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| Notice the green house! |
I was up early, but could not get Stella up until 6:18, I am actually shocked she rose without too much fuss! We arrived at mom and dad's by 7:00 on the nut! As I was finishing my coffee, Steve and Karla arrived and we all walked over to the fair together to find breakfast.
Entering the fair there occurred an epic fail...I took the two tickets, tore them, giving one half to Stella, only to have the ticket taker inform me I had two STUBS! Luckily, the numbers matched the two stubs Stella was holding and we were allowed in. PHEW!
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| Disappointment:( |
Stella wanted to have corn on the cob, since is finally sans braces... for breakfast, so we hiked down the hill leaving Karla & Steve at the Hamline Dining Hall. As we approached the corn booth, she was very disappointed that it was not even cooking yet! We walked by Fox9 and Stella would not stop with me. (So much for the DVR set up at home). I did get her to stick her head in a couple walls!
Wandering through the DNR fish pond, I took a picture of Stella's feet for "green day" When she was little we were talking about the theme days for the fair, and she said the first day is green day, because there is grass!We stopped to look at the river trash sculpture, not our favorite, but still worth a look.Little did I know at the time, I was passing by the Knoblach bench.....more later.
Stella then made a beeline for Monty's traveling reptile show and handed over her $3.00 as fast as she could, wandered throughout the exhibit and came out the other side with a look of concern on her face. I wondered how old she would be when the realization would hit her, and apparently it was today...."that's cruelty to animals, Mom!" So long Monty!
Stella was getting hungry and no "real breakfast food" would do so we had to "settle" on a foot long hot dog (my personal breakfast favorite) |
| Regular size horse, Stella is 9 feet tall! |
We decided to go see the horses and cows before it all gets too smelly and sneezy, and Stella got up close with a few! We stopped to see Diane (Peterson), who runs the horse barns, and chatted for a while. Stella said she would love to work there! I don't think Stella understands that the job would entail shoveling poop and handling out shower keys for twelve days. Turns out the Wells Fargo Cream Draft Horses will not be marching in the parade, due to extreme arthritis. (I'm sure Randy can relate). Diane said they have two new Percheron, but they are not "bomb proof" yet, so no parade for them either!
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| Alpaca! |
I learned quickly that the best way to keep Stella focused on the task at hand is to keep her supplied with her favorite fair foods! If Gelato will make you stop growling at me...GELATO it is! Then off for a ride to the north end on the Sky Glider! I got a picture of the clean roof of the Little Hands Farm Barn, for now.....
As we came to the end of the sky glider...we were met with the greatest new attraction at the fair..The GIANT SING ALONG! A field of straw, littered with microphones and a giant karaoke screen. Earlier in June I participated in the selection and voting process! It was so fun to actually see it and participate!
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| view from sky glider |
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| sadly, a Justin Bieber song made the list |
You can click the link, below to see Stella belt out Adele, Rolling in the Deep on YouTube
Stella sings Adele link
Gander mountain fish and Grouse hats!
We did a cursory run through of the Eco Technology building, but since the native was forced to wear silly hats, she was again getting restless and needed to be fed...I shall have to return another day!
I spy the Kiwanis malt shop in the distance! A chocolate malt brings a smile to that face!
In the 4-H Building Stella enjoyed playing with the underwater robots! She was able to catch the ring and attempted to deposit it in the box, but there was a line of kids waiting and my gracious child (filled with gelato and malts) let the next kid have a turn!
Seriously, she is a very good kid!
Took this picture simply because Stella HATES CLOWNS!
It is STEM at the fair day today so we finally made it to Carousel Park where there were over twenty different organizations with great hands on science and technology activities for everyone! Stella began in the MTS booth creating a structure that could withstand an earthquake. Her building passed the first test, but when weight was added it crashed. Very cool experiment! Then she moved on to the U Of MN Biology and robotics display where they could examine underwater species and they demonstrated the same robots she was playing with in the 4-H building! As we explored, we found the Raptor Center with an owl and a hawk. Stella was a smarty pants and could answer all the questions at this booth as well as impressing the man at Imation, who asked Stella to pick a random storage device (out of about 25) and ask the trivia questions stored thereupon and she answered almost all of them correctly. And then she taught him a thing or two about Egyptian encoding of sound! We visited the Bakken Museum where they hooked her up to electro-stim pads and made her twitch! On to Sci-girl where she got to create circuits with conductive and non conductive playdoh and little LED lights! We spent about two and half hours there and I realized it was soon PARADE time!
