Johnny Appleseed Festival

Fun little festival! Generally I really love small-​town festivals. Like crazy love them, in fact. In an almost unhealthy way. I’m not quite sure why. Maybe it’s the uniqueness of their themes. Maybe it’s the quaint throwback to older times. Maybe it’s the fun events they usually have (slippery salmon derby, anyone?).
So the Johnny Appleseed festival was something I needed to check out.
I’ll get my main gripe out of the way first: there was very little emphasis on apples! Sure, the historical society had some old time apple peelers to demonstrate on. But really that was about it. Such a let down.
But there were a ton of good things. If you have kids, or are a kid, or like kids (which I don’t), there there is a cool kids area with a bunch of games, rides, petting zoo, etc. Ick. I stayed away and went straight to the food area and the crafts. That was quite cool (even despite the lack of apple-​emphasis, as previously mentioned). I was especially upset about the lack of apple cider donuts. I mean, seriously?
The highlight, of course, is the ball race. You buy a ticket with a number. That number is written on a ball. They dump all the balls out of a truck down the hill and the first one to the bottom wins $ 1000. Not bad! I didn’t win…
I’ll come back next year on one condition: more apples! Especially the apple cider donuts.

I’m a person who pretty much despises any season that involves mildly chilly to cold temperatures. Give me sun. Give me heat. Viva la sweaty girl mustache.
Unfortunately, I live in a place where those things can really only be embraced for like 3 months out of the year… if I’m lucky. The rest of the 9 months left in the year I live a pretty miserly life, holed up in my homestead and complaining about everything and anything I can get my hands on to complain about because I’m mad at myself for not finding the motivation to move before the weather turned cold again… with the exception of one day…
I can handle exactly one perfect fall day. For one brisk but sunny Autumn day, I can trick myself into thinking fall is a magical time of year. Colors, pumpkins, slightly less road construction… and then as quickly as the feeling came, it always withers away come the passing of 24-​hours where wearing socks is no longer seasonally optional. Cold toes = Crabby Candi.
So this year, my one day of embracing fall coincided swimmingly with Crystal Lake’s Annual Johnny Appleseed Fall Festival. I got up, I suited up in my cuffed jeans, thicker socks, boots, a tee + a flannel, and I packed a light jacket, too, just in case. The sun was shining and I knew it was my day.
… until I left my perpetually cold apartment and realized that it was actually a freak fall day where it was actually going to be 88-​degress outside and I was going to be sweating bullets through my underoos. Well shiiiiiiiit.
Ah well, I might never be able to get the heavy sweat stink out of the clothes I was wearing, but I’ll take and unseasonably warm day over the alternative every time.
We drove out to this fest and at first glance, it looked pretty lame. Kinda like just a bunch of craft tents in an empty parking lot… but we don’t live anywhere near here and I wasn’t turning back now.
We parked in a large lot for festival-​goers (which was free) and walked over. A few of the craft tents were selling the same kind of typical hometown craft stuff, but there were definitely some cool unique ones, like a vendor who makes guitars out of fancy old cigar boxes and a merchant that makes awesome painted jewelry organizers out of wood planks (I def bought a fox one). We circled through the craft tent pretty quickly and decided that since we’d already come so far, we might as well check out downtown Crystal Lake as well.
Upon wandering just a block up to the main downtown drag, we discovered that festival was a lot bigger than we’d initially thought. The whole town is involved and while you don’t have to walk more than 2.5 blocks to see the whole thing, it was a fun scavenger hunt.
The food area takes place in a park just off the main drag and has a bunch of tables and chairs, an area band playing music near the gazebo, and local vendors selling fall foods. We got a b*tchin’ lentil vegan sloppy joe the Duke’s Alehouse tent.
There’s another big area designated for the fest with little carnival rides and the saddest pony rides ever. I have to give that attraction 0 stars because it was depressing and looked hella cruel. A bunch of mini ponies at the end of big metal turnstile all face to ass with no food or water. It was actually really terrible to see and part of me wants downgrade the whole fest for thinking that kind of thing is okay, but something tells me they probably got that already based on the fact that every ride/​attraction had a line except that one, which was empty every time we passed.
The ride area also had your usually giant slide and bouncy house things as well. If you’re into that sort of thing.
There’s a hella authentic looking older gentleman who dresses as Johnny Appleseed (a character I really know nothing about and am frankly too lazy to Google) that you can take pics with. Kids loved him, I kind of loved him. He was like a friendlier, white-​haired, Ron Swanson and Santa Klaus blend. Throughout the fest they have super creative scarecrows on display, all put together with a theme from a local business. My favorite was the one by the antique mall that was of a scarecrow kid crying into it’s Dad’s hip, and the the Dad holding a sign about the mom going missing… last seen entering the antique mall for just.one.thing… which is the ultimate women’s lie.
Beside the sad animal stuff, the festival was a really great fall festival for families. Not too big, not too small, tons of activities scheduled throughout the day and lots of local shops get in on the fun as well. If I’m having my good cold-​weather day again in 49 weeks when the next one happens, I’d totally come back.