Me & My Fair

All by myself at the fair today!  Had fun joining others for moments of the day and crossed lots of items off the to-do list! It was Library Day at the fair and Mom told me I get in for $7 with my library card today.  I got to the ticket booth, bought my ticket with a $20 and she handed me back $10.  I asked if it wasn't $7? and she said ....only for seniors.  Oops! I should have used my $9 pre-purchased ticket!

As I walked onto the fairgrounds I was informed that Mom & Dad found the elusive Pam Mix in her office! I have stopped by a few times, but she has been out working somewhere!

 Dad decided to head to see the Grandstand and Mom & I went to creative activities and had the place practically to ourselves!  Mom knows how to make sure we see everything, but I missed the Girl Scout Baked treats so I need to get back and check that out.  As we walked along the machine knitting wall, I commented on the beautiful blue sweater and a woman standing there said "Thank you!"  her name is Donna Velasco and I told her about the blog!  She was happy to pose for a picture with her Sweepstakes, Blue Ribbon winner!  We saw lots of creativity and I lamented that someday I would find the time to enter something, but I better start now for 2015! I thought I might try pie!

Owl Pockets!

These mittens look like something my friend Meg would create, but if they were hers they would have had a Blue Ribbon and a Sweepstakes attached!

There were stunning quilts, beautiful jewelry, miniature montages, crocheted afghans, and then we came upon this award winning apple pie.  I would like to call Carol March and get her recipe.  I want to know what makes it so special...besides the perfect level top, with no air pockets and the solid apple center and the perfectly crimped shell, with the evenly browned crust.....hmmm OK maybe I will try cookies.

I finally found the "quilt squares on a stick" and it took me a while to identify all the parts of the Minnesota Legends Theme this year!    Counter-clockwise I see; purple rain, babe, Viking ship, Largest Ball of Twine, SPAM, Dan Patch, Judy Garland, Spirit of St.Louis ( I think!)  I am unsure as to whom the eyes belong to!  This one was the winner, and the others were not as creative!

Mom and I made a quick pass through the Education Building, and funny, the only school Stella has shown interest in is not there. (Macalester).  She could dine on a smorgaasboard of others however!  We took our annual House of Representives survey I was unsure of my district, so right next door was the Senate booth and they have computers set up so you can find your district! There we found Scott Magnuson, a kid from the old neighborhood!  He has worked in the Senate offices for years and he told us that with the redistricting it was important to get the information out!  Turns out St. Anthony park has been split in two right down Como Avenue!  Now there really could be some truth to marrying someone from the "right/wrong" side of Como!

As were leaving the Education Bldg, we ran into Alice Hausman!  She had seen the photo of Mom & Dad's Anniversary surprise and so we chatted about it for a bit and she introduced us to her sister, Donna Duensing (YES, related to Brian Deunsing, Twins pitcher!) from San Francisco (I think) who is here because Garrison Keillor talked of cheese curds, so she came during the fair to try them! Never had them before!  I hope they were all she dreamed they would be!  Mom needed to head home so I continued on my way.


I ran through the Home Improvement bldg, and there is nothing there that does not require you to sign up and get on every home remodelers list for the next century, so I zipped through quickly!



I needed a bag to carry all the stuff I was hoping to accumulate this day, so I went into the Health Fair 11 booth.  There were no bags, but they wuld be there soon and since I had time to kill I decided to get my flu shot.  Wisely I chose my left arm, as by the end of the day it was sort of achy!  it took no time at all, so I wandered to the end and decided to get my blood typed.  While waiting they had Blood Bank Trivia and the question was "Who was one of the first  people to donate blood in Minneapolis in 1948?"  I answered Hubert H Humphrey and I was right!  Total guess.  He was Mayor of Minneapolis, so I took a stab at it!  I won a free T-shirt and learned I am O- , a universal donor.  Guess I better give blood more often!






