Getting to Florida - 2022/10/27

Time to finish our long summer journey (from 2022) and make it home to Florida!

Starburst Airs, Starburst Gummies, and Starburst Taste Test Comparison

Since we've got everyone together, let's do a taste test! 

For weeks, my FaceBook ads have been showing me this new variety of Starbursts called Starburst Airs Gummies. I guess they know my spending habits. They say that it's like being on Cloud 9 if you're eating it and that they're Inflated with Flavor. Let's try it out! 

I've known that regular Starburst Gummies were a thing too, so would these Starburst Airs be that much different from them? I grabbed a large bag of Starburst, the regular Starburst Airs, the Sour Tropical Starburst Airs, regular Starburst Gummies, and Sour Starburst Gummies. Today we taste them all!

And if you like reading about Starburst Taste Tests, check out some of our other ones where we try Starburst Yogurt, Starburst Gum, Starburst Fruit by the Foot, Starburst Strawberry Sorbet bars, Starburst Drink Mix, and Starburst Gelatin both Regular Flavor and Starburst Duos Gelatin. 

More Mississippi Family at McClain Lodge - 2022/10/23

Jumping back a bit in time, last October we were working our way back to Florida in the RV. Stopping in Mississippi we got to visit with family, including my Aunt Kim and Uncle Mark! 

2023 Pasadena Chalk Festival Time Lapse

I love to get videos of the "work in progress" to show how a mural comes together. 

The first is the Splash Mountain mural by Ruston and I. I'm using a cheap YiLite camera that I picked up on Amazon. I love the camera, but they haven't updated their app in years. I have had to keep an old cracked iPhone 6 still running a very old version of the IOS around in order to connect to it. This phone must never be updated! 

Seeing as how there's now 2 teams participating, of course I had to have a second camera running to pick up Theresa, Ian, and Alli as they drew the National Park Service emblem. Despite being plugged into a battery pack, the GoPro decided to quit after an hour, so most of this video is from the wide angle shot of the YiLite camera. 

And since it's a wide angle shot, I also happened to get a time lapse of my chalk neighbor KDaze Karla Navarro. Not the best video, but still fun to watch. 

All the chalk murals from the 2023 Pasadena Chalk Festival

Fair warning, the Pasadena Chalk Festival has previously made the Guinness Book of World Records for the largest chalk festival in the world. By my count, this year there were 170+ artists drawing, so this page is going to be really really long. I won't be commenting much. 

The day after the chalk festival, Monday morning, the sky was overcast and the crowds were gone. I got up early to visit the festival grounds before everything is cleaned up. With no weird shadows and no crowds, I was able to meander through all the murals, taking pictures as I went. I think I got them all, and where possible I included the artist's name. 

Please enjoy!

Pasadena Chalk Festival 2023 Day 2

We're having a blast at the Pasadena Chalk Festival! We've been so busy though getting our own murals completed that we haven't had much time to go around and see everyone else's chalk art! 

Now that we're wrapped up though, let's go explore the rest of the festival. 

Note, this isn't meant to be a complete look at every picture (that'll be a separate post).

The Pasadena Chalk Festival 2023 - Day 2 - National Park Emblem and Splash Mountain

It's late at night, but I wanted to get a post up about the Pasadena Chalk Festival and our awesome time there. This year we have two murals! Ruston and I are doing the poster for Splash Mountain, and Theresa and the kids are promoting the National Park Service by drawing their emblem!

There's plenty of other amazing chalk artists at the festival, but this post is mostly about us. I'll be covering everyone else in a separate write-up. 

The Pasadena Chalk Festival - Day 1 - National Park Emblem and Splash Mountain

Today is the first day of the Pasadena Chalk Festival, and like I said before, we've got a few new artists joining us! You must be at least 16 years old to sign up, but... if the lead artist is over 16 anyone can help them! I was trying to think of a good mural for them to do and when I mentioned doing the National Park Emblem Theresa was all for it! The kids were excited too! They'd get to wear their Junior Ranger vests and tell everyone about the National Parks they've visited and encourage people to get outside and explore. 

