Day One August 26th 2010

My first Blog attempt.  I decided this would be a good way for me to remember my adventures at the Great Minnesota Get Together.

When I poked my head into Stella's room to get her up I rasped "State Fair Day!"  and she responded, barely lifting her head off the pillow, "unicorns and glitter".  Off to a good start!

We got to Mom and Dads at 7:30 and slipped into our reserved spot in the backyard.   Stella (the teenager) allowed me to take her hand and we skipped down the driveway.  We had to stop at the edge of the house lest anyone saw her!!!

Once inside the main gate, we were on a hunt for breakfast.  I told Stella she could have a fudge puppy for breakfast, (there is a waffle under all that fudge and whipped cream somewhere) , but she declined...(????)

Stella wanted to wander and find food, so we wandered and I looked for Grammie's bench and was unsuccessful locating it, but will continue to look later tonight...and tomorrow.   If anyone reads this and finds the yellow bench that says "Mary Kelsey"  let me know where it is! We got our walking tour punch books for the Fair Foundation and will continue to find punches all day. We stopped by the Ball Park to see about breakfast, but this year they are opening at 9:00 and getting right down to what people come there for..."garlic fries!"  Got to say hi to Dave T.!

Wandering back around the corner and up the street we ended up splitting a foot long hot dog, (best foot longs IMO are at the corner of Dan Patch and Cooper) which the guy graciously offered to cut for us, so I could have the fried onions without them touching her half!  YUM!

We walked for a bit and made our way to the new Channel 9 News location, just in time to take a seat in the bleachers and Sweet Martha herself handed me one of a dozen free buckets of cookies to share with the peeps in the stands.  again..YUM! Texted everyone who was awake to watch the news and Dad saw us!

We walked through the DNR gardens and saw FISH and the new trash sculpture which is always interesting! This year it is a beaver, made all from found objects along the Mississippi and Minnesota Rivers.

As we waited for the baby barn to open, we went to see all the other animal barns.  The Big Boar is BIG and the horses are always a favorite. Stella did not want to interrupt the Minnesota Zoo horse guy to ask about riding in the parade (which we have done in previous years) so we headed back to the baby barn just as a cows water broke!.  W hen I was a kid, my uncle woke up my big brother to see the calving  at Grandma's farm, but I was not allowed to join them....so now I have this need to see a cow being born at the fair.  I have tried for years and years but all I ever seem to see are pigs.  Today there were TWO sows farrowing and they said the cow could take 1-4 hours....Stella would not wait.  No calf for me today.  watch for updates

We walked the circle of the Hippodrome and had to get some nuts and chocolate covered strawberries.YUM again! 

Walking across the grounds we headed for Adventure Park where Stella was intrigued by the human hamster balls in water!   I cannot and will not get zipped up inside a plastic ball, but I told Stella to go for it!  LOL  They were not open and ready yet so we may do that later.

We spent all our money for the day (yes there is a budget) in the grandstand.  We bought shea butter, pillows, foamy soap sanitizer, a new winter coat for Stella and things were getting heavy!  Wouldn't you know it there is a new vendor in the grandstand that is selling a handy little cart for $20.  We bought the green one.

Now that our load was lightened we felt renewed and ready for lunch!  We headed to Stella's favorite Pizza palace so she could get pizza and her gelato!  As she kept a seat for us, I ran back to Dimitri's to get my gyro, possibly the first of many.  ( they are $8 this year tho...ouch!)

After lunch we wanted to ride the Sky Glider up north, but realized we now had this cart that we couldn't take on the ride....change of plans and we headed to the Ag/Hort building to see CROP ART and the biggest Pumpkin.  Stella took a seat at the "make your own crop art table", but lost interest as she realized she was the only "kid" there above the age of nine. :(  The fruits and veggies were being judged so instead we went on to see apples, bats, DIRT, and as we were walking around we encountered a woman and her mom who had just purchased the same cart.(same color too)  We engaged in the funniest, random,  digressing, conversation for almost 20 minutes, about the fair, the pillows we bought , chiropractic care, (they knew my chiropractor), and moms and daughters at the fair together.....Didn't ever get their names, but it was very Minnesota!

We continued on to the International Bazaar where Stella found sharks tooth earrings, a really cute necklace and watched some scary ladies belly dancing....um, not for long.  The music there is always great!

Sadly, Stella did not want to sit and watch the parade.  As we walked toward the main gate to make sure Stella was home in time to do her dog care job, we noticed all the horses lining up for the parade and Stella saw the Minnesota Zoo wagon was empty!  Stella asked if he needed riders and the guy said "sure, haven't you ridden before?"  I said yes, for a few years!  Since we didn't load down in the barns, we had to climb up and jump over the side, only 8 feet up! It was easier for the long legged teen than it was for mom, but I wasn't totally ungraceful. Soon a couple more people jumped in and they are the Harts whose parents own the miniature black horses who were following behind us in the parade. Their two children were riding in the Mini horse cart.  They are from Manitoba, Canada and it was fun to talk to them about the horses and of course I expounded on State Fair trivia as we made our way through the parade!  I said to Stella I bet we see at least six people we know as we ride.  We saw only five!  LOL

Since the horse wagon took us all the way back down to the horse barns again, we had to truck up to the main gate again pretty fast to get home for a bit of a break.  As soon as she gets a chance to recharge her battery we will head back for part two of day one!

So we returned and saw some of the Talent show and Stella was not impressed so on we marched up toward the Baldwin Park Teen Fair, but got a little sidetracked...in the Creative Arts building and the Education building where we collected pencils to donate to school, and spin every wheel we can find!

Up in the Teen Park we found the State Fair alphabet and got our pics taken.  I will try and upload the photos tomorrow since they are not there yet!  We then hiked to the far north end of the fair to the X-Zone where Stella got henna tattoos and I got eaten by mosquitoes! 

We decided to risk the sticky tattoos and take the Sky Glider back down to the Main drag...oops! Stella got stuck to the side of the car and left part of her Elvish Zodiac Symbol behind.  I hope whoever sat there next was not wearing white!  Tomorrow we will see if the tattoos are what she hoped they would be, at least the part that stayed stuck to her!

Down to the Food Building and on the way swung through the Ball Park and saw more friends who shall remain nameless lest I incriminate anyone via blog.

Stella got her Nitro Ice Cream, super good stuff!  On a busy day you can keep walking by and getting free samples, but tonight we would have been a tad conspicuous with only about 100 people in the whole building! 

The other free sample place is the Gelato!  Ask Stella she samples all day long!

We never did rejoin Grandma and Uncle Muncle at the County Fair Talent Show (which has a fantastic new awning shading the whole place now...  EXCELLENT!)  or meet up with them at Boyz II Men concert.  Stella says "Who???"

They had returned home already!

To bed,  as tomorrow is another day and there is much Art and Technology to see. No more Little Hands Farm for us, unless as a volunteer or under the guise of bring little cousins...like maybe next Saturday?

We will tackle Machinery Hill, the Peace Plaza, Purina Dog Center and all that is North of Dan Patch!

Stats for Day One:
Walked  9.8 miles
A little sunburned
Food Consumed: half a foot long, 3 sweet marthas cookies, a gyro and 1/4lb of toffee roasted peanuts!
Baby Cow report: none