Street Fair

        The 4th Avenue Street Fair has so many memories.  Kim and I went to many....the sights, the sounds, the smells - all converging, like a kaleidoscope, to take in.  This wonderful occurrence happens twice a year, in the spring and again in the fall.  We'd like to make it down there both times - enjoying the crowd - great people watching!  Grabbing some food (usually something greasy from Piggly Wiggly's), coffee later at the Chocolate Iguana and we liked to end up at Caruso's for dinner.

On nice days like this, Kim and I would ask for an outdoor seat...they have a beautiful garden setting out back, with fish pond, fountain and statues.  At night, overhead, are twinkling white lights.  I could always feel the magic of us enhanced when we were here, out back...

Here's where we would clog our arteries.  It was worth it!

       When we first moved here, we'd bring our first pup, Cajun, with us.  It is a very dog friendly environment, with people ready with water and treats for pups.  We also liked to hang out on the veranda at O'Malley's and enjoy some icy cold beverages before walking around some more.  I always enjoyed picking out a nice pair of earrings for Kim to remember our day by - and she always liked to pick something out for our home (what a surprise, eh?), to make it more beautiful and to be able to look at it and, holding my hand, say 'remember that time...?'.
       The weather always seemed pretty good for the Street Fair, both times of year.  If anything, a little on the hot side, but we enjoyed the sun 'to work on our color', Kim would say.  The fall fair was always more challenging for me to attend, being in retail, but I'd always manage to have a late shift so we could sneak down together for a couple of hours in the morning.  One of the young ladies who worked at Toys R Us with me, Laura, had a family Thai food booth there every year - her parents always gave us extra kabobs, etc.  Delicious!!  We'd ride the trolley and they had an old hand pump driven car that I once gave Cody a ride on.  There was nothing like holding hands with Kim, carelessly strolling along 4th avenue...leaving everything behind for a couple of blissful hours.

         This year, I realized that our streak of street fairs had been broken for a number of years and decided to get the bambini down there, as only Cody remembered ever being there.  It was a warm, sunny day (again, what a surprise!) - temps in the mid 80's.  We strategically parked to be all the way on the south end of 4th, so we could make our way from the very beginning (or is it the end?) all the way to the north end.
         The architecture in this area is fantastic, with many of the homes built back in the twenties and thirties...the kids found a set of row homes that had basement entrances and went crazy!  They wanted to go check them out, not having much experience with basements.  Autumn snapped a few photos along the way.

     

This hotel is a beautiful building near the start of the street fair.  Cody was particularly fascinated, trying to imagine how it might have been when it first opened.  He thought it was probably viewed as a very fancy place to stay.

                               This little red (faded) caboose was randomly parked in someone's back yard along the way to our car, just east of 4th Ave.  Tonio wants to get one for our back yard.

       
                        Autumn liked this piece of sidewalk art she spotted as we walked...

                      I think Antonio was most mesmerized by this place - he looked as though he truly enjoyed the crowd.  I treated the kids to large lemonades as we arrived, let them choose a 'treasure' for our house, just as Kim used to...and I tried to paint them a picture, as I told them stories of me and their Mama strolling down these very sidewalks, trying to show it to them through Kim's eyes and with her high spirit and enthusiasm.

I don't know what the official attendance was this day...but, if pressed, I'd estimate it was near several billionty.

Antonio missed nothing as he enjoys his frosty lemonade.

We bought a raffle ticket from Francie Palencia, who knows loss...having lost her 17 year old, Stephen, to, guess what?  Cancer.  She was raising money for Stephen's Foundation.  They are a wonderful, positive family, who uses their loss to try to help others.  We immediately decided that, if we were to win, we give it all back to Stephen's Foundation.

I even let them choose a ride to try out...it always amazes me to listen to the three of them rationalize - length of ride, thrill factor...and cost.  They are really something else!

    

In the end, they decided on the virtual ride.  Now, there is a menu of 8 different 'virtual adventures' that you can choose to experience.  My heart swelled up as Cody graciously made the decision that it should be up to Antonio to choose their experience....he chose "Time Machine" - the picture showed a large, T-Rex bearing down on some hapless adventurers!

As I said, the 'people watching' is tremendous at the street fair!

We also saw several men swathed in marijuana wreaths trying to, in Peter Tosh's words, 'legalize it', and it seems that a great deal more tie dye shirt stands, hemp based products, etc have proliferized this fair over the years...

Scary clown in background!!

Tonio and Autumn hunt for their 'treasures'...they both chose dirtless plants.  They loved the sales lady, who was from England.  Her accent delighted them as she told them about once a week to 'chuck it in a bucket!' to water them!

Here are some of the 'treasures' that Kim chose for our home over the many years we were blessed to walk the street fair together:

A series of desert storm, monsoon, paintings Kim collected over the course of five street fairs.  She corresponded with the artist, who lives in northern California, over the years - sending her little notes to ask if she'd be at the next street fair so she could add another piece to our living room wall...I wish I still had the artist's address...

                              She bought this Madonna for me...it's a beautiful piece with copper backing....

We both loved lizards...

Kim absolutely loved the hand punched silver Mexican style that can be found here in Arizona.

These are a couple of pieces she picked up over the years there...

We almost always bought something from one of the Mexican Nationals selling their beautiful works along the sidewalks at the street fair...

Kim also bought this beautifully carved Mary of Guadelupe for me there...

This year, all three bambini helped pick out something for our house....well, for our garden...

We felt the need to add some 'permanent' color to our garden..for Kim.  Autumn chose the colors, after we found the man selling these metal flowers with hummingbirds and butterflies sipping the nectar from the colorful flowers.

As I hung these, Kim's sister, Terri, texted me "Please say goodnight to Kim for me tonight.  I miss her."  I stopped in mid-drill, took a photo of what we were working on, and told her we sure would say goodnight..and that there is not a moment that goes by that we don't miss Kimmy...

The sun was setting in spectacular fashion as we finished kicking up Kimmy's garden a notch...

Kimmy winking in approval?  Smiling down on us?  Or am I, once again, trying to find meaning in every sunset, beautiful cloud, pretty flowers, shooting stars or stunning star filled night sky????????