Naples Grape Festival

 
This past weekend we took the kids to the Naples Grape Festival. If you don't know about the Naples Grape Festival, I will tell you.  Naples Grape Fest claim to fame is that they have the Worlds Best Grape Pie Contest. "Grape Pies were created in the 1950's and credited to longtime Naples resident Irene Bouchard."(Naples Grape Fest ). 

The official grounds for the festival are at the high school.  Lots of people selling antiques and garage sale stuff line Main Street. Everything you can imagine jewelry, painted glass, sewing crafts, oils and incense, wood works. Lots of places to park, all at about 5 dollars per car.

Everything Grape is at this festival.  Grape taffy, grape frozen custard, grape suckers, grapes and wine (of course).  If we didn't have the kids, I am sure we would have done some wine tasting.  A couple huge tents in which to taste.  One at the Festival grounds and another put up by a winery.  As you can imagine there are lots of wineries in the hills of Naples.  It is prime, Finger lake Region, grape country.

Grape Taffy

Amazing grape frozen custard.

Deep Fried Pickles

There were also some local food trucks there that the kids have enjoyed previously.  They decided to share an order or Mac and Cheese.  It went pretty well.  It was kind of like feeding fish.  Threw in the food and a frenzy and flourish of energy ensues. Here is the before and after.

 

Our kids don't really get the opportunity to go to festivals.  It's not generally our thing.  So this time we decided to treat them to some "festival food". A bloomin' onion, a corn dog...

There was a couple Henna tattoo artists at the festival.

 

If you want to bring your dog...  I did see a few dogs there. A few tiny dog varieties.  3 Great Danes.  And one of those great danes I saw sitting on a womans lap.  I was not quick enough with my camera. An Italian mastiff. A few pit mixes.   Its very crowded there though.  The choice is up to you.  My dog would have been overwhelmed.