Taste of Ladera.
I love my little town...which Doug insists on calling Arizona - because it's SO far away (10 miles). It's quaint and young and focused around community. Really, it's the greatest.
So on Saturday after enjoying some time at the pool, my husband and I headed to the 2nd Annual Taste of Ladera. It's an opportunity for all the restaurants to set up booths and sell samples of their food. 2 tickets got me 3 ribs and a salad from the Newport Rib Company, delicious. Eric opted for Pizza from the Back Bay Brewing Company, and then we shared some dippin dots - always a highlight. There was also a fondue restaurant represented, some staples such as Baja Fresh, and all sorts of activities for kids - a hoola hoop contest (I got third), face painting (eric was a lion), and a Black Eyed Peas performance by the neighborhood Performing Arts Center. This was the highlight of our time there...
Probably 30 kids from ages 5-12, all dressed in flourescent t-shirts and stiff baseball caps trying to rap and dance to "Let's Get It Started". About one minute in the sound system went out. The kids looked around for a minute and then kept going, singing the last two minutes acapella and trying to stay on beat. Hilarious. They were all running into eachother. It was painful to watch.
But the all around Taste of Ladera experience, I'd give a solid 8.