Waiting for teenager to get up. She just does not have the enthusiasm for a 6am start. Maybe we'll get there by 8:00. Plans for the day, bench hunting, people watching, sky glider, Giant Sing Along, check out the Luminarium, worried it might be a little tight for this claustrophobe...Fudge Puppies, Foot Long, gelato tasting, Archery, fish pond, animal barns ( sans pigs ), Pet Center, Stella wants ONE BIG RIDE. Should be a good day!
Finally leaving the house without too much grumbling, we arrived at Mom's around 8am. There were smoothies to drink, coffee to finish and a few cars to park, so we didn't actually enter the grounds until closer to 9am.
Stella (unbeknownst to me) snapped pictures of our walk to the fairgrounds!
Ready or not, here we go!
Once on the grounds, we needed to stop by the Bailey House to pick up our foundation membership packet with the value packed Blue Ribbon Bargain book and Walking tour passes.
Thanks to our friend Pam, we know the location of the Grammie's bench, so we take the annual photos for posterity. The bench is in an IDEAL location for parade watching and right across from the Ag/Hort building. Grammie would be pleased!
Breakfast was critical for the teen, so we headed to the Fudge Puppy booth to try the newest, and I can even say delicious, peanut butter fudge puppy!
I want more than a bite of a dark chocolate covered Belgian waffle on a stick so we walk toward the DNR Foot Long Hot dog stand. On the way Stella said I had to get a picture of the shortest line that will EVER be at Sweet Martha's Cookies!
We also passed by the Pizza Palace where they make wonderful gelato! The trick is to keep going by and asking for samples, but today we were the ONLY people so it was a 'one sample' day from the untouched gelato bins in the cooler! They were very pretty!
I spied the Foot Long booth and snapped a picture as evidence that I am not the only person who enjoys a foot long for breakfast! I like the clean grills the first day of the fair and the fried onions aren't TOO fried!
Stella had a small footwear snafu and stopped to fix it on a rock at the DNR and was so happy I captured it for the blog! The face also reflects her despair at the fact that the Archery Range in the DNR has been "invaded" by an invasive species exhibit. (how ironic!) No archery this year. She does remind me, however, that I can always get her archery equipment for Christmas!
My cousin Karla & her husband Steve were on the grounds really early and so I knew the Super Secret bench was in it's place with this photo...
I was relieved but had to see it for myself! The path to the bench location took us right by the Star Tribune booth, so we picked up our flavor of the year chapstick "pickles" (not to be eaten, Gabe!) Stella and I found the bench!
We stopped to talk to Stephanie who runs the Blue Moon Cafe to clue her in on "Operation Blue Moon". She was excited for us and happy to be in on the plans!
PHEW, all things were falling into place! Stella was ready for a BIG RIDE so with a spring in my step we headed for the Mighty Midway! It was early in the day and an EMPTY Midway was not very appealing so Stella decided to wait on a ride and we walked south to the animals!
Duke
Animal barns are always best early in the day. The first half of the fair is English and the draft horses. I am always amazed by the beauty of these horses. We got to see Duke and Prince, the American Cream Draft horses that pull the Wells Fargo Wagon in the parade. They are 19 and 20 years old now! We overheard the man talk about how arthritic the old horses were so we assumed they were not pulling the wagon in the parade. We were wrong. Might try to catch a ride next week!
On the Aisle of Breeds there was the cutest donkey foal named Louie and his mother Maude. They were in the parade later too! As I stopped by to see Diane Peterson in horse barn offices and catch up, Stella wandered off to find more horses and found one that was just like the horse she had a Ox lake camp named Six. Ah memories!
Six
Louie
In search of running water to wash hands, this is the view looking up towards the east end and the view down towards the new Ag Star arena. Sort of empty this time of day!
Brown Swiss!
Stella was not up for the grand animal barn tour, so we tried to find all the animals I wanted to see on the street! We found cows and sheep (even camouflaged sheep!). I wanted to check out the new Ag-Star arena. It replaced the old judging arena, which I swear was going to fall down any day! y favorite cows are Brown Swiss and ,jokingly, I told Stella that she would not have to go into the cattle barns if there were brown Swiss in the arena.....and there WERE! She was SO lucky!
