You would think that I’d be burnt out from small town festivals after crossing into enemy territory on Friday night at the Washington Cherry Festival…but I packed up my car, picked up Lindsey and headed out to Elmwood for the one day Strawberry Festival. It was a delightful day full of sunshine, strawberries and people watching.

When Linds and I first got to Elmwood (about a 20-30 minute drive from North Peoria), we walked right into the on going car show.

Cars aren’t my thing, but it was more fun to see the owners of these swanky vehicles lounging in the shade..I’m assuming most people who enjoyed this part of the festival would also chat it up with the owners–but we don’t know anything about cars other than how to pump gas. So instead we picked out our favorites for a little photo op:

This car looked like it was eating Lindsey–so I added eyes and teeth for a dramatic effect. Once we were bored with the cars, we need to cool off with a sweet strawberry treat (sans alcohol–the Elmwood Strawberry Festival didn’t have a beer tent in sight!).  As we headed to the food tent, we noticed these awesome sandbags:

Aren’t those hilarious?On our way, we passed a bags tournament, a hula hooping contest and a live band! Once we got to the dessert/food tent, we bought some desserts from some little old ladies at the one and only food tent at the fair. I got strawberry pizza and Lindsey got a piece of strawberry pie. (She later went back to buy a whole pie to take home!)

Holy strawberry party in my mouth! My strawberry pizza was awesome, but I had a bite of Lindsey’s strawberry pie and that won me over, hands down! Next in line was finding something to quench our thirsts–Strawberry lemon shake-ups, it is!

We walked around the festival with our drinks in hand to check out the local craft vendors.

We even ran into some friends of mine–Howie, Heather, and their adorable baby Dahlia (who was decked out in a strawberry onezie!!)

We made one last stop at the old lady booth to pick up some strawberry jam…which we found out that it was made with over 500 pounds of strawberries! Also the strawberries for the jam were imported because the strawberries grown in Elmwood weren’t ripe yet…I felt a little betrayed after knowing that.

After that it was time for us to hit the old dusty trail. It was sweltering and I needed my car’s A/C stat! Linds and I discussed the differences between the Cherry Festival and the Strawberry Festival. The Cherry Fest had a beer tent…but the Strawberry Fest had an all around better/cuter vibe. The Strawberry Fest also didn’t have hand sanitizing stations, which we concluded were unnecessary considering the Strawberry Fest made us feel way less dirty than the Cherry Fest. (Sorry Washington)

The Elmwood Strawberry Festival was a cheap and delightful afternoon. You can bet that I will be back next summer.

I’m excited about my “activity” tonight–my mom and I are going to kick it old school.

See you tomorrow!

TP

Pssst! Cost break down, anyone?

Strawberry pizza (slice): $2.50

Strawberry lemon shake-up: $2.00

Total: $4.50

(Lindsey spent $2.00 on a slice of pie, $2.00 on a strawberry lemon shake-up, $10.00 on a strawberry pie, and $5.00 on a jar of jam… $19.00 total)