What’s Going On?

The World’s first Kiteboard Course Racing Championship was held here in San Francisco brought to you by the St. Francis Yacht Club. The competition brought contestants from all over the world with a majority of them from the United States. Here they faced off with each other on a huge course.

The course covered an area that was supposedly one nautical mile, but the leg of the race seemed much longer than that. From Crissy Field the boundaries were assumed to be the west end of Crissy Field to the west, Alcatraz Island to the east, Sausalito to the north, and Crissy Field Beach to the south.

Race qualifications began on August 4th through August 6th. Race Finals were held on August 7th and 8th. The qualifying races seemed like it would be a lot of fun. When looking at all the competitors out on the water it reminded me a huge biker gang riding behind one another. It was a pretty amazing site.

At first glance, when arriving to the beach it was surreal to see a beach lined with a rainbow of colors. If one did not know that there was a competition, someone can easily mistake the kites as tents. The week had excellent conditions. It was sunny skies with a few scattered clouds and the winds were good enough for a great competition. Tourists and native Bay Area locals lined the beach front for a glimpse of this sport. To some this event was something new and cool and to others they thought that it was a little crazy to see people being pulled on a surfboard by a kite and going around inflatable buoys. Interesting enough, if you haven’t seen a competition like this before it is something to see for yourself. Like in any sport you will have your likes and dislikes. I felt that this sport was a little slow for me, but I bet if I were to pick up the sport of kiteboarding my opinion would dramatically change.

Burlingame is home to one of the most unique museums in the world, the PEZ Museum. The PEZ Museum is a small one of a kind gem that you can only find here in the Bay Area and if you are lucky enough, you can come and witness with your own eyes the world’s largest PEZ dispenser. The museum is open Tuesday through Saturday from 10am - 6pm.

Upon entering the museum, there is a little shop that is open to the public to purchase all sorts of PEZ dispensers and some hard to find collectible sets. In another room of the business space is the museum where all types of information on PEZ and other collectible toys can be found. Open to visitors of all ages, the museum mainly focuses it’s attention on toys that the older generation have come to grow up with. It is very nostalgic when first entering the room because at one point in time almost all Americans have owned at least one of the few items that were on display.

At the PEZ museum not only will you find PEZ dispensers and their memorabilia, but you will find a display for Lincoln Logs, Erector Sets, Tinker Toys, Mr. Potato Head, View-Master, Colorforms, Etch-a-sketch, Play-Doh, Lego, Easy Bake Oven, and other sets from times past.

Information that I learned while at the museum were that: PEZ was first developed as a peppermint candy which was developed in Austria by Eduard Haas III. PEZ derives it’s name from the German word for peppermint, which is Pfefferminz. PEZ came out with it’s first dispenser in 1950, they were in the shape of a cigarette lighter. A few years later heads were placed on the top of the dispenser. Since then over 550 types of heads for the dispensers have been created. PEZ candy is produced here in the U.S., while the dispensers and the heads are made in Hungary and China. PEZ dispensers were always made of plastic except for the metal spring that pushes up the candy. The Guinness Book of World Record’s Biggest PEZ dispenser can be found at the PEZ museum in Burlingame. It is 85 lbs. in weight, 7ft. 10in. in height, can hold up to 24 dispensers, and can hold 6480 PEZ candies.

Upon reading more information about the museum, it has received a lawsuit from the makers of PEZ regarding this institution… bummer. I hope everything works out for the museum.

The 15th Annual San Francisco Aloha Festival is a free two day celebration of food, culture, and dance of native Pacific Islanders. The event was hosted by the Pacific Islanders’ Cultural Association. All ethnic groups from the Pacific came to show their support for their family and friends. The festival was held in the Presidio at the Main Post/Parade Grounds.

This year the festival had beautiful weather. It was slightly warm with partly cloudy skies. However, Saturday towards the end of the festival the fog started to roll in and it got a little chilly.

The Aloha Festival highlighted food from the Pacific, clothing, arts & crafts, collectibles, informational booths, and two stages for entertainment.

At the festival most people ventured to the food area first to get a little taste of Hawaii. After a long wait in line to get a plate of goodness, attendees head over to get a seat on the grass in front of the two stages to watch hula/dance and musicians play while passing by the vendor tents.

Popular to this year’s festival were the booths that sold Poke (a Hawaiian dish of raw tuna cubes mixed with Asian flavor (usually with green onions, soy sauce, garlic, sesame seeds, sesame oil, and sometimes shredded seaweed) and flavored shaved ice.

Most of my time at the festival was spent watching different hula/dance groups and musicians perform. The majority of the dances that I witnessed were hula, a Hawaiian dance performed to song, from local groups around the Bay Area.

My advice for the future is that you get there early with blanket or tarp and camp out a good spot to watch the show. Bring lots of friends to hold the spot and take turns getting food in the food area. It is an all day event so make sure you reserve enough time to find parking and enjoy the program.

Pictures of the SF Aloha Festival can be seen by clicking on the picture link above. Please feel free to leave me a comment/donations below for the pictures and/or the posting. Mahalo.