Date Festival

Well it is Time for The Riverside County Fair & National Date Festival and we made it for the first time since we have been coming to Indio. So just what is the Date Festival? I guess I can just tell you what we did and what we didn’t do.
We did not take any of the rides. We didn’t even venture into that area. However on of the “rides” was not in the all you can take for $23 it was $25 for one ride. That was the Ejection Seat or sling shot to me. You get in this seat with your friend if you have any and they hook the chair down while they pull up the cables to tighten the Cord and then shoo you into the air to fall back down and bounce back up again. I timed it you get about 5 up and downs and 50 seconds for your $25. We for many they also got some screams. I just walked by that little machine.
Ok we did go to the races. There were Camel and Ostrich races and then they had kids from the audience chance chicken and emus for two other races. For the ostrich they rode bare back and had them pull wagons. In all the races there seemed to be problems that the animals did not always cooperate.
We went to see Rosaire’s Bears, a man and his two sons’ with 5 bears, two grizzly bears and 3 European Black bears. They did all the tricks of pushing another in carts, riding motorcycle, balancing on barrel. It is a fun act and I was amazed at how well trained the bears were.
Of course you have to have the BBQ dinner and we chose the turkey leg with beans and cabbage to share, a little messy but good. We ate this while we were waiting to see the Arabian Night Pageant. The pageant was a big production and a little hokey at times but fun. I guess it was not what I had expected.
More pictures can be seen on the Flicker account.