2013 Red Cloud Renegade Craft Fair Trip

Trip Report by Audrey:

Right when I bursted in the door of Hongyun Art, I was prepared to ride the bus to go to the craft fair. But no, I had to clean up the school with Caroline and Deelia, who were the only two other people who were going besides me! :( We started with vacuuming and cleaning out the carpet and trays of pencils, erasers, and stuff like that. I never knew things could get so dusty. After breathing  in a lot of dust, we moved on to changing the paper for the tables. Then, we started to sort the short colored pencils and pencils from the usable ones. I didn't think that task was too bad until Caroline came in with an armful of trays of colored pencils. Obviously, Deelia and I groaned. After sorting out eight boxes, the job was done. Finally. Then, we (me, Caroline, Deelia, Hongyun, and Tommy) all piled in Hongyun and Tommy's personal car and set off for the Renegade Craft fair in San Francisco.
 

After about 45 minutes in the car, we finally arrived at the craft fair for some inspiration on our Maker Faire. However, there were two problems. 1)There were zero parking spots there, so we had to park literally a mile away. 2) By the time we got there, it was almost lunch time, so Deelia, Caroline, and I were complaining about being hungry. Luckily, there was a mall right across from the parking garage, so we went there to eat. First, we had to wash our hands in the bathroom. (Duh, where else can we wash our hands?) Right outside the bathrooms was a small lounge. In the lounge were four fancy sofas each with a shiny cushion, coffee tables, and cool lights, complete with an exquisite wall. A cupcake stand got my attention, but we wanted to save our appetites for a good lunch, so we moved on. When we finally got to the food court, Caroline, Deelia, and I decided to order from an Italian restaurant called either Pizza Moto or Italian Moto, while Hongyun and Tommy ordered from this Thai restaurant. For lunch, Caroline got some spaghetti, and I ordered a Pizza Rustica, which was basically a sausage and bell pepper pizza. Deelia ordered a pepperoni pizza. I was in pizza heaven when I took my first bite. Despite the pizza's oilyness, it was soooo delicious!

As I mentioned, we had to walk a whole mile just to go to the craft fair. The craft fair was located in this huge red building. When we went in, the first thing I saw was how big yet crowded this place was. Hongyun later told us that the Maker Faire was going to be ten or fifteen times the size and even more crowded. The first booth we saw sold crocheted stuffed animals like cats and squids. The cats were so cool! A couple of booths later, we saw one that sold iPhone cases made of bamboo. The designs on them were so detailed and pretty. Like their product, their business cards were interesting. Their business cards were square pieces of wood with their names and e-mail addresses etched on it. As we strolled by multiple more booths, we came by one that sold handmade stuffed animals. Caroline really liked the fox. Since their handiwork was so amazing Hongyun and Tommy thought about buying a custom made Mindy from them! Then, we took a closer look at a booth that sold pastries like pies. We all took a free sample of their oatmeal pie. I know, oatmeal pie itself doesn't seem so amazing, but the oatmeal pie there was simply DELICIOUS!!! Caroline and Deelia thought about buying one after we were done looking at all the other booths. Near the food court in that building, was a stand giving out free samples of smoothies. I sampled a berry smoothie. As it trickled down my throat, all I could think about was how good it was. There were more food samples, but I declined all of them because I wanted the flavor of that smoothie to stay in my mouth for a long time. Later, we went to Woolbuddy's booth. All of the needle felted goods were so neat! I wanted to buy a needle felted cat toy, but I didn't want it to be shredded by my cat, so I didn't buy it. We then went back to pastry booth, and Caroline and Deelia bought a oatmeal pie. 

