Weslaco, TX Onion Festival

Today, April 1, 2006, Mickey, Patti, Dean and I went to Weslaco, TX to their "famous" Onion Festival. This is held in honor of the Texas 1015 (or Texas Sweet) onion which is grown locally. I need to make a comment here - I've had the Texas sweet onion before and they are really sweet and I usually prefer them over the Vidalia onion. Anyway, we drove about one and one half hours to arrive at the festival grounds. It didn't take us long to find the food booths after walking past two rows of grills that were fired up and cooking for a local cook off. Boy, did they odor GOOD! We already knew that we wanted a onion blossom and saw three lines for booths that were selling them. We opted for the middle line that seemed to be the shortest. I'll add another comment here - just like the grocery store - the shortest line doesn't always mean the fastest! To give you some idea of the crowd and the length of the line see the picture below.

I'm not sure just how long we waited in line, but I would have to say almost two hours!

Finally we got our onion blossom and headed for a tent and some shade to enjoy this delicacy - hah! This was the absolutely WORST onion blossom that I've had. The onion was not sweet, the breading was spicy and overcooked and it was so greasy that the grease was running off the plate. It was so bad that after just a couple of bites it went in the trash can. After we walked away, Dean said that I should have taken a picture of it sitting in the bottom of the trash can and sent it to the Weslaco Chamber of Commerce. They could use that picture for next years advertisements - LOL. Next time I want a onion blossom, I'll find a sit down and be served restaurant that has them. We did buy a bag of onions, so heavy that both Mickey and Dean had to carry it to the truck.

There was an arts and crafts tent but it also was a disappointment. More jewelry than anything and only about 15 - 20 vendors. Nothing like the arts and crafts shows that I'm used to going to.

Patti and I walked over to the horse arena and watched the dancing horses. I think that was the highlight of the festival, and it had nothing to do with onions! Sorry, but I didn't get any pictures of the horses.

I purposely put the date in the first sentence of this post. I think that the festival was the April Fool's joke played on us.

Patti and I took a drive over to S. Padre Island yesterday afternoon to look for sea shells. Unfortunately, the tide was coming in so our finds were very few. We were told to check back after a high tide that there are usually some big shells that do get washed up. I think we will go back another day, probably in the AM after a high tide and check it out. We did see a father and daughter on the beach feeding the sea gulls. Made for a good photo op, so here is the picture, along with one of the surf.

Just so you know, we really are having a great time. Our escapades with Patti and Mickey will be remembered by us for years to come. They are a fun couple to be with and we will hate parting company with them in a couple of weeks. Stay tuned though, we are talking about going on a dolphin watch cruise (if the wind ever slows down, another story) and there is still the horseback ride on the beach. Patti said she would love to try para-sailing - I wonder if she will?