Saturday night I slept 16 hours recovering from our afternoon at the fabulous extravaganza that is the annual Sunset Magazine’s Celebration Weekend Event at their headquarters in Menlo Park. Sunset Magazine is a favorite of ours “showcasing the region’s unique lifestyle and noteworthy destinations, inspiring people to achieve the dream of living in the West.” Bottom line is that they feature places and adventures that we can actually see ourselves taking without breaking the bank!

We woke up to a lovely rain shower but that only encouraged us to go all the more since perhaps that meant more freebies for those who braved the weather. We donned our rain-gear complete with new umbrellas and headed out. One sad result of the rain is not having any fun pictures to share since I didn’t want to have to negotiate wet weather while taking out my camera. Perhaps next year! Yes, we had so much fun this is now going to become an annual outing for the Shen’s.

A few more details:
In a nutshell, Sunset Celebration Weekend is their annual garden party held at the Magazine’s beautiful campus featuring cooking demonstrations, wine seminars and endless innovative home and garden ideas for inspiration. Parking is free though we did have to to walk a bit. For parking lots that were further out (such as the future Facebook campus) Sunset provided free shuttle bus service which was pretty convenient. When we arrived (tickets were only $16 and a portion of the proceeds benefit the Children’s Health Council), the first thing they handed us as we entered the gate was a huge schwag bag ready to fill up with goodies.

Here’s a rundown of our favorite finds:
1. Filtered Water Stations throughout so we could fill up our free stainless steel water bottles (thanks Honda!) along with generous and seemingly never-ending samples of Crystal Light Pure.

2. Recipes and food tastings galore – some of my favorites:

• Cypress Grove’s Midnight Moon Cheese – The last in a long line of tastings, a delicious goat’s milk cheese with the texture of a gouda – we bought a wedge for $5.
• Lucero Peach Balsamic Vinegar – I’m not usually a big fan of balsamic vinegar, but I was able to drink this straight from the sample cup without the bread. I imagine a little bit of this over a nice salad would be great for summer.
• Cucumbers with a Lemongrass Vinaigrette that I unfortunately do not remember the name of – but this reminded me a lot of something my mom used to make.
• Virgin Bloody Mary Shooter – better than a V8.

3. Gerard’s Paella: more than a sampling so it gets it’s own line item. $10 for a heaping serving that still left me wanting a bit more.

4. Lots of travel ideas, and we grabbed great resources for our upcoming trips to Yosemite and Kauai. Most vendors also held drawings to give away prizes (mostly weekend trips or gift baskets). We entered every single drawing and contest we could find. Would it be too much to bring a stamp with our address and contact information next time?

5. Blu Home (Custom Prefab Eco-Friendly Homes) – fun to look and more affordable than you think!

6. Airstream Trailer – so pretty.

Bonus: Spending the entire day with our lovely friend, Susan, who we met out in New Orleans during our stint with Habitat for Humanity during our honeymoon.

Dinner Bonus: Back A Yard Caribbean – just down the road from the event and a great cap to the day before heading home to that 16-hour nap.