State Fair

Tuesday night we made a trip to the State Fair! Here's what we did:

• There was a boat exhibit right as we walked in the gate, so Chris was occupied there for a good 30 minutes.


• We had super fresh (as in just fried) corn dogs and it made me think of the commercials for the fair which have been featuring animated food -- there's one where a corn dog is asking a sushi roll why it doesn't come on a stick.


• Jemma was most excited to see some animals, so we went to see the rabbits and then the goats. I found it interesting that Jemma's experience must be hands-on. She is always inclined to pet the animals. Jordan, on the other hand, he didn't touch a single thing and headed straight for the hand sanitizer as we left.



• We walked through the big livestock halls to see the cattle, sheep and pigs. Even though I know why they're there it always surprises me a little to see the information stands displaying recipes for beef, and advertising pork as the other white meat. What is it about that that I find somewhat amusing and disturbing?


• We bypassed all the carnival rides. They sort of seemed a little...dodgy.


• Happened across a stand selling corn on the cob. I'm not exactly sure how it was cooked, but it was something between smoking and steaming, and it was the best corn I've had.
  
• While we ate the corn, we watched a horse show.
  
• We made our way across the fairgrounds to this makeshift stadium where they had a "Wild West Turkey Stampede". Quite interesting. It was show where they have a remote-control truck with turkey feed in the back race around a little track while six turkeys wildly chase it. I must say that although it sounds a little odd, it was humane. These people really loved their turkeys!


• Jordan bought himself a hat and Jemma really wanted a clown to make her a balloon animal, so she got a butterfly.



• Just when we may have left, we happened across a comedy/magic/hypnosis show. If you've ever seen Arrested Development, you must know that this guy was such a Gob! It was pretty entertaining. We stayed and watched the whole thing.


• Unfortunately we didn't ever see the giant butter cow sculpture. How did we miss that?

The fair is a fascinating thing. There is always an interesting assortment of people to see, strange items for sale, live country music, and where else can you justify eating something as blantantly unhealthy as a funnel cake?