Held in the town of Cambria located along the Central Coast approximately 18 miles from Morro Bay during the weekend of June 12-13, 2010 in the Veteran's Hall parking lot.

 

We departed Hayward around noontime on Friday and arrived in Morro Bay around 3:45pm.  We stopped at Giovanni's and picked up 2 orders of Halibut and Chips ($9.95) and drove about a mile to a spot overlooking the Bay in the vicinity of "The Rock" where we ate our food.  We've been getting fish and chips from this place for around 17-18 year's and I had considered it to be the best around.  However, they have substituted a different variety of fries (somewhat crispy) and I don't consider them to be as good as the other fries they had previously.  So therefore, I will no longer consider this place to have the best fish & chips around.  If it ain't broke....bla...bla...bla...bla.

 

We then drove up the coast to San Simeon and checked in at Motel 6, the motel chain of vendor's who try to cut costs and don't want to pay $130 for a motel room per night.  Anyhow, this is graduation weekend for Cal Poly and just about all the motels around from SLO to Morro Bay to Atascadero are booked up and others are charging humongous outrageous rates.  It's kind of a weird motel as it's located on the inland side of Highway One and you park in a lot in the back and walk down stairs to get to your room.  It was very quiet on Friday night, but louder, busier and more crowded on Saturday night.   Slept great on the first night and pretty lousy the second.  Serving as an omen, my key cards did not work when we came back to the motel on Saturday evening.  They always de-program their cards at noontime on Saturday, but the lady fed me a story about their computer's going down Friday night.  I mean this is the 5th time that a Motel 6 has zapped out my card and they always come up with bogus excuses.

 

After checking in on Friday, we drove over to the Veteran's Hall on Main Street and waited for the Farmer's Market to close and we began setting up around 6:45pm.  It was just a bit windy and a little cool as we set up the canopy and affixed the grids and put some of our merchandise inside before putting up the sides and closing up for the night.  We returned to the motel and slept pretty soundly.

 

Saturday, June 12.

 

Our wake-up call came at 6:15 (fifteen minutes late) and we were outa there by 6:40 and on our 5 mile drive to the craft fair and continued setting up.  After I had unloaded everything, I took a drive over to a French Bakery to pick up some breakfast and ended up spending $12.00 for four things.  Wow.  Kind of expensive.  I guess they add the word 'French' to the place and add another $6.00 to the price.  Oui oui.  No no.

 

The show started at 9:00 and we were almost done setting up.  Sales were quite slow, but the weather was absolutely beautiful.  Temperatures were up around 70 later in the day and there was not a cloud in the sky.  We did pick up some slight breezes on occasion but nothing in comparison to the usual winds that frequent the area.  You couldn't ask for a nice day here.

 

There were around 35 vendors there and those in the front 2 rows were set up in quads, which is highly desirable as you are able to have two sides open. 

 

THERE WERE THREE FOOD BOOTHS.  One was a Kettle Korn and there was another that sold sausages and the other, tri-tip sandwiches.  I picked up a Bratwurst with onions and sauerkraut for $6.00.  It turned out to be pretty decent and the sausage was about 1 1/2 times the size of the bun.  However, Lockford Sausage still remains to be the best buy around for $5.00.  Can't beat that.  I do not think that any of these three food booths showed a hefty profit as there just weren't enough people to even support the Kettle Korn booth.  I did not get a chance to try the tri-tip and they were situated in a trailer in a hidden corner of the event and I saw very few people buying from them.

 

SALES ON SATURDAY were mediocre for us and I guess, for many of the vendor's.  There was a guy selling his CD's of guitar music and he played it all day long and that put me to sleep several times during the weekend.

 

THERE WERE WAYYYYYY TOO MANY DOGS here on both days and there was a booth in the back row that sold doggie treats.  I hope they did good, I didn't really see a crowd of people or dogs lining up for their snacks.  Chow time.  Come and get it, Bartholomew.   I really do not like dogs coming over and sniffing me or my products with their stinky noses.  No telling where they have had their noses.  I do not consider these people's dogs as being 'cute.'  I really want them to stay as far away from my booth and my products because their smell remains there and I have seen these dogs pee in my booth and also on other vendor's table cloths.  Keep your dogs home.

 

Sunday, June 13.

 

We got there around 8:00 and opened up.  I then went over to a local restaurant and bought breakfast for my wife and I.  It was okay.  I had french toast and my wife had ham and eggs and we figured that would hold us over through much of the day.

 

SEEMED LIKE IT WAS MAD PARENT'S DAY.   Did have a number of younger children come over and the parent's were in bad moods and the kid's would begin whining because their parent's wouldn't spend a couple dollar's on them.

 

THERE WERE A LOT FEWER PEOPLE ON SUNDAY.  It was overcast much of the day and I had the idea that maybe this is the weather that they like.  It was sunny on Saturday and we didn't have much of a crowd.  Far less people this time.

 

GAS PRICES were way out of whack here.  Try $3.59.  No way.  Feel sorry for the locals; no, actually I don't feel sorry for them.  They don't spend money!!  I gassed up in Soledad, much less than that and picked up a burger to eat at McD's.