State Fair

Saturday we went to the state fair. We've never been. Even Dan, who has lived in Minnesota most of his life, hasn't ever been. So when we found out that Dan's dad would be singing Saturday afternoon, we decided we'd go. We've always wanted to go--just never got around to it.
This year is Minnesota's 150th birthday so someone decided that a choral group from each of the state's regions should sing at the state fair. They commissioned new pieces of work from Minnesota composers. Each group (about 6 total) sang 2 songs and then they all sang a song together at the end. It was pretty good although a few of the groups sang some rather boring songs. The song that Dan's dad's group sang was good-lively and funny.

We spent the whole day at the fair. We left town at 7:30 and parked at a Park and Ride which was pretty close to the fair. We didn't have any problems finding a parking space and took the shuttle over to the fair. We even took the double jogger along and fit that on the bus without any problems. I'm so glad that we parked there instead of at the fair because the line to park at the fair was incredibly long. Plus then we'd have had to pay for parking. This way we parked for free and those shuttle buses just cut in front of everyone so the ride and wait was quite short.

When we first got to the fair we went over to the Little Farm Hands building. Here is where kids get to pretend that they are farmers. They get an apron and a bucket and work their way through the path. They get to milk a pretend cow (water comes out, not milk), plant crops, harvest crops, take their crops to the farmer's market, sell it and then buy a snack with their profits (apples or boxes of cereal).





After that we met up with Dan's mom (his dad was at a church somewhere practicing for their afternoon concert) and we picked up some lunch. I picked up a bucket of cookies (freshly baked) from Sweet Martha's and we got a roast sandwich--both yummy. And of course, the fair wouldn't be the fair without an order of cheese curds.

We also went to the Miracle of Birth building and got to watch a calf being born. We couldn't actually get close enough to see the cow but watched it on one of the many TVs they have hanging from the ceiling. The building was packed, but we also managed to see some little piggies that had been born the day before. They were in the farrowing pen with their mother and they were all suckling away.

Next we went to the horse barn and looked at the several different kinds of horses they had there. The kids even got to pet a few. Some of those horses are absolutely huge and I definitely wouldn't want to get in their way. They were such beautiful animals and it was cool to see all the different varieties, colors, etc.

We also went to the Creative Activities building. There they have all sorts of different displays including quilting, jewelry making and miniatures. The older three were fascinated with the miniatures. There was a group of ladies working on some miniatures and the kids spent a great deal of time there. Darin even got to help one lady make some plants. They learned a few tricks about making miniatures such as drying green pepper seeds for potato chips and using the bottom of individual creamers for a waste basket. Also on display was this beautiful canoe that someone had made. They had put together different types/colors of wood (kind of like a butcher block) and made this gorgeous canoe. I'm not sure I'd want to put it in the water since it was so beautiful.

The canning and baking items were also in the CA building. The kids thought I should enter several things next year. And I might. I wasn't all that impressed with some of the entries (I realize they were about a week old by the time we saw them, but still). It'd be fun to do I think but I'll have to check out the rules.

In the education building the kids got a bunch of freebies--bags, pencils, etc. They also had on display artwork from kids. There are some really talented kids out there. There was one painting that I saw that I wish I could buy. It was done by an 11th grader and was just ethereal. It was two little girls sitting on a blanket on the beach. The colors and the technique were superb. I just stood there looking at that one painting for quite awhile.

Later in the day I took the younger two with me to the Fine Arts Building because I wanted to see the photography and paintings by adults. There were a few cool things but I'd have to say I enjoyed the ones in the education building better. Some of the things done by adults were really weird and others I could have done (and I wouldn't have called it art). There was one very large picture that someone did completely in pencil (though you'd never guess). That was really amazing. There were also some others done with colored pencil--although I had no idea that was the medium until I read the placard beside it.

After the Fine Arts building Darin, Natalie and I went over to the Eco building and had our pictures taken at the reusable bag booth. Then we each got a free bag. They are nice and large and I'll definitely use them, especially on my big grocery shopping days since I never seem to have enough of the green ones I usually use.

While we were at the Fine Arts building, Dan was with Ellie and Kara at the WCCO building. Ellie and Dan both rode bikes to generate power for the broadcasts. Once they got to a certain amount they got to pick a prize--Dan chose a t-shirt and Ellie got a really nice bag. Here is Ellie riding the bike:


While we were at the fair we actually ran into my brother and his family. They live in St. Paul and I hadn't bothered to tell them we'd be in town because I didn't really figure we'd see them and I knew we'd be seeing them in a few days for our annual camping trip. It was kind of funny to actually run into them considering how many people were at the fair that day (171,000 that day).

After Dan and I met up again we went over to the Drink-all-the-milk-you-want-for-$1 stand and dipped our leftover cookies into our milk. Then we headed home. We picked up the shuttle again and went back to the Park and Ride. The shuttle we rode back was a charter bus and Darin got the biggest kick out of it. He was giddy and loved that he was in a charter bus. All the kids thought it was pretty cool that a bus could have a bathroom!! It was hilarious to watch their excitement over something that we find so commonplace. It wasn't funny, however, to listen to the guy in front of us swear every third word. Thankfully, the kids didn't really pay attention to what he was saying and since they've never heard most of the words he wasn't saying, it didn't really register with them that he was saying bad words.

We got home safely around 11:30, much later than we had planned, but we had a great time and plan to go back next year.