I jumped right into line next door to get a retinal scan, and as I was uploading the picture of the eye today, I noticed it is NOT my name on the computer screen.  I am a little upset that I was shown someone elses eye scan, and told my eye is healthy, when in fact, I thought my eye should be more of a mess after laser surgery last summer! Now I have to go back tomorrow and do it again to ease my mind!  With my shirt in tow, I got my Ucare bag and left the Health Fair to see more stuff!

I headed for the Ag/Hort since there was much I missed on Tuesday.  Walking through the Food Garden I ran into Sydney Wilcox (Stella's fave teacher) and her son!  I tried to tell Stella, you miss a day of the fair and you might miss so much!

I got to saunter through all the nooks & crannies of the Ag/Hort building and I was surprised by what one can find there!  Did you know you can look over possible funeral floral displays at the Fair? Complete with Urn!?!  seriously, only at the fair.  I saw some of the Bees & Honey display, but they were doing the bearded bee lady so I kept my distance!  Not taking chances with errant bees!  My friend Cindy had some fierce competition in the bee balms category! She got some ribbons, but no blue. I got another Apple Cider Freeze, so refreshing!. I missed the gladioli displays last week, but Grammie would be happy that I saw the dahlias and roses!  

I have seen others posts of the political crop art this year so I needed to see it for myself!  There was no make your crop art table set up today.  Some days there is!  Not only was there a plethora of political crop art, I found this little prize winning nugget that Grammie Kelsey would have loved!

The politics of Crop Artists!  Loved it!

These one just cracked me up!  No politics, just Minnesota!

The Minnesota Wine Country booth has moved outside into the old Epiphany Diner location and it is lovely!  I need to get inside and get my chocolate raspberry merlot ice cream! It has been replaced by a craft brew aisle and it created a bottleneck (no pun intended!) just like wine did last year.  There were barrels all over and people standing around with flights of craft beers.

new building!

The line was long for the FREE "5 hour energy" sample ...silly people, 5 hours is not nearly enough energy to get through the fair!  I would have loved to follow some people and watch them crash later!  I did pick up a bottle for Stella to try.  She asked if she could have it when I got home at 9:30pm...um NO.










Next door to Wine Country is the Minnesota Territorial pioneers. Stella qualifies as a descendant, I just need to pay the registration fees!  The corn husk doll man was outside and the paper cutting man was inside.  Some things never change!





    I was hungry and knew that the Giant Juicy Turkey Sandwich was    on my menu for the day but.....
I decided to check out the CHS Miracle of Birth barn ...just in case!   On the way I walked through the Cal Spas booth and found the new one I want.  I am not sure if our slab is big enough though!













I also stopped to hear a wonderful group called the Minnesota State Fair Singers.  A classically trained group that started at Concordia and has grown into what it is today! They were wonderful!  I got my picture taken, Me @ MPR  and I got some free buttons too!

I was walking toward CHS and truly, JUST as it dawned on me I was in the red bench zone I looked to my right and there was the Knoblach bench!  I just stumbled upon it!  I vaguely remember Sarah telling me it's whereabouts but I was preoccupied and did not listen!  Sorry Sarah!  But here it is!

I would have stopped to rest, but it was in the sun and hot!  No wonder I didn't have to move anyone to take a picture.  I decided to walk into the back door of CHS and check out the tote board and what I may have missed when I run into Rajacich's  friends from CPLC running a Foundation Kiosk!  They had found some shade too, the sun was hot today!  We chatted for a bit and I looked and saw there were quite a few people gathered near the calving pen so I decided I better move on.  

Just as I walked into the barn and over towards the pen a cheer went up from the crowd and feet and part of a nose popped out of the cow!  I had a good spot and stayed and watched my second calf being born!  Maybe since I saw one last year the pressure if off and I will get lucky again!  Cow #6115, no time to name this one!  

Hello baby!

STILL THE MOST AMAZING THING AT THE FAIR!