Can you see me?
looks like Swiss!
After the horse barn and Ag-Star arena, I wanted Stella to milk a cow (she however, has no interest) but sadly, the Hand Milking demonstration wasn't until 12:30. We did get FREE cheese though! They maybe should have had a warning on the small cube that looked like Swiss, when in fact it may have been jalapeno Havarti...Yeow it packed a punch. I thought maybe there was a sign and in my excitement to scorefreecheese, I failed to read it. But upon closer inspection of the photo there is in fact no sign. I wonder how many unsuspecting Norwegians were running to buy a malt after eating the hot cheese!
Next we headed for the CHS barn to see if I had missed any calf action. Stella asked why I needed to go when I saw one born last year. She obviously did not read the blog. I want to see another one!
The new POUTINE booth was right across the street. French fries covered in gravy did not sound appealing to me at all, so we moved on to see baby farm animals!
The tote board was EMPTY! A few animals (pigs and sheep) had babies before the fair started. I will keep checking, and hopefully next week I will have a day to watch and wait.
As we left the CHS, Stella needed CORN. I promised we would walk through the DNR quickly, see the fish and avoid any other scenic distractions on our way to corn. The DNR trash sculpture is always a fan favorite. Made from trash removed from Minnesota lakes and rivers. True recycling! This year is a boat with some goofy creatures running the ship! You can do a scavenger hunt to find specific pieces of trash, but I had a teenager with corn on the brain so we had to keep moving!
Sometimes you can't help but stop...near the Moose there were ducks. c~r~a~z~y ducks! If you listen, he might be trying to swim to the beat of the band playing nearby!
Ermahgerd...Kern!
After ducks, we checked out the fish. There were a few wheels to spin on the garden side of the DNR and I wanted to check out the family bricks, but Stella reminded me of the "no distractions" promise. *sigh, never should have done that! We continued on a straight arrow path to corn..and it was GREAT! The teenagers will relate to our facebook post that morning..."Ermahgerd...kern!"
Dan & Deb Runyon & crew!
New Truck!
breakfast fajita!
After corn, we were on our way to enjoy all that STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math) Day had to offer. As we walked past Juanita's Fajitas I noticed that they had a lovely new booth! While taking in the sights, there was Dan Runyon and his wife Deb. If you want a tasty treat that is almost healthy...his fajitas are great! (and he needs to pay for the new truck!) He gave us a breakfast fajita that I had never tried before to feature in the blog! Sausages, peppers, onions, cheese, and tomatoes all wrapped in a flour tortilla! Stella enjoyed the sausage part most!
Saved the city!
Carousel Park hosts a wide variety of activities, changing every day. Today it was full of STEM resources and fun things for all ages! The MTS Systems always seems to have a great project. This year it was a table full of Lego's and the kids had to create a breakwater and save the little people from a Tsunami!
Stella's first attempt saved about 90% of the people, but her reinforced wall saved the entire city! People ask me why I go to the fair every day. This type of thing is one of the reasons. I heard so many parents say to kids as they glanced at the booth "we need to keep moving" or, "we don't have time for that today".. Stella and I have nothing but time, and if this is fun for her....we can hang out and do it. Simply luxury of time. After Stella saved the city, we moved through all the other booths. The WORKS, Raptor center, PBS kids, robot wars, Uof MN STEM programs, 4-H, Science Museum, Bakken. So many activities, hours of fun.
Planetary weight representation
Proof! 6' tall!
Oobleck!
measuring device
Digit!
K'nex @ the Works
looking at the sun? (cloudy day)
color changing cups, Mom is worried!
It was getting warm and sunny! We stopped to do a sunscreen layer (a little too late). Hot soapy water and clean hands are not overrated at the fair!
