The 2021 AANR Fall Festival was held October 8^th through October 10^th this year at DeAnza Springs Resort and it was off to a cooler than expect start with rain (yes, rain!) and cold winds on Friday.  A canvas tent had been set up outside the Oasis Lounge for the vendors but due to the wind the vendors instead set up inside the Cactus Flower Café dining area.  Nancy sold her handmade local art.  Freddie also offered up a selection of her craft items.  Ashi offered up his famous hot sauces. While the Cactus Flower Café stayed open for business, there was also a food truck from the San Diego Sliders Company with offerings from their menu.  Some ate on the patio but most ate in the Oasis Lounge.

While there was the usual 10am Water Volleyball game on Friday, the new management changed things up a bit with Water Basketball at 2pm.  There was a best 5 out of 7 games, winning team the first to score 7 points, and there was a lot of action that required a lot more energy than Water Volleyball.  It was an interesting experiment and a list of improvements were made for the next time.  And at 7pm the Ghouls Night Out Movie was “Hocus Pocus”, moved from the patio into the Oasis Lounge due to the wind and the cold.

The highlight of the weekend was Saturday’s Pay-to-Play Round-Robin Volleyball tournament.  Chuy and Chelsea checked in the players and handing out wrist wallets that signaled you had paid. Five teams got together and played each other for two rounds, a morning round and an afternoon round.  Jeff and Barry served as line judges.  For the lunchbreak free tacos and beans were served up by Judith and Eric.  In the end the DAS team lead by Fonz had a playoff against the dreaded Glen Eden team.  GE edged out DAS to take the Rock Trophy home. AANR WEST provided carry bags, soft sided coolers and water bottles to the winning team.

For those not involved in the Water Volleyball Tournament there was a Body Painting Contest at 2 pm.  And then at 6pm Aimee lead Sunset Yoga on the lawn.  Despite the warmer temperatures on Saturday the wind made most outdoor activities challenging.

The Thursday night concert was given by Lola. Everyone thought she was an amazing singer and pianist and couldn’t wait to see her again.  Friday night was the Whole Sha-Bang Band with their mixture of rock, reggae, jazz, R&B, and folk. Saturday night finished the concert series with The Naked I who had been nominated for the Best Pop Album at the 2021 San Diego Music Awards.

Sunday morning saw Scott lead another sunrise starting at 5:45am to view the sunrise from the Eastern Shelf of the Basket of Boulders Eastern Shelf, after which the group headed down to the Stone Rainbow, returning by way of the Old Wagon Road and past the Pictographs at the end of the Broken Canyon Trail.  While there was no wind on Sunday, temperatures under the clear night skies were pushing 40 degrees but warmed up rapidly once the sun rose.  As it turned out Sunday was the best day of the weekend.  Just in time for everyone to go home.  There was the usual Water Volleyball games at 10am and 2pm but most of the out-of-state attendees had left by noon.

A big shout out to all the local vendors, singers, bands and AANR West Board Members who were in attendance. DeAnza Springs Resort looks forward to all future AANR events!