I was starving, having eaten nothing but an apple cider icy, so I headed straight over to the Turkey to Go booth.  I know it was a hot day, but the kids working that booth were the laziest kids I have EVER seen!  Three had positioned themselves so no one had to move...much.  One took money and shouted to the guy (three feet away) pop orders, which he could not get right.  He stood up from the cooler he was sitting on, got ice and closed it again and promptly sat back down, filling the pop and then stretching over to get it just on the edge of the counter...his edge...not mine.  Then the sandwich girl (who was stationed three feet behind the money girl) tossed a boat onto the counter and then tossed the partially foil wrapped sandwich and it hit the counter, missing the boat.  They were both sitting right on their edge of the counter, whereupon the money girl, not getting up mind you, pushed both the boat and the sandwich closer to me...not bothering to put the sandwich IN the boat.  I looked at them and said "Don't work too hard kids" and they stared at me...and then as I walked down to get my napkins and a straw...I saw the owner in his dirty white butcher coat lounging in a chair with his feet up on his phone.  I guess he sets the tone for work ethic.  Nice.  Ironically, they were voted "peoples choice favorite food item"  It really is good!

     My good friend Jeannie (you may remember her as Rodeo Mom from last year!) arrived on the grounds, and by the time we connected, she had "earned" her Marine Corps T-shirt!  Marine Mama gotz movez! Her cowboy son Andrew is doing the Crucible this week to end his Marine Corp boot camp training, so if you are reading this now...please say a prayer for him! (and his Mom)  She had a friend along to see the Kiss concert, but she walked over to the bench with me and her friend waited patiently for people to m~o~v~e so Jeannie could join the Bench Warmer Bunch!

I left Jeannie and walked through carousel park to see the special happenings.  It was hot, so people were moving slowly, there were lots of kid activities, but I did get an "I got carded"  button when I showed them my library card!  I told them my ticket story, and said that I would feel better if my extra dollar went to the Library instead of the fair, and she told me the fair donates tickets to the kids summer reading program, when kids read a certain number of books they can earn a ticket!  Yeah!  They had these alphabet signs stuck in the ground all over and so I had to find "Q"  As I was adding junk to my bag, I realized I had the Foundation Walking tour punch cards in my bag.  I need to finish them this year so I can get my "I'm a Winner" button.  I had four of five punches left all spread out, but I had no agenda, so I decided to finish it!  One was by the horse barn so I walked that way.

AI peeked into the barns to see if any western horses were in yet...Nope, nothing was in the barns today. Changeover day. The only horses I could find were Prince and Duke! Rows and rows of clean empty stalls.  Outside the Coliseum I saw this stack of saddles, I should have been a cowgirl! 

I must have sweat off all my sunscreen by 11am, because by this point I was feeling pretty burnt. Inside the Coliseum was lovely, not too crowded and fans and breezes around every corner.  I went to my favorite Tote bag shop and found a nice lightweight backpack for Stella, on clearance for $7, and I bought myself a new shoulder bag, leather this year!  I got a passport bag for Stella to use at the fair for $4, hoping she would keep her cell phone, ipod, and money in it instead of all her pockets!  We will test it out Friday!  At one point on my walk I found myself standing near a pillar and there were three sources of ventilation converging!  I leaned against the pillar and checked in on facebook and relaxed for about ten minutes,  if I had found a chair I might still be there!




 I got my Simply Nuts toffee roasted peanuts and headed over to the CHS barn to check on my calf!  They were just feeding him in the main pen.  Still no name on the board. Good job #6115, He's a keeper!

I walked through the rest of the barn and saw this little lamb and mama...so sweet.  Then this little lamb was not happy being held and kept shouting "MaaaaaMaaaa!"




I have not entered the Dairy building yet...excuse me, the "Empire Commons"  I will never get that name...ever.  It will and ever shall be the Dairy Building!  Tomorrow I will research the name change.

I asked a total stranger to take my picture in the egg....She looked at me like I was a loon! I walked through the whole place and got my Fleet farm coupons, tested the lanolin lotions, checked out Duluth Pack store, nothing I couldn't live without. Frogg Toggs chilly bandana sounded like a nice idea for today...but I would forget about it!

I have never been in the Dairy Building when it was so empty, so I got to look over the award winning cuts of meat and spectacular packaging! Never saw them before!

