Our Great State Fair

Up at 4:45, out the door by 5:30 pulled into our reserved spot at the Simpson Street lot in the dark at 5:45.  Quick  hello to Mom & Dad and we were off to get here for the opening bell!   Sadly, there was no bell.  Just a cheer from the crowd and "Welcome to the Fair!"  

There was a line to enter, but we wanted to say hello to a woman we met at Marion Kelsey's visitation who was working in the ticket booth!  The State Fair Facebook photographer snapped this shot, and you can see Stella & I the last in the left ticket booth line.  Proof we entered at 6am.  Not that I have anything to prove....

We turned around and saw the sun rising over the fairgrounds.  

We got a free cup of turkey from the MN Turkey growers as we walked in. I hoped it was Turkey to Go, but no.   I noticed a tray of cinnamon rolls and saw a lady holding grilled glazed donuts....the turkey was less than thrilling after that.   

 We walked over to say good morning to our friends at The Ball Park and saw the beautiful, new signs! We wanted to prove that Mini Donut beer is a reality....

And we chatted briefly with he Theisens and wished them a grea year!

Not much open at this hour.  We found a new coffee truck, I think it is called Cloud Forest Coffee. I am sure there is an app to figure out the name.  I arrived with coffee in my own recycled to-go cup so I did not need to stop. 

We cruised past Sweet Martha's, all closed up with a clean sidewalk and no dead cookie grease marks.  Will get the pocked sidewalk shot on day 12!

We walked over to the DNR and saw some jumping fish and one poor little guy must have expired from pre state fair anxiety.

We were too hot to stop and see if the fish was freed from his watery grave as we passed by later in the day. I looked across the fish expanse trying to get a glimpse of the new Adopt-a-River sculpture, but could not see it.  As we got closer....we realized it was camouflaged!  A Tree!

We found the brand new bathrooms, but they were not open yet. The only drawback to the lovely new patio surrounding the bathroom, is that it is a designated smoking area.  With that being said....I am glad they have designated smoking areas (new this year)...now if people would try and use them.  

Too early for food, too early for buildings, too early for exhibits, we walked around looking for the newest bench!  We found green grass!  The grass has had a tough August and Stella was dissappointed in the lack of the suff. A few pacthes were lush and green.

As we wandered we watched people set up for the STEM day activities, checked out the giant slide set up,  We reminisced about the days when Stella was too short to go on rides.....that one year when she was two. 

We sat on the bleachers at Fox 9 and we got on the 7am weather broadcast and when we got home later, we saw ourselves on the 6 am news too, as we came into the fair. Many times they have food samples at the broadcasts and today we got to try the watermelon and peaches that are for sale in the Bazaar and the Heritage Square.  

Mmmm free food, on a stick!   We were actually cold when we were not moving, so we continued the bench hunt!  I am not going to disclose the exact location as Mom & Dad are still on the hunt. If you know the air well, you might be able to deduct its proximal location. 

We are still on the hunt for Grammie's bench.  We decided that animal barns are best explored on the first days, when the straw is new and the stench is low.  Heading over we watched the sky ride inspector making a final ride....ironically, we would be stuck for awhile later on the sky Glider.....and then it was closed for most of the day.

Animals, animals, animals.  When you've seen one, you think you've seen them all.  But I never get tired of admiring the beauty of the horses, caring faces of the cows, sleepy sheep, lop eared bunnies, and even wacky birds and ducks!  

We went to see the big boar, it was so early, there were no signs about him or people to ask.  He was also up and about.  I don't know that I have ever seen one actually moving!  This is his head shot!  

When I walked by a little later, he has assumed the position which he will maintain for the next twelve days!

We learned later his name is Kenny, not sure how much he weighs, but not the biggest we have ever seen.  For the Dr.Who fans out there this sheep was asking "are you my mummy?"

In the horse barns there is an interactive exhibit that we checked out and got to braid horse tails, do puzzles and test our horse knowledge.

Stella will not put her face into these anymore, but at least she is willing to take my picture! 

 Stella is taller than the display capacity.....18 hands.

The donkeys on the Horse Expo aisle are always a hit!

We got over to the Miracle of Birth center and the tote board was light, only two lambs born on Wednesday. The cow did not look ready at all, so we moved on.  My friend Mark was in place with his kids later in the day  and got to see her give birth to a bull.  So jealous.  

After three hours on the grounds, we needed food.  I got the standard foot long and Stella got some lungi fries.  First bite of the dog, dropped an onion chunk loaded with ketchup onto the front of my shirt.  Well, now the pressure to stay clean is off!

nice!

Now the fair was coming to life and we headed for the STEM activities and on the way, picked up a tube of Brat Balm.  For some reason, every time I referred to it, I called Brat-weiser" balm.  Maybe I needed a beer!