Of course, we had to walk the mile back. To walk less, Tommy had a brilliant idea, which was to walk in the alleyways. The idea was not so brilliant when a terrible odor wafted into our noses. Deelia was lucky that she brought a scarf because she could cover her nose with that. Everything was going fine (ish) until Deelia let out a shriek. In my head, I was all like, "Dude, it's not like you could step into a pile of dog poop in the middle of the street!" But when I looked down on the side walk, behind us were streaks of doggie doo doo. Fortunately, Deelia didn't actually step on it. Because of this incident, our eyes were glued to the hideous sidewalk scouting for more surprises instead of gazing at the beautiful, cloudless, azure sky. Once we neared the parking garage, we decided to rest at a cafe to rest our legs. After 45 more minutes of driving, we arrived at Hongyun Art tired yet happy.

Trip photos - click on the images to see a big version!

Trip Report by Caroline:

Before the trip we help Hongyun clean up the school a bit. Soon it was time to go and we got into Hongyun's car. The ride was pretty long, but I spent it snacking on some jelly beans Audrey gave me. They were really good. During the drive we saw a orange house that was lumpy and strange and a statue that was pointing right at you. When we got to the parking lot we went in circles and circles up the ramp and ended up on the 6th floor. We got off the car and went into the Westfield San Fransisco Centre Mall. There were a lot of bags and purses. We went to the bathroom real quick. The bathroom was really fancy and Audrey, Deelia, and I sat on a couch right outside the bathroom while we waited for Tommy and Hongyun. We felt like we were really rich. We decided to have lunch, even though it was around 11:30. We pasted sections of Perfume, Makeup, and more bags. After a while we finally got out of the store and headed towards the food court. Hongyun, Tommy, and I took the escalator up while  Audrey and Deelia wanted to take the stairs. At the food court Tommy said we would split up and get the food we want, then meet back at a golden poll. We each had about 20 bucks and decided to spend 10 dollars on food and the rest of our money on stuff we might want to buy. There was an Italian restaurant near the poll so Audrey, Deelia, and I decided to get good there. I ordered a plate of pasta with tomato sauce. Audrey ordered a pizza which was some kind of meat with red peppers. Deelia ordered a pepperoni pizza. We met Hongyun and Tommy at the poll and sat down to eat. The pasta was delicious. Audrey said it was way better than Subway. We finished our lunches and we kept on moving. We saw this thing called "Get little". They scan you and they 3D print a statue of you, but really small. We also went into a store that had really pretty beads. Soon we started to walk to the fair. The fair was really far away and at one point when we turned a corner we saw a hobo laying on the ground. I screamed a little. Deelia said that she thought that he was dead. After a long time we finally made it. We went inside the building. The building was crowded and noisy, but it was also very big. Tommy said that the Maker Fair will be just like that, but bigger. The first booth was this thing called Dorklandia. It was some croqueted animmals, but I know how to do the same thing. We pasted many stations as we walked. One of them had a demo for these Christmas ornaments made out of sewing glue and decorated using the water marble nail polish design. Another station had glasses and phone covers made out of wood. The phone covers had really pretty designs. There was a booth where there were handmade stuffed animals. It was called Janie Xy. The toys were really cute. I wish I could have the fox one.  The person that made the toys was called Jane Ragasa. We saw the station of Wool Buddy where you make stuff out of felt. They come in kits for you to make. One of the most fascinating booth I saw was this thing called Kinetic Creatures which are walking cardboard animal kits. You make a cardboard animal and make it walk by turning a wire handle. The insides also can be powered by the Kinetic Creatures Motor Kit, Lego motors and sensor, or your own mechanical and electrical additions. There was a booth called Sweet Pistachio. They had free samples of a oatmeal pie. I think the pie also had nuts, cocoanut, and honey. It was delicious. Everyone agreed that it was delicious, so Deelia and I decided to both buy one. It was 1 for $6 and 2 for $10. Deelia and I were both buying one so we decided to each pay 5 dollars for the 2 pies. There were so many booths that I forgot probably half of them. After a lot of looking we decided to go back. We walked all the way back to the car, but this time we had a short cut through an alley. The alley was dirty and smelled like pee. Before we went to the car we had a rest at a cafe and Tommy went to the bathroom. Soon we went to the car and went back to Hongyun Art. The drive back was way shorter than the drive there. When we got back my mom was in her car waiting so I said Good Bye and went home.