April 11-12, Saturday and Sunday.
We arrived around 5:40AM to set up for the event. I was
able to get a spot along the sidewalk. It took us about 3
hours to unload our things and to set up our booth.
Crowds were light until around 11:00AM when the people began
arriving. Mike had a full house of vendors for the event.
I counted a total of 42 canopies with 38 vendors. I
believe that 3 or 4 of them had double spaces.
It was a bit cool during the early morning hours and quite
cloudy. It cleared up during the early part of the
afternoon but it was breezy throughout the day, making it colder
than it actually was. We put up a cover on the back part
of the canopy to block off the wind and that worked pretty good.
I went over to the restaurant just after noon time and pick up a
Caesar Salad for my wife and I got the Kobe Hamburger, which was
pretty good. When the waitress took my order, I paused for
a couple seconds and did 'eenie, meanny , miney, moe' which made
her laugh because I really couldn't make up my mind. "So
what are your choices" she asked me. I pointed to the
Patty Melt, the Philly Cheesesteak and the Kobe Hamburger.
She then said "Try the Kobe" and than I asked her if she
'guaranteed it' and she said 'yah, you'll like it.'
A little while later I received my order (take-out) and brought
it back to my booth. The food was expensive, but it was
good. The 'Kobe' was good also, better than a regular
hamburger.
Sales were extremely slow for us throughout the day. Ditto
for others also. A lot of people came out and they kept
coming until 4:30, when the crowds dwindled. At 5:30, we
starting closing up and we left around 6:05. Not a very
good day for very many vendors. Some did 'okay', but we
know that's not great, just...... okay.
HILARIOUS. A Mexican couple came over to our booth
and they asked the price of one of our knives. "Ten
Dollars," said my wife. The guy looked at my wife.
"How about seven dollars?" he asked. My wife then said "No
way, Jose." The guy was surprised and his wife suddenly
gave him a weird look. "How did you know my name?" he
said. "I don't know" my wife said as the wife appeared to
be very upset.
EMBARRASSING. A lady picked up one of my flying, screaming
monkeys and was wondering how it worked. I was hoping to
sell one of them for $6 to her little girl. I placed my
two fingers into the pockets and pulled back on the legs (like a
slingshot) and I let go. The right hand of it flew off to
the right, while the rest of it went toward her. She
laughed. "So, that's how they work?" she said. I
looked at her. "Yes, that's the way they work....but not
quite like that."
Sunday. We arrived at 8:50 and just about all the
vendors had already opened up and were anxiously awaiting their
first customers...awaiting, awaiting, awaiting. Late crowd
of course, with this being Sunday, Easter Sunday to say the
least.
The morning was warmer than Saturday and the clouds cleared
up around noontime leading a really beautiful afternoon.
However, sales remained slow and the crowds were down from the
day before. I noticed many people 'picknicking' on the
grass on the far end of the lagoon.
This really is a nice place for families to go over the
weekend. However, take a look at the prices in the stores,
restaurant, etc.
The vendors offered a lot of different items for sale and I
wish that the visitors suppored them more than they did.
Many of the people were just walking around out of curiousity.
