Raquel, Tim and Felix Wong with an appetizer consisting of peach, mozzarella and basil.

FC Peach Festival

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“This looks promising,” I said as Tim and I drove by a field of dozens of white tents at the Gardens of Spring Creek that sort of resembed a mini Denver International Airport.

I wondered, in particular, if the 1st Annual Fort Collins Peach Fest—unlike the 2009 Lafayette Peach Festival—was going to more than one or two booths featuring the namesake. As it turned out, there were indeed peaches, but there were plenty of other non-fruity attractions as well.

The first thing Tim and I noticed were the half-dozen new cars with window stickers dotting the field. This included a silver Audi A7 that was as elegant as a freshly pressed suit. I was impressed that despite its hulking size and 310-hp supercharged V6, it still claimed an EPA 28 MPG on the highway.

We saw a few no-peach food booths as well, including this hot dog stand:

Tim by the Schmickels hot dog stand.

There were especially a lot of kids play stations, including an inflatable rock climbing wall, two slides, a throw-a-kid-on-a-velcro-wall area, and a toss-a-rope-onto-some-bars game:

YouTube

But happily, the peaches were not entirely ignored among all these free-spirited attractions. For example, there was a booth with peach juice, another with peach beer, and a very popular one selling peach margaritas. I got Raquel, Tim and I a round of the latter even though Raquel knows from personal experience that I don’t handle tequila too well. She also knows that when I get drunk I start talking in exclusively in foreign languages, but as I maintained conversation in English all day, I guess these margaritas didn’t get me inebriated at all.

One booth that also featured peaches was the CARE Housing Project, which builds affordable housing for Fort Collins residents with low-income jobs. The volunteers here gave us an appetizer of peach and mozzarella and basil—a scrumptious combination I will have to remember for my own mid-afternoon snacks.

After the event Charis, Raquel, Tori, and Charis’ two-year-old daughter Zoe went to explore the vegetable and flower plots just a couple hundreds of feet away at the Gardens of Spring Creek. There were no peaches here, but we had already gotten our fill.

Raquel, Tim and Felix Wong with an appetizer consisting of peach, mozzarella and basil.
Raquel, Tim and Felix Wong with an appetizer consisting of peach, mozzarella and basil.
Raquel giving a go at this toss-a-rope-onto-the-bars game. She won a hat for getting two ropes on there.
Raquel giving a go at this toss-a-rope-onto-the-bars game. She won a hat for getting two ropes on there.
Nice backpack, Zoe!
Nice backpack, Zoe!
Eggplant with the tents of the Peach Fest behind.
Eggplant with the tents of the Peach Fest behind.
Tori pondering the different peppers.
Tori pondering the different peppers.
Huge spider.
Huge spider.
The Garden of Eatin'.
The Garden of Eatin'.
Nice art sculpture.
Nice art sculpture.
Charis and Zoe in front of many sunflowers.
Charis and Zoe in front of many sunflowers.
Tori looking at the plots of peppers, which looked so colorful and unmarred that I said they almost looked fake.
Tori looking at the plots of peppers, which looked so colorful and unmarred that I said they almost looked fake.
Charis' daughter Zoe running amok among the gardens.
Charis' daughter Zoe running amok among the gardens.
The Continental U.S. Garden, sponsored by Whole Foods.
The Continental U.S. Garden, sponsored by Whole Foods.
An octopus art exhibit with a chicken wire woman.
An octopus art exhibit with a chicken wire woman.
The Spring Creek Gardens have this colorful piano.
The Spring Creek Gardens have this colorful piano.
Plants used as wall art.
Plants used as wall art.
Shovels and pitchforks as bike racks at the Gardens of Spring Creek.
Shovels and pitchforks as bike racks at the Gardens of Spring Creek.