A Fair to Remember

So pretty much every time I think of the MN State Fair I think about the scene from Charlotte's Web where Tempelton the Rat is singing about the fair being a smorgasbord.

Today I spent the day at the fair. Mostly just walking around and people watching. And I did my fair share of eating too.

FOOD:

I could not bring myself to pay $5.00 for a few strips of chocolate covered bacon. No matter that it is the thing that people are talking about this year, it just did not look that good anyhow. I rather went for an equally heart attack waiting on-a-stick for breakfast (when I got there at 10:00) a deep fried twinkie.

I then went to the dairy area and had a $1.00 glass of all you can drink milk and wa-la I was ready to begin!

I walked around for a while. The animal booths were interesting however I'm a bit of a fish out of water when it comes to animals. A horse is a horse and they all are beautiful but apart from knowing the difference between a chicken and rooster, I'm pretty well out of anything to comment on after that. Also those animal areas were WAY TOO CROWDED and after having gotten run over by one too many mega wagons I decided it was time for a different venue.

There's a lot of stuff to see at the MN State Fair and truly it is one of the bigger state fairs so the idea that you can see everything and squeeze it all in one day or afternoon just isn't going to happen.

I love the creative arts building. It's one of my favorite places. I am not so crafty but I just love the idea that all of these men and women and boys and girls all take time and pride to craft a jar of pickles or a loaf of bread. They are skilled at knitting and sew beautiful quilts with a myriad of colors I would never think to put together. It's fun to watch the professionals hawk their slicers and dicers. And ultimately the reason I decided to go to the fair was to see the 4-H building.

In past trips I've never gone past the creative arts building. But now I actually know two people whose projects were entered into the fair so I decided to look for them.

This is Marisa's project on JA. I've briefly gotten to know Marisa through the Alley and I knew her project had made it to the fair because we talked about it a few weeks ago. I thought it was well put together and surely colorful compared to the other entries around it.

I sat down to read the entry which talked about her battle with JA and her recent surgery. The fact that a girl her age would write "I hoped I had Lyme disease instead" just about breaks my heart.

I'm really glad the she has 4-H to encourage her to dream and to interact with other kids. I hope she had a great time staying overnight at the fair too. (We never had 4-H at our school where I grew up so all of this is a tad novel to me.

I also searched out my friend Dave's Video entry called Bond...James Bond A License to Charge.

These kids just really are quite inspirational. The fact that they are both passionate about their ability to communicate and pursue something extra like filmmaking is just kind of cool.

I then sat on a bench for a while and listened to two bands (Michael Johnson - who was okay, but a little pitchy) and this swing orchestra (really quite fun)

I had dinner at the Hamline Dining Hall (mostly because that twinkie on a stick did me in for having ANY further fried food for the rest of the day.) I bought a bag of taffy. Wandered around a bit more. Won a monkey at one of those midway squirt gun games and decided around 6 that I had had enough and it was time to board the bus for home.

Taking the bus to the fair is the only way to go. Granted I understand people with little kids have a lot of stuff to haul but the idea that you can just climb on and not really have to think about parking or anything is just great.