are going to be volunteers in Feb. Can't wait!
 
OK naked bike races .... don't need to see that one! Bet you're glad you moved to a quietier street Tracie!

Karen, now the bed races, they sound fun!

Kimberlee, I'm on the far end of our county, not close at all to our county fair (which is not very big) but boy oh boy the traffic. It goes right through a small cute little town and I always feel for those people who live right there! There are a few events at that fairground every year. I can't imagine what it must be like to be one of the biggest in the country! :dizzy
 
I've never been to a state fair, so aside from the parking, that sounds like fun to me! I grew up in a really small town in Louisiana, and every year in September we'd have a fair and rodeo. We would get one Friday off school, for "Fair Day", and it was most of our favorite day of the year. lol. Although, it was usually miserable and HOT, still in the 90's this time of year, so no sweaters or boots or hot chocolate. We were in shorts, tanks and sandals in the dirt and dust...looking back, it wasn't all that great. ;)

Now, we have lived in 7 different states and overseas and have been able to enjoy many beautiful falls and many fun activities!
 
Amanda - Holland always intrigues me! We drive through it all of the time on our way to our place at Crystal Mountain. I've been wanting to stop for years, but we're usually on a fast track or it's summer and we have the dog with us. Someday, I'll stop and check it out. My daughter was just there last weekend for her confirmation retreat though.

We'll be in Michigan Columbus Day with a bunch of people from Clara's school... but we'll be in the Warren Dunes area, Lemon Creek Winery and Redamaks.

Jenn.... yeah, I'm not sure I miss the naked bike ride... but I enjoyed being on the route for the critical mass rides. It was cool to just sit outside and watch hundreds of just regular riders go by. Some wore costumes and decorated their bikes. It was fun to watch.
 
Um Tracie... You'll be at some of my haunts it sounds like. Redamaks is a HUGE family favorite of ours. My hubby used to work there as a teen. We hike at Warren Dunes and my hubby was just at Lemon Creek winery on Sunday. Small world! We live in St. Joe. :)
 
Karen said:
Um Tracie... You'll be at some of my haunts it sounds like. Redamaks is a HUGE family favorite of ours. My hubby used to work there as a teen. We hike at Warren Dunes and my hubby was just at Lemon Creek winery on Sunday. Small world! We live in St. Joe. :)
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Really?!? That outing is a Columbus Day tradition at Clara's school. The past two years she's ditched me to go with friends instead, so I haven't gone. This year is her last year at her school (it's a K-8), so my husband and I have decided that we're going this year whether she wants us to or not :-)
 
welll.... I have always lived ion very very busy cities, even when we moved to north east Brazil, to what was a fisherman's village, which very shortly before we moved did not have electricity or piped water...it was a step away from where the Portuguese discovered Brazil and a paradise for Europeans and wealthy Brazilians...so summers were crazy....

Then I lived in Rio de Janeiro, Buenos Aires, Madrid and Palma de Mallorca.... which are all very busy places, both on the cultural and beauty things to see... now I live in London...10 blocks from where the iTunes Festival happens, the mecca of the youth music as new bands come to gig in pubs all the time, we have also neighborhood fairs all summers, and they vary a lot, I remember Sarita never being bored when she was little , we would take her to every festival and the theater...
we also live 20 minutes drive from the West End (think New York's Broadway)
Both of us being musicals performers, we used to get to the theaters a lot, now my health hasn't been all that and Sarita can't sit for a long time with her operation fail....
but yes,
very busy London.
I love it that even though we are a step away from it all, our place is in a very, very residential area with lots of greens and not noise in the evenings!!!
 
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