Carpinteria Avocado Festival

I've never made it to the Carpinteria Avocado Festival...until now. And don't think this is some ramshackle, backyard production, no sir, it is a BIG. DEAL. Early estimates say that over the course of the weekend nearly 100,000 avocado aficionados lined the streets of Carp for three days of festivities.

A few highlights:

I had heard rumblings from years past that the avocado ice cream is a must. With friends like mine, you can never be too sure...but lo. Avocado ice cream is delicious despite obvious apprehensions...I might even need to root around for a recipe to try my hand at it. Have I mentioned that avocados have their own food group in my household?

Next stop: The Carpinteria High guacamole stand. Each year the cheerleading squad mashes up, purportedly with their feet, more than 5,000 avos to make the world's largest bowl of guacamole. 

Lastly, it was over to the Holy Guaca-Moly stand to take home a little souvenir (which became dinner...), a container of the World's Winningest Guacamole Ever. Can't argue with that logic.

Next year there are two goals on my list: try the tri-tip sandwich which got rave reviews and enter the guacamole recipe contest. The year after? Win the guacamole recipe contest.