Random Boo Trip to Visalia

May 1st, Andrew and I got off work early and decided to take a small random trip to the wonderful city of Visalia. I've only been to Visalia at night so I was blown away by their downtown. I love all the old buildings and all the cute little restaurants and cafes. The record store we went to was called Valario and it was a tiny one that had pretty cool modern paint-by-number art pieces up (by the owner) and they also sold vintage clothes. We got lucky and happen to come on the day they have their farmers market. I like that they have their farmers market downtown and that it starts 4pm! I wish that were the case in Bakersfield.

I loved these art pieces they had up in the record store!

 

 While Andrew was record hunting, I took off and did a little exploring.

I found a couple of cute cafes, restaurants and cupcake shops. There were also a couple of clothing stores...but nothing too special to draw me in. I loooved looking at all the old buildings, walking around and admiring all the character their downtown had. I seriously felt I was in Downtown Ventura in some parts. They even have a trolley! What?! 

When I met up with Andrew, we bought some coffee called Bigfoot Roasters. I guess it's a local guy who roasts his own beans. The coffee beans smelled amazing plus it had a picture of a Sasquatch and trees on the bag so that was cool too! 

On the corner from where the record shop was there was a pizza place that looked like it was worth trying. I just had to yelp it because I wanted to make sure it had good reviews plus I really wanted to eat there because they had a Pi symbol in their name ha!

  

It was bomb, ya'll! Plus they were super nice in there. Our waiter struck up a super long conversation about Doc Martens and clothes with Andrew. It was cute.

Once our bellies were full we decided to walk up and down the area before checking out the farmers market. We found this super cute cafe. The coffee wasn't too bad and the pastries were amazing!

Their farmers market was like a carnival. Besides selling the usual produce, fruit, meat/eggs, and crafts...they had food booths.

Oh, and Girl Alex, if you're reading this, they had all kinds of really cool homespun yarn!!!

Cotton candy and barbeque filled the air and they even had a portable stone oven where they were straight up kicking out personal size pizzas like nothing. They had dudes dressed up as knights and ladies dressed as Renaissance damsels. It felt bigger than ours too...it was about two streets long! I love your Farmers Market, Visalia!

When I was looking for some local honey to buy (this was used for my honey glazed ham I baked the following Saturday), we ran into this lady and her pup. She told us that he's a therapy dog for abused children. Andrew couldn't wait to pet him. He was the sweetest dog!

 
 

 

After checking everything out, we made it back to the car and decided to drive around to see what we could find. Andrew really wanted more coffee so we yelped a place called 210.  It so happened to be in the same area Andrew used to deliver to when he worked for Bakersfield Envelope. He told me that there was an old school A&W drive thru and he really wanted to find it. So we walked around, probably about 4 blocks and we finally found it. I really love that business still use old vintage signage too.

We walked back to 210 and upon entering, I knew right away that it was a Christian cafe because they had a worship hall to the side and they had missionary posters up and what not. I felt like this cafe could have been on the set of Saved. We got in line to order and the girl in front of us was taking forever because she didn't know what she wanted. The barista offered to make her a banana puree latte, but then she said "Well...I don't really know how to make it. It's kind of hit and miss, and it's not very good."

Then a lady crowded us and came to the counter demanding the barista for a band aid. Her daughter slammed her toe in the door of the bathroom (why was the kid barefoot? I dunno...) and it was bleeding. Then all of a sudden another lady comes up with a little boy asking her, "Is this your son?" The first lady was like, "Oh man, I've only had custody of him for 2 days and I keep losing him!"

Me and Andrew's eyes just widened and we slowly met "OMG" gazes from pure shock from what we just heard. Then Andrew whispered in my ear, "Oh my Lorrrd...." 

Then he said, "I think you're right...this is a Christian cafe. I feel weird Boo..." I was like, "You wanna leave?" And he was like, "Yeah, but I feel bad we're in line though." And I was like, "I don't, let's go." So I took off and he followed. 

As we walked back to the car we just kept repeating what that lady said because it was just so ridiculous and we just couldn't grasp the reality of her comment.

We kept driving and Andrew had to pee, so he drove us to the mall. It wasn't as annoying as our mall. He talked me into doing some shopping so we went into Forever 21. 

Can you tell he really wanted to buy these sandals for himself? Ha! Not! He was trying to stank face the shoes because he hates sandals that remind him of ancient Rome. Especially the sandals that have a flap of fake leather that wraps around the ankle, but exposes the feet. 

I found a picture...

One time he tried to make a replica of them out of paper bags and bendy straws.

I don't really like those ones either. But I don't think the strappy ones look that bad...but anyway...he's anti-gladiator sandals and since these were gladiator sandal WEDGES, he was just in an utter state of horror. 

After the mall we headed home, made some of the coffee we brought home and relaxed. It was a wonderful day! I had such a fun day spending it with Boo and exploring a city that's not too far away. Yahooooo!