Friday, August 29, 2008

Reunited Once Again!!

I was finally reunited last evening with my favorite "end of the summer" place to be... The Minnesota State Fair. My niece and I were joined by a long time friend, Jeanine on our trip. We took the bus to the fairgrounds, which by the way, I owe a BIG thank you to my friend Lowanda. She was the Bus - Money taker (for lack of better words) at the mall.. and she let us on for FREE (normally $5 round trip to the fair).. so Thank You Lowanda!!

Our first stop was the "Miracle of Life Birthing Center".. which was awesome. There was a cow in labor right in the middle of the place.. but when the "vet" stuck her arm (and I mean her whole arm) in the uterus, they declared it would be another 2 hours before birth! Disappointing!! However, there were some very cute calf's that were born a day or 2 ago that I was able to photograph. Also, we did see some little piglets be born.. on the tv monitor. It's so crowded in this "barn-building" that they have tv screens all over so you can watch diff animals be born.
(BTW: my camera was acting all funky indoors.. hence the visible lines through the pics...dmit)


Then we kind of made our way to find some food bc I was super hungry by this point. I had some yogurt and watermelon for lunch yesterday, saving my appetite for the fair, of course. So we ate some fried up, greasy sliced potatoes with cheese on them.. (sounded good at the time.. but after... not really). Then of course, my niece wanted to get her "FAIR-DO".. which everyone and their grandma had goin on.. so we headed over to that stand. Check out the fair-do! It's awesome!! They were non-stop busy there and the cost: $13 (for 2 colors & sparkles).












Along the way we saw Don Shelby, who works for WCCO-Channel 4. He is a local news anchor on my favorite channel... so it was fun to see him out and about.. reporting for the news. Ive never seen him in person. He looks the same as on tv!! lol













So, out and about, around the fairgrounds, I spotted a few food items that I thought, "who in the hell would eat that?" Yup.. people actually do eat these things.. I don't know why. I wouldn't eat this stuff.. unless it was a bet and was paid at least $100. lol... You check it out.. ICK!

I told you.. you can get almost anything on a frickin stick at the fair.. even some ostrich if you choose!!
How about some deep fried alligator? Oh yummy!! Only if your a shark! And.. what is it about frozen grapes that even sounds remotely tasty? That's disgusting. To me anyway.



Next to these 2 stands is one of my favorite stands at the fair... The Corn Roast. So naturally, we each had an ear of corn, which was very yummy!
We made our way through some of the buildings where we ran into the Gedney pickle dude and had to have our pic taken! After the pic, my niece stated that she could see the person inside the pickle! lol... They just sold merchandise here.. like t-shirts, bags, etc. There was one shirt in particular that I wanted to purchase, but it was too expensive... duh. The shirt said "Get Pickled"... now were speaking my language!
Made my way over to the MN Twins tent.. where of course I HAD to pose with a T-shirt and say #1.. although were not in 1st place right now. And also posed with MN's fav players, Joe Mauer and Justin Morneau.. pardon the pic.. I wasn't actually touching them.. just covering them up!! lol...
Also, I did this more for my buddy, JS in Chicago.. because #1). He claims he "resembles" Joe Mauer, which perhaps he does, I dont know... and #2). Our teams are fighting for 1st place and im hoping we come out on top!


I was kind of disappointed because I didn't spot too many freaks at the fair this year. Everyone, including me of course, appeared quite normal. I did capture one guy though.. not sure why he felt compelled to wear his skirt to the fair, but none-the-less, he did. Not sure I would have walked along side of him, but his lady friend did. Jeanines face was in the pic because I was pretending to take a pic of her.. didn't want to be too obvious..lol.. although im sure if I would have walked up to him and asked to pose with him, he probably would have said yes in a Scottish accent! :)
One of the main food items.. I'm guessing one of the top sellers at the fair is the Cheese Curds!! Nothing but grease, grease, grease.. and SO GOOD!!! You cant go to the fair and not get some.. so naturally we did! I only had a couple because I was sooooo full at this point.

We took a ride on the Sky Ride.. from one end of the fairgrounds to the other.. which was nice. But this time my back was starting to really hurt.. my feet were sore and all I wanted to do was sit down for a little bit. We hopped on there.. it takes approx 4 mins to get to the other end. By now its dark.. were all a little tired. But we had to walk by the midway, where all the rides sit. Just a few pics to end my post today of our last sights of the fair before we boarded the bus for home.



















Over all, it was a good time. We were all kind of tired when we got out there.. so we were just off in la-la land for a little while. Kelsie has never been to the fair before.. so she really liked it. I wont make it out there again this year, as it closes on Monday. But I will be looking forward to 2009 fair. AND.. if you've never been to the MN State Fair, I would highly recommend it!
Have a great Labor Day weekend.. I know I will. Be safe!!
~PEACE

2 comments:

The Juggling Mama said...

Good pictures, hope you had fun!!!

All You Need Is said...

sounds like fun...i would probably try anything on a stick. lol