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| Raptor Center Owl |
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| The Bakken |
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| play-doh circuits! |
After our Science and Technology adventures Stella was hungry again...she wanted Luigi fries so we wandered back to the DNR. We found a rock and Stella sat plugged into her ipod eating her Luigi fries and I went in search of a bench! At some point during the day I connected with my friend Sarah, whose family got a bench for their mother who passed away this last spring. The whole family loves the fair, just like our family! She told me where it was, and as I alluded to earlier, we had walked right past it a few times! It was about twenty feet to the left of where I took the picture of Stella's boots in the grass! Right behind the river trash sculpture, near the Smokey the Bear wood carving.
Here is said bench!
After I reconnected with Stella, she wanted to investigate the line for "shooting stuff" in the DNR. There was about a 30 minute wait, but to see the smile on her face, was worth the wait and possibility of missing the parade!
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| "I get to shoot some stuff!" |
Nice form and BULLS-EYE baby! All five arrows hit the target, one close to center! I think she needs to get out to Bwana and give this a "shot" 
As it turned out we did not miss the parade but we were too late for a shady seat. Stella found a tree and collapsed! Mom connected with us in the DNR, so we all enjoyed the bit of shade this little tree provided! Lots of marching bands, Ronald MacDonald, Mosquito control, Minnesota Pickle, A few floats with princesses of unknown origin...We did see Princess Kay of the Milky Way and as a side note, we were watching the news prior to the crowning of said Princesses and Randy said "it's gonna be the tall blond..." and he was correct! We have yet to see any butter-heads! Mr. Bubble and Wacky Wheeler& son are back. There were some beautiful horses, mounted police and Horse Expo selections. The person who struck me as funny was the guy with the trash bag, shovel and a t shirt that read "Poop Patrol Doody Call". Somebody found a niche and started a business! With gas prices the way they are, maybe the fair thought he would be cheaper than the usual poop Zamboni!Stella does not show the same enthusiasm for getting "into" the parade this year...could it be she has outgrown the fun???? I guess need to be grateful she was willing to stick her head into a few places and wear a few funny hats though!
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| Doody Call! |
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| Stella wants to ride THAT! |
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| Mr Bubble |
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| For my friend Heidi..Eden Prairie Marching Band! |
Once the parade ended, Stella was DONE. She does have a broken foot and still healing from a sprained ankle after all. She and Grandma headed back to home base and I wanted to find Grammie's bench before I left for the day. Dad had already scouted it out so I just needed to go sit on it and have a memory moment. It was, of course, full of people. Only at the Minnesota State Fair, can you ask people to move off a bench so you can take a picture...and then those same people ask if they can take a picture of you on the bench
I had my memory moment, snapped a few pictures and walked into the Health Kare11 Booth. North Memorial was doing BMI screenings...something I am NOT in need of currently, I missed the bag give away at U Care, so I moved down the line and saw Minnesota Optometrists Association was doing free retinal scans!!! I asked the tech what I might expect to see from such a scan. Her answer was..." oh you'll get a really neat picture of your retina!" I explained to her that I was currently still seeing lights and floaters from a recent retinal tear and subsequent laser repair surgery last week. She then asked if I had seen the pictures that the clinic had taken of my eye and my response was no. She said they are available to me if I want to see them, but she recommended that maybe I wait and return NEXT year to see what they look like I don't think she thought I would like what I saw this time!!! I moved on! As I exited the building I saw a familiar facebook face...of course got the name wrong, but then the right sister came up from behind! The Lee sisters!
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| Wendy and Gayle! |
As I walked out, I decided the fair was truly not as much fun without my brooding, grumpy, hungry teenage daughter so I headed home to get her. As she left the parade earlier, my Mom asked me if we saw the beautiful horses when we came into the grounds. I, in fact, missed them due to the epic fail with the tickets...so on my way out I snapped a pic.
Once I arrived at the Simpson Street Compound, Stella had her boots off and there was no going back! Grandma made some lemonade and we relaxed for a bit. I tried to upload photos and start the blog on the iMac....but soon realized I would need a few lessons before I could do it efficiently!
Once we were home, Stella updated her facebook status, and promptly fell asleep!
I got home to realize I had been at the fair for over eight hours and all I ate was a foot long hotdog for breakfast! I WAS HUNGRY, I ordered Chinese.
Day One STATS
Distance: 9500 steps according to Stella's pedometer...but I parked her a few times and wandered on my own. I must have gone over 10K!
Food Consumed: (primarily by teenager!) Foot long hot dog, Gelato, chocolate malt, Luigi fries and about eight bottles of water!
Free Stuff: backpack from MTS and toothpaste!
Goofy Hats: Gander Mountain fish and grouse, Alphabet Fair, Imation Junior cryptographer.
Calf Count: Fair:1 Heather:0
Excellent reportage!
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