San Diego Bay Wine & Food Festival - 11/18/13 - 11/24/13

Don't forget to replenish after the 5K!

San Diego Bay Wine & Food Festival
San Diego, CA

This event provides a great opportunity to stretch those stomach muscles in time for Thanksgiving.

Now in its 10^th year, the festival is the area’s premiere destination for food and wine aficionados to attend cooking classes and wine tasting seminars, meet chefs and winemakers, and sample morsels from gourmet food companies.  Bid on a celebrity chef luncheon, then watch chefs compete for $50,000 in the Chef of the Fest competition.  Turn the event into a vacation with a Wine Weekend Getaway package including hotel accommodations and VIP experiences.

Crepes, sushi, gourmet chocolates and more can all be yours.  Enjoy an array of international cuisine before hunkering down with (at least) a week of turkey, turkey sandwiches, turkey enchiladas, turkey soup…catch my drift?

Nimbus Fish Hatchery

They make swimming uphill
look easy.

Nimbus Fish Hatchery

Rancho Cordova, CA

I hate to admit that I rely on my GPS far too much.  Even when I return to my hometown, I rely on it to get from point A to point B.  So imagine my disbelief when I learned at the Nimbus Fish Hatchery that salmon and steelhead trout are able to miraculously find their way back to the river of their birth…from the freaking ocean!  That’s impressive.

Visitors to the hatchery can witness this phenomenon first-hand.  When the fish ladders are open, salmon and steelhead swim through the gate at the base and instinctively jump up each step, making their way towards the hatchery.  At the top, they enter holding ponds and, if they are mature, move on to the tranquilizing tank in the spawning deck.  What happens next during the egg-taking process is covered during the informative video shown in the visitor’s center…I won’t ruin the excitement for you!

Multiple raceways hold growing salmon until they are ocean-ready.  25 cents gets you a palmfull of pellets you can use to feed the fish (or get your friends splashed).  Netting covers the area to keep out prey.

Before leaving the site, take some time to learn about all about river clean-up and conservation efforts, salmon and steelhead record weights, and many other facts that will make you further appreciate your next sushi dinner.