We headed for our inaugural ride on the Sky glider! FYI, If you buy a round trip ticket, you can get off and get back on later for the return trip..I learned something new this year! Round trip tickets are much cheaper. While we waited in line for the glider, the recorded voice reel announcement played over and over. Every time the reel came to the part where she says "this ride does not stop.." it stopped! I think there were about 10 more stops on our non-stop flight! I realize our "feet shot" looks identical to last year! We had the same footwear and I had almost the same color pedicure! (Maybe blue is my fair color!) Beautiful view of the grounds, flags and a clean roof over the little hands barn. Stay tuned for a day 12 photo update!
clean roof!(almost)
How do I get a cow??
At the end of the ride, the Giant Sing Along was waiting! We took photos of the playlist, but it is better to read it here: Playlist Justin Bieber's Baby was on and we avoided it and headed over to the Luminarium ..we would return for Bohemian Rhapsody!
W waited in line for a bit and were asked to turn off cell phones, but we could have cameras. The architecture, ambiance and lighting is AMAZING, but the chemical off-gassing from the plastic fabric smells awful. I was not too claustrophobic, nice open spaces, but I had a headache pretty quickly from the smell. Things that BEGIN the state fair smelling funky, have a small chance of actually improving with thousands of smelly people taking their shoes off and walking through it?!?!?! It may improve and maybe you are not as sensitive to chemical smells as I am, so before you avoid it altogether, stop by and take a sniff! We could smell it from the outside, so if you hang out for a while and decide you can take it, it IS a little less intense once inside due to the constantly moving airflow. If you want to stay out..it looks like this:
Double 0 Stella!
As you can see by the time stamp on these photos, it is only 1:30 in the afternoon. There is much more to report, The ENTIRE PARADE, dinner at the Ball Park, running into a cousin Kara whom I have never met! The Mighty Midway (reprise), Heritage Square, trains, Texas, trucks, a photo op with the president, Talent Shows and Apple Dumplings, but right now I need to get back to the fair! Please don't look for too much updating until after the anniversary party for Carol & Don Sunday afternoon. I am not sure how much I will actually get to the fair until then, so there may not be much to report once I get Day One complete!
Monday morning and blog resumes! I updated the timeline above with the Super Secret Bench photos I could not share until now!
After Stella and I recovered from the stinky Luminarium, the playlist was almost to Bohemian Rhapsody. It was almost 2pm. so you can gauge your tune time from that! I want to get there to sing "The Fair" at least once!
I realized that the parade was almost starting and I did not want to miss the first one! When we were on the Sky Glider, we noticed some amazing chainsaw wood carvings that you could sit on! Stella reminded me they were close as we headed south so we took a quick photo op stop! There is an Eagle chopper too that you can sit on, but we did not have time to wait our turn!
On to the parade! I promise this will be the only blog day that will feature the entire parade! It is the same parade every day, except different marching bands and if there is special theme day (like U of MN day) , there may be some added groups. As we ran toward the parade ( I could hear it before I saw it!) the mounted Color Guard had just passed. I will get a good photo of the color guard another day! We found a spot to watch at an intersection, which turned out to be the pedestrian crossing place every time there was a lag in parade units. We were entertained by people trying to run through and getting stuck in the middle of a marching bands or the elderly guy who was almost run over by the Hastings Raiders Color Guard! The Brookings South Dakota band was really wide and filled the street. The drum major was walking backwards along the edge and we were just sure he was going down , but he turned around just before he crashed into two kids whose parents let them stand in the street! The following photos are every parade unit today.
Cool way to hold Tubas!
Fairchild!
Stella once fit in these!
Good reminder to order cake tomorrow!
New this year!
Ermahgerd...berbles!
Is she bomb-tested?
c~r~e~e~p~y!
"cheer up!"
are ya a little warm??
Maude & Louie!
great job! "Doodycalls"
Wide band!
might try for a ride later!
For Andrew!
Duke & Prince!
Who is this new Squirrel??
notice the runner!
for Heidi..can you see them?
The End
This big back hoe was in the parade and at first I only saw the sign on it that said "Visit the Giant Sandbox here at the fair! I turned to Stella and said " Wow! We have to find that!!!" I thought it was like the old Machinery hill days! Then as I was snapping photos I saw another sign that said "Extreme Sandbox".