The STEM activities were great, but Stella has outgrown many of them.  She enjoyed the magnet toys at the Works booth, checked out some of 3M electrical displays and had fun using technology to measure height, hand strength and body temperature. 

One awesome display was the 3D printer.  There were samples of printing projects and it was creating something as we watched.  This is a working clock mechanism!

She wanted to build a Lego structure to save the people again this yea from the tsunami wave, but the platforms were limited and she glanced at the clientele which mainly consisted of nine year old boys and decided to move on. 

The north end holds lots of fun adventures and getting there is always more fun on the Sky Glider, so we purchased our round trip tickets (for a little more money than last year) and boarded our coach, enjoying the view for a bit, until we were stuck.  We remained in place for over 10 minutes with our feet dangling.  The circulation into our lower extremities began to decline, considerably reducing the chances of me successfully extricating myself from the ride at the end of the ramp....I wiggled my toes and pumped my ankles and moved as much as I dared hanging over the very clean roof of the little hands farm! 

 We got off the ride about 15 minutes later, with full motor control of my legs, and when we looked up later, the ride was empty and not moving. 

Once on the north end, we checked out the pet center.  Stella pointed out, it should be renamed the "dog center".  We got to see Boston's, Frenchies and the Ragom people were there, happy to hear that we had a successful adoption story with Bailey, and they had some great Golden's who have also found homes.  

The Home Depot building has moved up to the far north so we checked out the Spin to Win wheel.  I told Stella we needed to win lightweight prizes.  They have hammers, wrenches, drill bit sets and cleaning products etc.  everyone wins, so we decided it was worth a shirt wait (in the shade, in front of big fans).   I won a lint roller and Stella won tub and tile cleaner....guess who carried which item for the rest of the day???

The Luminarium is bigger this year, but we did not go in.   

We walked by the Giant Sing Along, but just missed some good songs so we moved on.  I love all the outdoor furniture on display up on this end.  Someday I will have recycled, no maintenance furniture! 

The Kemps booth next door to the Little Hands Farm gives away food treats and the have inflatable plastic cows.  This year I want to win a cow.  We had to get through the line to try birthday cake flavored "itty bitz" ice cream, so we could get to the tattoo with the dot to win the cow.  No luck today.

Walking south we discover Ron Scharra and his dog Raven chatting with some friends.  I wanted to get a picture, and just as I took it, I realized Ron was telling Raven to "sit" while he took a "break". Oh dear!  Raven wandered around the port o pot, not following his sit command. I watched until I was sure Raven would not go too far.   Wonder if Ron was talking to him from inside!

All ended well!  

We checked out the Eco building and the walls of cans.  I got Stella to stick her face inside a cut out, but i had to do it too!

Stella was ready for some ice cream and we were so close to the Kiwanis Malt booth, we stopped for a treat.

The Lego Road Trip is out here by Baldwin Park.  The line was not long, but once again, the median age of attendees was about eight years old.  I think Stella was slightly disappointed.  Maybe if she has a group of teens she cold try again.  I think you get to keep your project, and I saw a display case, which I will watch to see if it fills up with cool structures.  

We made a glancing blow throw the education building, missing the St Thomas bag distribution by half an hour, but we will be back.  On a quick tour of baked goods and some handicrafts we found these beautiful Springerle cookies.  "Springer-what?" Said the lady behind us!

.

 And I am not sure, but I think the second place winner in the new scratch cookie competition was a zucchini frosted sugar cookie.  I mean really???

I might enter this one next year.

The cakes were beautiful, I will have to come back and see more. 

Pies were hard to see without lights in the case

The quilt square on a stick theme must have had something to do with tattoos and ink. 

I found a Piet Mondrian quilt!  

  

For those who followed my New York blog, you will see me with an original Mondian!   New York City and the fair have SO much in common.  After today and seeing all the increases in prices, I began t think NYC might be less expensive! 

We had great plans to find shade and watch the parade....along with 100 thousand other people. We ran into Heidi Quirk, who had a great spot to watch her daughter in the Eden Prairie marching band.  We found a shady spot, under a tree near the J. Bailey house and sat down.  Eventually we were laying down....

And decided that, other than standing up for the American flag, we would be perfectly happy listening to the parade from a prone position.  Stella did hop up to get a shot of the Budweiser Clydesdales.  They are only here for four days.  

Our dear friend Kathy Lee connected with us via text and found us sleeping on the lawn. She had jus arrived with her fair food favorite, Veggie Fries.  If I ate fried food, they might be good! 

Once we were upright again, we decided a walk back to Mom & Dad's was in order for some respite and to get out of the sun.  Karla & Steve had spent the better part of the day at the fair too, and we found them back at Moms.  Ice cold water and brownies revived us a bit, but not enough to walk back over. We had put in an eight hour day.  

 In hopes of returning we got a re-entry stamp.  

Wasted ink. 

I have no stats to report, forgot my pedometer, we did not eat much, but it was a good first day!