And I had a totally different mural in mind up until 2 weeks ago. For reasons, I changed it last minute to the poster for Splash Mountain! It's my year to pick the mural and I have to say it was a bit ambitious. We usually like solid colors with not a lot of detail. This has a TON of detail. 

Pasadena Now - Chalk Festival Interview

Along with being able to draw in front of the ABC7 studios, I was also interviewed by PasadenaNow. Check out the article here! 

Prepping for the Pasadena Chalk Festival 2023

On Thursday, we started getting ready for the Pasadena Chalk Festival! At 4pm, the area in front of the Pasadena Convention Center open up and you can pick your spot. 

Promoting the Pasadena Chalk Festival on KABC in Los Angeles - I'm on TV!

It's Wednesday. Isn't it a little early to be drawing for the Pasadena Chalk Festival? Yes, yes it is.

BUT! A couple weeks ago, I got a phone call asking if I'd like to help promote the chalk festival by drawing a mural in front of ABC7 Studios in Los Angeles and show it on Live TV! Definitely! 

Watch Ruston and I Wednesday morning, June 14th, on ABC7 Los Angeles, while we draw a chalk mural!

For those who are in the Los Angeles area, or want to watch online, ABC7 LA will be doing a story on the Pasadena Chalk Festival on Wednesday morning (June 14th), Ruston and I, plus many other artists will be drawing murals outside their studio! Tune in 6am-8am where they'll cut away from the news periodically and watch our progress! 

https://abc7.com

2023 Pasadena Chalk Festival is this weekend! Come see us!

For all my friends in the Los Angeles area, the Pasadena Chalk Festival is coming up this weekend on Saturday and Sunday, June 17th and 18th! Ruston and I will be participating for our eighth year! Come out and see us! 

Driving to Mississippi to see family! - 2022/10/22

It's time to hit the road and continue our trek back to Florida. On the way though, we're hitting a few highlights, including getting to visit some family in Mississippi! 

Wegner Crystal Mine - Again cause we loved it so much! 2022/10/20

On the road back to Florida there are many paths that we could have taken. There's a special reason though why we picked coming through Arkansas. We had such a good time hunting for crystals at the Wegner Crystal Mine that we just had to come back and do it again! 

A Fairlife Milk Protein Drink Taste Test Comparison - All 5 flavors compared

Theresa has really gotten into working out and lifting weights. To build muscles, protein is essential. Theresa has tried multiple kinds of protein drinks and has never found one she likes. That is, until now! 

Theresa - Fairlife has an amazing amount of protein and just tastes like flavored milk! This 150 calorie drink has 30 grams of protein, which is super high. 

All the other drinks have that "whey" flavor, but Fairlife is literally just milk. They've separated milk into its components then mixed it back together with more protein and calcium and less sugar and lactose. It's even lactose free, so even more people can drink it! They are also shelf stable and will last for 1 year! 

And let me tell you, finding all 5 unique flavors was a challenge. Coffee and Salted Caramel could only be found at Sams. The others you might find Chocolate or Vanilla, but Strawberry would be elusive. 

Since doing this taste test, it's become even more difficult to find these. Because of supply chain issues, Fairlife only advertises chocolate and vanilla on their website now, and all the other flavors are gone for now. 

But, since we have all 5 flavors, we've got to do a taste test and see what is our favorite! There's Vanilla, Strawberry, Chocolate, Coffee, and Salted Caramel!

Baja Mango Gem Mtn Dew - Mango Mountain Dew taste test

Another new type of Mountain Dew! Yes! And it's a Baja flavor too! Today we are all trying Baja Mango Gem Mtn Dew! 

This Mountain Dew has natural and artificial mango flavors. 

Patrick - But it contains 0% juice? How does it have natural flavors? 

What can we have to try it with? I thought maybe we could do a Frozen Mango smoothie with Mountain Dew as the liquid base!