OCEAN COUNTY FAIR

One thing that Amanda and I have quickly come to learn is that there is always something to do in San Diego. Not a day goes by where there isn’t some sort of event, market, concert, show or any thing else to fill up your day and the best part about it is that everything seems to take place outside in the beautiful sunny weather. You can almost always count on the sun to be shining when you wake up and if not all you have to do is wait another hour or so for it to break through the thin morning clouds. Every since we arrived we’ve been on the go, trying to soak up as much of our new home as possible and last night was no different when we visited the Ocean County Fair and saw Iration and Steel Pulse in concert.

Two of our close friends from New Jersey, who happen to be brothers, moved to San Diego a little over two years ago. Whenever we flew out here for vacation before our big move we always got together or vice versa when they went back East. Now that we’re here it’s great already having a close friend group to do things with so when they called to ask if we wanted to go to the fair and concert we were nothing but down. Our friends recently moved to Long Beach so we met up at their house, which isn’t a bad drive without traffic, and left from the fair from there. The concert was taking place at the Pacific Amphitheatre and the fair was set up right in front of it. At home we have the Meadowlands State Fair, which takes places in the Giant Stadium parking lot. Amanda and I go to this fair every year with a bunch of our friends except for this year of course, so it was nice to have something similar to go to. However, this fair was twice, maybe three times, the size of the one back home and filled with a lot more things to do.

The first thing we did after arriving was buy some tickets for the dozens of rides that were set up. Since we had concert tickets we got to enter the fair for free, but for everyone else the price was $10.00, which seemed reasonable to me. However, the ticket prices for the rides were absolutely insane. 100 tickets cost $50.00 which doesn’t seem bad but all of the rides are at least 12 tickets each for one person. You expect a fair to be expensive, but we bought 60 tickets and only got to ride on the Crazy Coaster and the Ferris wheel before we had used all of them up. Definitely worth the experience, but if you have a large family of kids who want to go on a bunch of different rides you’ll spend a fortune.

After we got our fill of the two rides and refused to spend anymore on tickets we turned our attention to food and alcohol. There were plenty of options including fresh roasted corn, which I thought was absolutely delicious, all kinds of grilled meats, tacos, churros, roasted nuts, deep friend treats, avocado fries and plenty of items being made right in front of you. There were also a number of different bars set up where you could either go inside and drink or get a beer and walk around with it. This would never be allowed in NJ so this was a big treat for us. After getting some food, downing a couple of beers and stocking up on cinnamon roasted pecans for the show, we walked over to the concert. The outdoor venue was awesome and pretty small so no matter where your seats were you would definitely have a great view of the stage.

Iration came on first, a band that I am familiar with thanks to Pandora and a band that Amanda had seen in concert once before and praised. As they played their set they did not disappoint at all. Their sound was amazing and the crowd had such great energy – everyone dancing around, partying and not having a care in the world. We ended up sitting in back of this amazing family, two parents and their seven children all enjoying each other and the show. The beers were expensive at the show, but that goes without saying at any venue you go to so we were not surprised. By the time Steel Pulse came on we were feeling no pain and we thoroughly enjoyed our first experience with them. What an amazing band and a great performance – high energy, good beats and catchy tunes.

After the show had ended we walked back to the car through these amazing gardens that were set up with all different kinds of fruits and vegetables and these huge sunflower plants that were absolutely beautiful. We drove back to Long Beach, which took no time at all with zero traffic and reminisced about the great time we had before calling it a night. So far California can do no wrong in our eyes and this was just another great night and reason why we love it here so much.