Los Feliz village street fair

Today the 16th Annual Los Feliz Village Street Fair is taking place on Vermont Avenue from 11 AM to 8 PM.

We finally went this year for the first time. Every year we would say, "We should go" since we live nearby and go there frequently to eat, drink, shop, stroll, and go to the movies. (And Uwe used to live in Los Feliz eons ago when we first started dating, so the neighborhood feels like home.) But for whatever reason we missed it each year. But not this year - we were there bright and early just minutes after it opened. (Uwe and Astrid were even in Los Feliz earlier in the morning for coffee and saw them setting up.) How things change when you have a kid!
We stopped by a Balloon Artist's tent to get a balloon creation for Astrid. He made this fishing pole with a fish attached to the line for her. He even went so far as to make two eyeballs with white balloons and used a black marker to draw in the pupils. Pretty elaborate. We were just hoping to get a balloon animal, but he said making doggies all day would be boring and we would get more mileage out of this fishing pole - and we did! Astrid played with it for the 2 hours we were there.

A five dollar tip well spent. Even other families walking by asked us where we got the balloon - because they wanted to get one for their kids. We also bought Astrid a handmade Russian Doll shirt. Very cute. I can't wait to wash it and put it on her.

We passed another t-shirt vendor there who made these adorable shirts for infants. One had Jimmy Hendrix on it and I would have LOVED to have gotten one like it for Astrid, but they only had shirts for small babies (and not toddlers) which was a shame. Astrid spots the animals in the petting zoo.The petting zoo was pretty lame. They had chickens, some ducks (one with an injured foot that was bandaged), a pig, and a couple goats, with a fence around it, so kids could stand outside the gate and look in. We stood there for a few minutes and then left. (Later on I heard a lady on her cell phone complaining to someone about the conditions of the petting zoo, the injured duck, and the small animals being trampled by the bigger animals.)

I read that they were supposed to have pony rides there for the kids as well, but we didn't see it. It may just be that it wasn't set up yet. *shrug*The best "animal petting" we found was at the two animal shelters that had kittens for adoption. Astrid got to pet two little kittens and she got much more out of that than the petting zoo.We spotted all of these people walking around with potted trees and thought, "What's going on? Is someone giving away trees?" And yep - they were! Free trees to anyone who wanted one. What a great idea!You'd be surprised by how many people took a tree."The Green Scene" was something new the fair was featuring this year - ecofriendly products.

For lunch, we decided to have Indian food at Electric Lotus, a restaurant on Vermont Avenue, rather than eating the unappetizing food from the midway vendors in the hot sun. Uwe being German, was looking forward to the beer garden, but when we saw it was a nondescript stand with 4 plastic tables around it, sectioned off from the rest of the fair, in the sun, he decided to have a Taj Mahal at Electric Lotus instead.Before we left, we made a stop at Pinkberry for their frozen yogurt. While waiting in line, I spotted these very cool bottle and wine openers.Uwe tasting a sample of the green tea frozen yogurt., while Astrid watches.

This was the first time for both of us in Pinkberry, although there's a Roseberry (an almost exact knock off) in Glendale that I've gone to. I like the original flavor, but I don't see why at a number of stores there's a line around the block. It's good but not to die for. We even let Astrid try some. (Her first time eating frozen yogurt.) Uwe liked it, but didn't like the after taste and thought it was full of chemicals and not made from real yogurt.

Summary:
In the end, it was a nice couple hours spent on a beautiful LA day in Los Feliz with the family. I definitely think they could improve upon the food and beer garden and invite more interesting shops and vendors to participate. And if next year they don't invite the Rick Dees - Kiss FM station - that wouldn't be a bad thing. I think we've all had our lifetime fill of Wham. How about Indy 103.1 instead?