The "Extreme Sandbox" is in Hastings and is a big dirt pile for big kids to play in! Silly me...THIS is the "Giant Sandbox" in the Baldwin Park..HA HA!
After the parade we were hungry for something "good" to eat so Stella wanted to hike to the Ball Park cafe for a burger. Good plan! Stella of course has table karma and found us a great spot as we walked up. It was a huge table and as I was getting food and saying hello to the ball park crew, Stella offered to share our table with these nice people! We got to talking and sharing stories and I spoke of the blog and we talked about the parade and it turns out he was the guys driving the new pigs in the parade! As we shared more stories...it turns out these are the parents of Chris Zipko, (they wanted to remain anonymous! LOL) a name from my old days at the dale Street Triangle! Sweeney's, Chang's and Congac's! The State Fair...everybody knows somebody!
"anonymous"
Mom texted to say she was on the fairgrounds so we connected at the Ball park, where she ran into a cousin I had never met! It was fun to meet Kara and try to discuss the "bench event" while Mom was distracted by her co-worker!
Hardest working guy on the fairgrounds!
New Cousin Kara!
Once the teen had food she was ready for rides! I told her only two so she chose the rocket:
and a new one called the Fun Factory that is from the Netherlands! Stella figured it out from the warnings inside the cars! "goed" and "fout" good and bad! LOL
The Midway was still pretty vacant for the time of day, and as I waited for Stella to be done, I noticed these beautiful floral basins around the rides! I guess they have always been there, but since I have not entered the Midway until Labor day for the past 15 years...or only at night. I really never saw them. I will check again on Labor day and see how they fared!
We headed over to the Heritage Square to do a quick run through. On our way there she received an attack hug from her good friend Libier! Stella needed a jarritos. Her favorite memory from Ox Lake camp. You can't have the bottle, so we had to get the picture. I see they serve Arnie Palmers here...note to RQ
There a few cute things in Heritage. The Leather place had pretty hair ties, none of which fit could hold all her hair and still be seen! But they did have masks! Zorro!
A new booth with candles called "Brandles". I thought the contents would smell like the container, but that is not the case. I guess they are just kitschy. the apron shop that I talked about last year got a nice big booth this year and we checked out Ole's Cannoli.
Turns out that the "Swedish Coffee" is simply coffee imported from Sweden, not Swedish Egg coffee...big difference! We did not try the cannoli. Not a fan. We did not go through the old farm house, but I did get a picture!
We exited through the back door of heritage to see when the dog show started, but we were way too early. There was this cute wooden train planter thing and so I made Stella pretend she was driving, ringing the bell and hanging off the back! You can see by her face she had SO much fun!
There is a traveling Texas tourism board exhibit for Texas..."it's like a whole other country!" I wanted to win a t-shirt by answering trivia questions and sit in a kayak and watch a virtual reality tour of Texas, but Stella was sort of tired and ready to be done. We did get pictures taken however!
Stella very reluctantly wore the helmet! LOL And she is getting hugged by SHAMU!
As we left Texas, we saw a crew carrying out the plastic boxes that created the Tsunami boxes in the STEM area!
Down near the grandstand Stella was feeling the days miles in her knees. She needed a rest on a concrete ball. We will get the "standing shot" later! As she rested, her smile indicates that she learned she could get WiFi on the fairgrounds! Suddenly her knees stopped hurting! She soon went from the heights of euphoria to the depths of despair as we climbed Dan Patch to meet Grandma at the talent show and the WiFi access waned.
On our way to the Bandshell we stopped at the AFL-CIO and Stella got to practice driving a little back hoe and load golf balls into the dump truck! A perennial favorite! We stopped at the DFL booth and got a photo with the President, again Stella was thrilled!
Mom had a seat for herself at the bandshell, but we found seats in back until it was time to head up to the county show. Mom joined us soon and we walked back up north. On our way I wanted to slip into the Education Bldg and see if they had any bags! We scored nice plastic coated purple bags and learned the following nugget the next day from my friend Janice, who works at St. Thomas...
