State Fair

[pen_grunt]

 On Friday we went to the fair--my sister, D, Nadia and myself. It's a grand tradition of many years--almost all the years I can remember (well, Nadia is a newish addition, natch). There is something so bittersweet about the fair. It's this fun great thing with all the food and it's all the summer...dumping abruptly into fall. The beginning of the fair is the beginning of the end, and the last day is the death of the season. 

Fridays are okay days to go. It's not quite as busy as a weekend, but nearly. I can't bear to go on Labor Day--the last day is too sad. There are too many exhibits being dismantled and final displays and there is no buzz and bustle of judging or excitement left. It's the slow trudge in so many spilled, ground-in cookies littering the sidewalks. 

We saw less this year than previous years. Perhaps because the weather was perfect and it was Labor Day weekend, so a lot of people had done as we did--taken the Friday off. It was busy. We took a look at the quantity of strollers parked outside particular buildings (Miracle of Life Barn, ehhem) and decided to skip them. 

So no fine arts. No arts & crafts (we did see the seed art, but that's in the Horticulture building), no chickens or bunnies. 

Instead we saw all the barn animals. The pigs, the sheep, the goats. The horses. The 4H building, the Horticulture building. Some....other stuff? Was there other stuff? And we ate and ate and ate. And drank and drank. Local wine is the secret to enjoying the fair fully. Seed art is kitschy, but tipsy seed art is MAGICAL. 

We were slow going. I feel like I missed a lot of stuff and in retrospect I'm a little sad about it. D had a monstrous hangover--the first football game of the year was the night before. I would have been more sympathetic (hangover? At a FAIR? *shudder*) but he knew the fair was coming and he made his choices. 

A brief accounting of eats/drinks (all split 2-4 ways):

MN wine flight, wine slushies
Spam Curds
Sweet corn eclair w/blueberry glaze
Mac & Cheese curds
Duck bacon wontons
Fries (Nadia only)
Ice Cream (Nadia only)
Sweet corn on the cob
Sweet Martha's cookies

Which, to be honest, considering everything was shared wasn't so bad. (Nadia got the fries and ice cream to herself, because those were her special fair requests and I have no interest in either thing.) The duck bacon wontons were awesome. The official fair photographer took pictures of Nadia eating her corn on the cob. Like you do. Because 2 year olds eating corn on the cob is peak MN state fair. (They also took pictures of her eating CotC at the threshing show a few weekends ago.)

Comments

[msmidge.livejournal.com]

I loved the weird agricultural and craft exhibits at the Iowa State Fair. They were the best part. The farm propaganda was kind of interesting, too, from a sociological point of view.

[pen-grunt.livejournal.com]

It's definitely perpetuating a culture and projecting an image of farming America that I'm not sure exists as they're presenting it. :)

It's nice to show kids where their food is coming from in a lot of ways, though. "Here, milk this cow. Pretend to pick these vegetables. Watch this babybeef be born..."