The Minnesota State Fair August 2006

Today we went to the Minnesota State Fair, one of the largest state fairs in the country. Most days have over 100,000 visitors. This is the opening day of the fair, so everything is fresh and clean. The weather was not predicted to be great today, with a chance of showers all day long, but highs near 80. So we headed off early with rain gear in tow for a fun day of eating, rides, eating, games, browsing, and of course eating. We got there early enough that we could park just about a block from the gates. This would allow us to bring any large stuffed animals we might when or items that we couldn't pass up back to the car fairly easily.

Most of the exhibits open at 9 a.m., but many of the food stalls and rides are open much earlier. One of our first stops was at the Budweiser Clydesdale barn to see the large horses used in the commercials and parades. The horses are massive and beautiful. They were getting their legs shampooed and a full body rinse. They get rinsed everyday and a full body shampoo about once a week. More often than that, and it can deplete the oils in their coats.
Our next stop was the space tower, a revolving platform that rises about 340 feet above the ground for a bird's eye view of the fair. This helped us get our bearings and think about what all we wanted to see and do while at the fair.
We had to have our picture taken with some with the snoopy characters, created by St. Paul's own Charles Schultz. We also decided to relax awhile in the legendary Paul Bunyan's chair. We didn't see Paul or his Blue Ox Babe, maybe they were still getting used to their new digs up in Brainerd.

The state fair is as much about food as it is about anything. Much is deep fried and served on stick for easy consumption. Some of the stranger concoctions included spaghetti and meatballs on a stick, candy bars on a stick, alligator on a stick and hotdish on a stick. All of these were batter coated and deep fried. We started off with some old fashioned deep fried cheese curds, then moved on to milk shakes, foot long hot dogs, corn dogs, wild rice cheeseburgers, chicken ceasar wraps, nitrogen frozen ice cream and spiral spuds. The spiral spuds were potato chips made from continuous shavings from a large potato. The potato was chucked up to a drill and spun through a slicing blade to make a thin but long spiral shaped peeling. These were piled up and then deep fried to make them crisp and piled into a heaping basket. The nitro ice cream used nitrogen gas to super cool the ice cream during processing and the result made the ice cream very creamy and tasty. While we were in the food building, we ran into Ray’s brother-in-law Doug and nephew Jack, who were also enjoying a day at the fair.

We spent some time on the midway doing both rides and games. Since we were on the midway early, there weren’t a lot of people there. The kid's did a couple of water pistol races to fill up balloons, and the 3 of them were the only contestants, so we were able to make sure we would take home some stuffed animals. Hailey enjoyed the fun houses (there were 3 of them) and Kara and LeAnn took a ride on the Moby Dick ride. It took the riders around in fast vertical circles and was probably not the best idea shortly after lunch.

It rained on and off during the afternoon with a couple of brief heavy downpours, but we were able to find shelter in the various buildings where the vendors were selling everything from home improvement items, cleaning supplies, home and garden items to self improvement goods. LeAnn and Ray wondered as we walked by a booth selling a sushi making kit by a very entertaining presenter, how many of the people watching had ever even eaten sushi before, but may have purchased the product due to the ability of the salesperson.

We also enjoyed going int the Miracle of Birth building. The building is brand new this year and about 4 times larger than last year. They have cows, sheep, and pigs that are about to give birth in this building be attended to, but also the stars of thw show as they give birth. For some kids, it is the first time they get to see the live birth of an animal. You can get right up next to the animals and watch, and they also show it live on monitors spread throughout the building. One thing that we did not expect as we walked in was the display built by and for EPS, a local company from LeAnn's hometown in Iowa who specialize in pre-fabricated, insulated buildings.

Another favorite of ours is an outdoor area known as the international bazaar where goods and foods from around the world are sold. It was fun to look around and see items from many of the places we had visited while living in Asia.

As we headed to the exits, we caught a glimpse of the weather on one of the local channels broadcasting from the fair and determined that some potentially bad storms were on the way, so decided we better head for home. On the way out we stopped and saw the life size, head and shoulder carving made out of a 90 lb. block of butter of Princess Kay of the Milky Way. This is the title of the winner of the Dairy association pageant. She has to sit for 6-8 hours in a glass enclosed refrigerated booth while her likeness is carved. This is one of her rewards for being named the winner. The other candidates also have to spend time throughout the fair getting their likeness carved in butter, and they are displayed throughout the fair. We figured we had time to make a pass through the haunted house, but ended up getting a little wet on the way back to the car.

When we got back to the car, it was only 65 degrees, and it never felt much warmer than that, so it looks like the weatherman missed the forecast today. Even so, an enjoyable day was had by all at the Great Minnesota Get Together!