No one was carving butterheads when I walked through, but I did get a picture of Princess Kay!  My next punch was by the Ag/Hort...haven't I been there enough? :)

My next punches were up on the north end and I could have taken the Sky Glider, but I decided that was cheating (remember the karma that befell Dad last year!) I walked past the U of MN building on the off chance I would get a backpack.  (I am not waiting in lines this year) No backpack but I did get a toothbrush from the School of Dentistry!  I trucked up the hill to find the Sensodyne truck and grabbed some toothpaste, so I am all set for garlic fries!  I have passed the Ford Giant slot machine and wanted to give it a try, so I got my wristband and gave the wheel a spin.....OH So close! whoot whoot ...got a Ford bag.

I got the Little Hands farm punch and then needed the Fine Art punch, so I decided to detour through Eco-Technology.  I am glad I did! As I got to the Whole Foods booth the Atomic chef was just finishing a wild rice and shrimp dish and the few of us there got samples!  Yeah... free dinner!
It didn't make up for not winning a car, but it was hot and delicious!

I walked through the wall of water bottles, interesting perspective.  There is a cool water bottle filling drinking fountain in there too.  I used one in the Coliseum earlier and thought it was pretty cool. Up on "The Hill" near Giggles I ran into another CPLC friend Suzy, on her way home from work at the Admin Office.

Gander Mountain has funny hats and a fish pond (with real fish) for kids under 16. I wonder if they will let Stella try. They also have shoe mountain.  I am unsure of the significance!

I walked over to Fine Art to get my punch and sure enough it was a heart.  I am not sure if I mentioned this before in the blog, but we got the Walking tour brochures on Day One and I filled some punches that day.  As we did , Stella informed me they are all the same shape, big circles.  Who will know if I punch them all at one place? I told her, just what if ONE was a different shape and then they would know I cheated, beside, who am I really cheating?  Again, like Dad and the bad karma last year!  LOL  Sure enough..this one is a heart!  PHEW. See number 5? I have one punch to go, outside the bandshell....

On my way back down I notice that McDonalds has even infiltrated the fair. Handing out brochures on nutrition information...and encouraging people to stand in line to spin the wheel to win fries.

I walk past the Education/Creative Annex and realize I had not done the back wall yet. As I type this I realize too I forgot to buy the St. Agnes raspberry bread for Mom.  Oops.  I did however get my wine slushie sample. I decided in order to make the way they do, you need the slushie machine. I will just keep stopping for samples.

On to the last punch and to my final validation.  I am a winner!  and I got to sit inside the Air Conditioned J Bailey house and get ice cold water and chat with Kay Cady, Executive Director and thank her for the help in executing Operation Blue Moon!

Mom called to say she was coming over for the Talent Shows, so believe it or not, I waited for her to arrive and we trekked back up "the hill" to see the County Show.  I had t text Michael in the middle to tell him there was a "spinner" (the one guy at every concert who hangs out in the corner being inappropriate)  This guy kept talking to the performers (as they performed) and had his phone recording them. Yikes! "Spinner!" 


I knew we had friends working in the ticket booths at the Kidway so we needed to stop by and get some pictures of the hard work Lions Club volunteers!

I had promised a drive by donut delivery to unicorns & glitter, so with warm donuts tcked under my already hot arm....Mom and I stopped by the bandshell to see one minute of The Mavericks, then headed for home. Once again we thought you could shoot a cannon through the fair, but as we looked at attendance numbers, over all they are up!  I told Mom, maybe we are just in the place!  The party is happening elsewhere!

As we exited the gate, we asked the young woman with the bus sign if she was new this year, and she said yes, but it has been very successful so next year they will have two shifts of bus helpers!  Morning and evening!  She was very sweet!

Good Night Fair!

DAY SEVEN STATS

Walked: almost 9 miles

Food Consumed: Turkey Sandwich, Apple Icy, Beer, Free shrimp& wild rice (one tablespoon and one shrimp)

Free Stuff: Flu shot, bags, t-shirt, buttons, photos, slushie, 5hour energy.

Calf Count: Me: 2 Fair: 9!