Warren's Place

It was a perfect fall day with clear, crisp, blue skies, and moderate temperatures. We usually choose to be out and about on the Sunday of Fleet Week because the Columbus Day celebrations are also happening in North Beach. It's a walking day, so we parked our car on Union Street near the Marina District, then we walked to neighboring North Beach. The Italian sports car exhibit is at Washington Square. In previous years, we had lunch in Chinatown before heading out for the day, but this year, we ate lunch at Moose's where we had a sidewalk table. Moose's is across the street from Washington Square and right on the parade route, so we had ringside seats. After lunch, we barely had time to view the cars in the Square before we rushed down to Aquatic Park to see the 3pm Snowbird airshow. In prior years, the Blue Angels would perform as the main attraction, but this year, the Blue Angels were inexplicably scheduled to fly at another location, so the Canadian Snowbirds came to perform instead. While the Snowbirds' Italian trainer jets are not quite as exciting as the Angels' F-18 Hornet jet fighters, the Snowbirds performed amazing feats of precision flying nonetheless. We capped off the enjoyable day by sipping a latte at Ghirardelli Square while listening to the all-volunteer sit-down marching band.

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Thanks for reading.

--Warren

Pictures follow:




















The following picture was shot by Gail. Can you spot me?

Here's another event that you won't normally see in the city. It's Cooks Racing Pigs. This family pig farm has been raising, training, and racing these little piglets for many years. They travel around to various country fairs to entertain the crowds and to promote their family business. The pigs race for ice cream and Oreo cookies. They're amazingly fast. The audience gets "free" bets on their favorite color (yellow, green, blue, or red). If the pig wearing your color wins, you win a blue ribbon souvenir.



Bob and I got ringside seats:



This little boy was more interested in staring at me than watching the pig race:



The pigs really fly, and the race is over in about 5 seconds!



Thanks for reading. If you like what you see on this blog, please drop me a line or write a comment.

--Warren

We went to the Harvest Fair in Santa Rosa yesterday. One of the events was the sheepdog trial. This is something that us city slickers only get to see at these county/agricultural fairs. This particular contest has each dog going through a series of commands given by one shepherd in which the dog herds 3 sheep through different areas in the ring. The shepherd gives both whistle and verbal commands.

Here the dog waits while the sheep are released at the opposite end of the ring.


More photos below of the dogs at work.










Thanks for reading

--Warren