"From University of St. Thomas: Because the bags we’re distributing are twice as nice, we purchased half as many. This means that each 3-hour shift’s allocation is 625 bags."
So we were really lucky! We found a bench, got some treats ( Apple Dumplings and Kiwanis Malt) and Stella fell asleep on my shoulder. We decided to not wait for any results and we would have to see the laser Light show another night since we were all pretty tired, and unbeknownst to Mom,
I had quite a few things to get done on Friday, and we also have a funeral to attend. on our way off the grounds I get a text from randy that reads "Ermahgerd...term therm dernuts!" So we obliged and went home!
I think our stay was just under 12 hours, but we packed a lot in! When I see how busy we were and all we did, I think about all I have NOT seen...and this is why I have to keep going back!
On the To-do list:
Fine Art
Education Bldg ( bags & pencils)
Creative Activities (quilts, food and kitsch)
Ag/Hort ( giant veggies, flowers, honey and apples!)
International Bazaar
Dairy Bldg
Pet Center
Eco Tech Bldg
Laser Show
Dog Show
Art's In 4-H show
And the list goes on!
Day One Stats:
Walked: 19K steps (almost 8 miles)
Food Consumed: Peanut Butter Fudge puppy, Foot Long Hot dog, Cheeseburger & fries, chocolate malt and apple dumpling.
Free Stuff: STEM backpack, color changing cups, (2) St.Thomas bags
Goofy Stuff I got Stella to do: NASA Photo, "drive the train", Wear a mask, ride the buffalo
"Things that BEGIN the state fair smelling funky, have a small chance of actually improving with thousands of smelly people taking their shoes off and walking through it?!?!?!"
Finally leaving the house without too much grumbling, we arrived at Mom's around 8am. There were smoothies to drink, coffee to finish and a few cars to park, so we didn't actually enter the grounds until closer to 9am. 
Thanks to our friend Pam, we know the location of the Grammie's bench, so we take the annual photos for posterity. The bench is in an IDEAL location for parade watching and right across from the Ag/Hort building. Grammie would be pleased!
I want more than a bite of a dark chocolate covered Belgian waffle on a stick so we walk toward the DNR Foot Long Hot dog stand. On the way Stella said I had to get a picture of the shortest line that will EVER be at Sweet Martha's Cookies! 
I was relieved but had to see it for myself! The path to the bench location took us right by the Star Tribune booth, so we picked up our flavor of the year chapstick "pickles" (not to be eaten, Gabe!) Stella and I found the bench! 
Animal barns are always best early in the day. The first half of the fair is English and the draft horses. I am always amazed by the beauty of these horses. We got to see Duke and Prince, the American Cream Draft horses that pull the Wells Fargo Wagon in the parade. They are 19 and 20 years old now! We overheard the man talk about how arthritic the old horses were so we assumed they were not pulling the wagon in the parade. We were wrong. Might try to catch a ride next week!
In search of running water to wash hands, this is the view looking up towards the east end and the view down towards the new Ag Star arena. Sort of empty this time of day! 
Next we headed for the CHS barn to see if I had missed any calf action. Stella asked why I needed to go when I saw one born last year. She obviously did not read the blog. I want to see another one!
The tote board was EMPTY! A few animals (pigs and sheep) had babies before the fair started. I will keep checking, and hopefully next week I will have a day to watch and wait.
As we left the CHS, Stella needed CORN. I promised we would walk through the DNR quickly, see the fish and avoid any other scenic distractions on our way to corn. The DNR trash sculpture is always a fan favorite. Made from trash removed from Minnesota lakes and rivers. True recycling! This year is a boat with some goofy creatures running the ship! You can do a scavenger hunt to find specific pieces of trash, but I had a teenager with corn on the brain so we had to keep moving!
