San Gabriel Lunar New Year Festival

If there’s anyone that likes free things, it’s got to be me.

As a freebie lover, I attended the San Gabriel Lunar New Year Festival, a free event held at the San Gabriel Mission Playhouse.

Parking wasn’t an issue as I was able to park on the street for free. Their event parking lot was also for free but already full by the time I had gotten there and I actually had gotten there before the start time of the festival. Meh. So, even though I had arrived early, by the time I decided on a parking spot, the festival had already begun.



It didn’t help much either that I was hyper paranoid about whether I could park or not because in LA, there are just way too many places that will ticket you for parking without a residential permit or parking for more than an hour and so forth. Ugh. (The rules are there on the signs but the signs can honestly be borderline conniving if you’re not careful enough in reading all of its do nots.) It certainly didn’t help much either that wherever people came from, many of them parked selfishly. In other words, they parked in a way that took up way too much space, which prevented an additional car from being able to also park there. But whatever because I ended up finding a pretty good spot to park in the end of it all.

The festival itself catered to all kinds of people:

The foodies via street food and food trucks.

Arts enthusiasts via chalk art and cultural (and modern) performances.

Shopping via a selection of vendors.

Childish fun via carnival-like game booths and jump houses.

I didn’t care for the latter simply because I know I won’t be able to win a prize and even if I somehow managed to win a prize, it would probably be a prize I don’t care about. (Large, cheap looking stuffed animal? Can we say no thank you!) As for the jump house, well, I think I’m too old for such things although I wouldn’t mind making a fool out of myself if other “older” people were jumping around in the jump house with me. LOL

Last but not least, for the freebie lovers, there were a couple of booths that offered free things. I hated the idea of waiting in a long line and after much contemplation, decided to go after one booth, the 99 Ranch booth. I originally got in line thinking we’d have a chance to win a major prize like a plane ticket to who knows where but that of course wasn’t up for grabs. LOL Anyway, everyone’s a winner at the booth; they’re just not all equal winners. I somehow managed to win the large snack which turned out to be “egg rolled cookies”. I also asked if I could have a little something else (lol wtf) and the girl working the booth gave me a pineapple cake. Lol I suppose it doesn’t hurt to ask…

Alan Chan Jazz Orchestra

Alan Chan Jazz Orchestra performed inside the San Gabriel Mission Playhouse, a pretty playhouse (inside and out) but its seats were definitely not pretty. They were outdated (think high school auditorium seats) and super uncomfortable. Let’s just say my seat wasn’t flat and the other seats were basically the same, more or less. Uh, not cool but whatever, since I was inside the playhouse to watch Alan Chan Jazz Orchestra for free!

The performance lasted about an hour and out of all the songs played, I found myself liking, “A spirit’s dream” most.

Workaholic

When I first started working for my company, I was a workaholic. I don’t think I’m as much of a workaholic these days since I dream (literally) of taking vacations quite frequently, however overall, I’m still a workaholic. (It’d do me good to get married and work part time instead or better yet, not work at all. LOL Then, every day would be a vacation, right? LOL I’m just joking, or am I?)

Anyway, as a workaholic, I felt it made a lot of sense to eat from Workaholic. So, that’s what I did. I tried Workaholic for the first time and was glad I gave them a try despite their steep price of $9 for a “wild mushroom” dumpling that came with salad.

Glad because it was filling (to a certain extent, since I got a bit hungry again after about 30 minutes or so) and even more glad that it was vegan.

Waffle Land

My first time having a Hong Kong style waffle was in Hong Kong. My second time having a Hong Kong style waffle was at the San Gabriel Lunar New Year Festival. Yes, I kid you not. LOL

I got the mochi waffle which was really good and $1 more than the other waffles Waffle Land was selling. Not too sure why, but I think there’s probably a decent reason why. In total, the waffle was $6 which I think is borderline steep when it comes to pricing but then again, I find almost everything to be expensive when it comes to food in So Cal. Meh.

Final thoughts

The San Gabriel Lunar New Year Festival was great. Minus the small hiccup of the festival running behind schedule here and there, it was a great event. This was my first time attending San Gabriel’s Lunar New Year Festival and I honestly can see myself attending the event again in the future, provided that it works out with my schedule. For those that are in the area when they hold the festival, I highly recommend that you attend.