Different Sunday, New Set-Up

One of the vendors that we traded with at the OB market told us about the La Jolla Open Aire Sunday morning market.  C.J. ran a bakery in OB & helped keep pies & quiches in our house most of the week. 

"You guys would do great there with your sandwiches.  Nobody there does anything like that," C.J. told us.  He had been doing the La Jolla market for over 10 years.

Kate got in touch with the market manager & we were able to sub in that Sunday, which was great because we had just said goodbye to Rancho Santa Fe.  

La Jolla was 10 miles closer to home than RSF but had similar clientele.  They had money there & were willing to spend it.  I had only ever visited the market once back in 2012 on one of my scout trips & in my notes it just said, "Huge!  Mostly Retail.  3 stars out of 5."  The hours were still 9am-1:30pm.

The cluster of tents was in a parking lot adjacent to La Jolla Elementary & their baseball diamonds at the bottom of the hill.  The aisles were real tight to back in the Escape, but we made due, unloaded & parked next to the bullpen & the outfield grass.  

Despite the closterfobic arrangement, the patrons seemed to know where everything was & we were lucky enough to be placed on a corner with ample foot traffic.  

We had a good debut out there, though we paled in comparison to the heavy hitter of hot foods, the taco truck that literally faced the well-shaded food court.  

I think it was called Stephanie's?  I can't remember, but they did trade food with us toward the end & I could tell why they were so popular.  My carne asada burrito was on point & I was glad that I saved it for home, because getting out of there was an adventure all it's own.

It was one at a time, vendors going to get there cars from the baseball field grass & then they had to back up & load up.  Most of the markets we did, you could go get your vehicle right at the end time & park right next to your tent to break down.  This was one of the few where that was impossible.  

It took us an hour from when the market ended to when we drive out of there.  Imagine that on your Friday, before having two days off.  At least we were home before 3pm.  And it was summer time & we live 3 blocks from the beach.