Ocean Beach Street Fair 20150627

Ocean Beach, or OB as the locals call it, is a somewhat less-than-upscale area. This motel is in a residential area which is rather odd. But OB is odd, so the whole thing "works" in a manner of speaking.

OB has colorful stores and the BEST street folk. This fellow rolled up with his morning's catch of beer cans. How many of those he emptied himself is not clear.

We parked near Robb Field and walked south past Dog Beach. The streets are lined with nice tall palm trees.

Did I mention that OB has the best street folk? We came upon Mr. Sidewalk Sleeper crashed out on a pad of some kind. He ALMOST got his full body on the pad.

We spotted this gnarly pine tree on our walk to the fair. The right hand branch is as crooked as a Sacramento politician.

In the old days, Beach Cruisers were derelict bikes and were never locked because in reality you WANTED somebody to steal it. Today, they are expensive, have trick tires and must be locked with robust locks. Note the spider pattern in the tire tread.

Some of the street folks were diligent about working the dumpsters. Note that with the more fashionable street people, baby strollers have replaced shopping carts as the conveyance of choice.

It was overcast, cool and sprinkling rain so the beach area itself was not crowded.

The OB street fair has a yearly chili cook-off. These contestants decided that the optimum serving vessel for their chili was a toilet. I do confess, the sight of it was sufficiently graphic that it caused me to do a double-take. This was pretty twisted, even for me.

The lines at some of the chili booths were quite long. I did not see the winner's list, but I am guessing that the winner did not serve their chili in a toilet bowl.

Plenty of interesting people and plenty of dogs. Ink was the order of the day and plenty of the attendees were heavily inked. Note this fellow's left forearm.

I wanted to tell this fellow to mime his own business, but did decided that he would not get the pun

There were a number of bands at the fair and most of them were pretty good.

Despite plenty to see, lots of folks were on their phones texting about whatever folks text about.

Check out the face on this fellow's knee.

What would the beach be without skateboards? There was a practice ramp next to Hodad's and folks were getting big air on the jump. This fellow's landing was quite unhappy, but he seemed unhurt.

A pretty good jump with a successful landing.

OB has the best street people.

Here is something that you don't see every day: retro swimsuits. Note the ink on the shin of the gal on the left of the photo above.

Like every street fair, there was plenty of junk food and trinket vendors.

This gal finally maxed-out and had to sit.

Attire at the fair ranged from tame to lame and everything in between.

One of the nice things about beach communities is that they attract larger numbers of fit individuals.

There was a performing group that used hula hoops (or whatever the current name for them is) and did a kind of aerobic dance with them. It was quite entertaining.

A group finale.

Baby strollers are the preferred transport devices for the upper strata street people.

Mr. Street Sleeper was just where we left him three hours prior except now some soft-hearted passers-by have stuck money in his hand. And he managed to reposition himself such that he was mostly on the pad.

Kathleen spotted this interesting paint job on a van parked near Robb Field.

OB is always interesting and even more so on fair days. When going to OB, it is critical to have your attitude in the right coordinate space to insure a pleasurable visit. "When in Rome..." as they say.

Ocean Beach Street Fair

An Interesting Street Fair with an Interesting Crowd

The Experience