We headed for our inaugural ride on the Sky glider! FYI, If you buy a round trip ticket, you can get off and get back on later for the return trip..I learned something new this year! Round trip tickets are much cheaper. While we waited in line for the glider, the recorded voice reel announcement played over and over. Every time the reel came to the part where she says "this ride does not stop.." it stopped! I think there were about 10 more stops on our non-stop flight! I realize our "feet shot" looks identical to last year! We had the same footwear and I had almost the same color pedicure! (Maybe blue is my fair color!) Beautiful view of the grounds, flags and a clean roof over the little hands barn. Stay tuned for a day 12 photo update! 
At the end of the ride, the Giant Sing Along was waiting! We took photos of the playlist, but it is better to read it here: Playlist Justin Bieber's Baby was on and we avoided it and headed over to the Luminarium ..we would return for Bohemian Rhapsody!
After the parade we were hungry for something "good" to eat so Stella wanted to hike to the Ball Park cafe for a burger. Good plan! Stella of course has table karma and found us a great spot as we walked up. It was a huge table and as I was getting food and saying hello to the ball park crew, Stella offered to share our table with these nice people! We got to talking and sharing stories and I spoke of the blog and we talked about the parade and it turns out he was the guys driving the new pigs in the parade! As we shared more stories...it turns out these are the parents of Chris Zipko, (they wanted to remain anonymous! LOL) a name from my old days at the dale Street Triangle! Sweeney's, Chang's and Congac's! The State Fair...everybody knows somebody! 
Once the teen had food she was ready for rides! I told her only two so she chose the rocket:
and a new one called the Fun Factory that is from the Netherlands! Stella figured it out from the warnings inside the cars! "goed" and "fout" good and bad! LOL
The Midway was still pretty vacant for the time of day, and as I waited for Stella to be done, I noticed these beautiful floral basins around the rides! I guess they have always been there, but since I have not entered the Midway until Labor day for the past 15 years...or only at night. I really never saw them. I will check again on Labor day and see how they fared!
There a few cute things in Heritage. The Leather place had pretty hair ties, none of which fit could hold all her hair and still be seen! But they did have masks! Zorro! 
A new booth with candles called "Brandles". I thought the contents would smell like the container, but that is not the case. I guess they are just kitschy. the apron shop that I talked about last year got a nice big booth this year and we checked out Ole's Cannoli. 
Turns out that the "Swedish Coffee" is simply coffee imported from Sweden, not Swedish Egg coffee...big difference! We did not try the cannoli. Not a fan. We did not go through the old farm house, but I did get a picture! 
We exited through the back door of heritage to see when the dog show started, but we were way too early. There was this cute wooden train planter thing and so I made Stella pretend she was driving, ringing the bell and hanging off the back! You can see by her face she had SO much fun! 
There is a traveling Texas tourism board exhibit for Texas..."it's like a whole other country!" I wanted to win a t-shirt by answering trivia questions and sit in a kayak and watch a virtual reality tour of Texas, but Stella was sort of tired and ready to be done. We did get pictures taken however! 
Stella very reluctantly wore the helmet! LOL And she is getting hugged by SHAMU!
On our way to the Bandshell we stopped at the AFL-CIO and Stella got to practice driving a little back hoe and load golf balls into the dump truck! A perennial favorite! We stopped at the DFL booth and got a photo with the President, again Stella was thrilled! 
So we were really lucky! We found a bench, got some treats ( Apple Dumplings and Kiwanis Malt) and Stella fell asleep on my shoulder. We decided to not wait for any results and we would have to see the laser Light show another night since we were all pretty tired, and unbeknownst to Mom, 
I had quite a few things to get done on Friday, and we also have a funeral to attend. on our way off the grounds I get a text from randy that reads "Ermahgerd...term therm dernuts!" So we obliged and went home!
State Fair Day One for me - survive near miss car crash from crazy dude in truck making a abrupt u-turn on Como Ave. I should have stayed in bed. :)
ReplyDeleteOh so funneh!
ReplyDelete"Things that BEGIN the state fair smelling funky, have a small chance of actually improving with thousands of smelly people taking their shoes off and walking through it?!?!?!"
Awww... Love the "for Andrew" pic :)
ReplyDelete