All Is Fair

We managed to squeeze in one more activity before summer closes its curtain. We went to the State Fair yesterday. We all hopped on the bus and were smelling fry grease and manure by 11:30am.

Our first stop, which is always our first stop, was the baby animal barn. Over half of the animals there now share a birthday with Number One Son. Some others were born the morning we were there. Sweet Pea was full of, "Oh, they're so cute!" exclamations. Each kid got to pet at least one of each animal there. After the lambs, calves, piglets, chicks, bunnies and ducklings we emptied our first bottle of hand sanitizer.
Then it was on to lunch. Like last year, we found a church dining hall but this year we took advantage of our State Fair coupon (cheapskate) book. N1S and I got a two for one hamburger basket and Lady Di and Sweet Pea had taco in a bag. Luckily, they changed their order from a family sized taco to a single sized. A family sized taco in a bag involved an entire family sized bag of Doritos.

Once our bellies were full, we started walking. And walking and walking. Much to N1S and SP's disappointment, we visited all of the old people places at the fair. The health building, home improvement building and modern living building. They perked up a bit in the eco-environment building, but that didn't last long. It seemed like every booth and stand were giving away canvas shopping bags with their respective logos on them. The State Fair is going green this year, and not just the 4-H building.

Luckily, Lady Di and I had just gotten enough freebies (including free bike helmets for the kids) when the kids' complaining reached its peak. That meant it was time to go to the Midway.

We took a short cut through the Kidway, but N1S could see that these baby rides were not for him. I was just hoping there would be a slower ride for SP at the adult Midway. I got a sheet of tickets (discounted from coupon book) and we looked for the safest thrill ride we could find. SP got scared and hid behind me just looking at the ride next to the ticket booth. N1S spotted the Scrambler and got in line. Lady Di was a nervous wreck. She doesn't care much for rides. At the same time N1S was getting strapped in by a licenced thrill ride operator (carny), SP decided to try the big spinning chain swing ride. As both kids were being whipped and spun around Lady Di and I were checking each kid for facial distress (crying) but were pleased to see both kids yelling, smiling and hamming it up for Mom and Dad.

The rides ended at the same time and both kids came running. "That was so awesome!", they almost said in unison.

Now they had to up the ante and find even more thrills. N1S and I both spotted a spinning, twisting upside down contraption and said, "Oh yeah!" Lady Di saw it and said, "No way!" N1S and I then begged and pleaded and got our way. Then I got nervous. Once N1S's ride really started to spin, I caught short glimpses of his somewhat serious looking face. Was he really scared and just barely holding it together to make it through the ride? No. He got off and yelled, "That was the best ride of my life!" I guess we don't need to worry about big rides anymore for him. We used the rest of our tickets on a few more rides and headed for a treat on our way to the bus for home. This was the kids' first visit to the Midway and they each were getting rubber necks from taking in all of the wonder of carnival games, lights and noises.

We ended the day with cotton candy and shakes from the dairy barn and enjoyed our relaxing ride home on the bus. Well, it would have been relaxing if the three sugared up and over tired four year old girls wouldn't have sat next to us. We spent about six hours at the fair and once home, the kids went straight to bed.

Our summer has really been pretty active for our standards. It's getting so the kids now expect something to happen every other day.

I can tell you one thing, tomorrow will not be that day.

Watch Where You Walk

Today we went to the 'Great Minnesota Get Together'. We went to the State Fair in St. Paul. The weather was perfect for fair going today. It was sunny, seventy-five degrees and no humidity. We also did something different this year. Since the fairgrounds had lost one of it's largest parking lots and since gasoline is a gouge and a half per gallon, we decided to take the bus to the fair. We had never done this before. Normally, we would get in the car, drive through Minneapolis and St. Paul traffic and then circle the fairgrounds trying to find the homeowner charging the least to park in his yard. And since my parking price threshold is rather low, we would end up walking 10 or 12 blocks after parking and already be a little tired and cranky before even buying our first Pronto Pup.

This year we drove to a local mall parking lot for express bus service to the fair. It was $5 for each of us round trip. It was a little more than I usually would pay but it was worth it to arrive at the fair stress free and to actually doze off on the return trip. Plus, buses get to use the shoulder, so a 20 minute trip by bus would have been an hour and half by car through rush hour traffic.

When we got to the fair we went to the Baby Animal Barn. This was the biggest hit of the trip for the kids. We got to see a calf, some chicks and a few other baby animals.

We saw a baby lamb.

We saw baby ducklings.

And a couple piglets.

After that we walked around a little to see what was in some of the buildings. We didn't see too much because Sweet Pea was always breaking free of us and darting into the crowd. We did find a booth selling homemade princess dresses and accessories. It was tough getting Sweet Pea away from that one.

At lunch time we made our way to the Epiphany Church Dining Hall. I know, only senior citizens go to church dining halls. We go for two reasons. One reason, I've mentioned before. I'm cheap. We usually get more for our money from the dining hall. The second reason is, my stomach isn't twenty years old anymore. I no longer can digest onion rings, a brat with the works and a deep fried Twinkie all in the same day without hospitalization. And I just like church dinner food.

I have nice memories of going to the South Dakota State Fair when I was young and we always ate at the Lutheran Hall. I'm sure my parents took us there for one of the same reasons that I go there. Let's say I've inherited my frugality from them. But they also went there with their parents and it's tradition. Plus, back then there weren't as many food vendors or choices and the church hall was one of the best the fair offered.

After our chicken and meatloaf dinners, (Sweet Pea informed me that only old people eat meatloaf) we ventured off to find more fair fun.

We found Lady Di's cousin working at a food booth and visited with him. His booth just happened to be in front of the Sweet Martha's Cookie stand. Hmmm.....coincidence? We got a bucket of cookies on our way out at the end of the day.

We then walked around looking at some of the 4-H expos and took a lap around the Education building. We got the kids' picture put on a calendar and they each got a couple fans, pencils and rulers. We usually skip the Midway because they still don't accept Monopoly money and we cannot afford it otherwise. Besides, we are taking N1S to the Mall of America Park later for his birthday.

It doesn't sound like we did a whole lot but we sure did a lot of walking. About five hours worth. The kids got tired and went into complain mode. Sweet Pea wanted me to carry her which I haven't been able to do for about a year and a half. This made us skip a few of our regular stops. We didn't visit the All-You-Can-Drink Milk for a dollar booth.(I can remember when it was 50 cents--old man talking). We also cut short our visit to the Home Improvement building. I don't know why the kids find that building so boring. We will have to wait until next year to see the butter sculpture of Princess Kay of the Milky Way too. Sweet Pea perked up when we got close to our last stop of the day, the horse barn. Her eyes lit up as they were unhitching a team of miniature ponies from a wagon. There were eight black ponies about the size of St Bernards with little yellow rose buds braided into their manes. She thought they were so cute until two of them answered nature's call while we were watching.

We then headed for the bus ride back home. For me, this was the perfect ending to our afternoon. I didn't have to drive in rush hour traffic and we would get home twice as fast.

Next year we are definitely taking the bus to the fair again. We may not be taking the kids though.