Have I Stayed Too Long at the Fair?

We went to the Minnesota State Fair yesterday & had a good time. The weather wasn’t too hot & it wasn’t too terribly crowded.

The last time we went it was really hot and we spent a lot of time in the animal barns and looking at farm machinery. Mr. Pennies has no connection to farming, but he loves all this just the same. We looked at antique tractors this time & when he went to see the animals I went to the crafts buildling. Much less stinky. We watched the high school rodeo–lots of fun to see those kids have such energy & spirit. The English horse show was great to see the horses. Plus you get to sit during these horse shows/rodeos.

The very best thing I had at the fair was the cold, cold milk for a dollar with free unlimited refills. I could only drink 2 cups as it was when we were leaving. Next time we’ll be stopping by there earlier in the day.

The next best thing was a fresh salmon wrap with romaine, chopped onions, chopped green peppers, and some cream cheese. Yum. We also enjoyed the hot french fries with catsup. Corn dogs at $3 each were cheap, but not that great. We skipped the deep-fried twinkies, etc. but did enjoy an apple dumpling (just warm apple pie) with vanilla ice cream on top. Pretty good, but not as good as my grandmother used to make. She’d core an apple, stuff the hollow with raisins, sugar, & cinnamon, then wrap it all in pie crust. After baking she topped it with a whiskey sauce made with whole cream. Sigh.

Then it was off to have a Leinenkeugels Honey Weiss & watch the free concert at the Leinie Pavilian. If you get there early enough you can relax in the Adirondack chairs. Junior Brown’s concert was a combination of Western swing, blues guitar, a little Beach Boys car songs, and occasionaly some Jimi Hendrix guitar riffs. Quite a mix from a very talented guy.

We took the free bus to & from the fair, saving us the aggravation of battling the traffic. From the time we left to the time we got back was 11 hours. I told Mr. Pennies I could feel the tiredness oozing out of me as I sank into the seat of our truck. He said he felt just fine. Sadly, not everyone is as tough as Mr. Pennies.

All in all we had a great day & didn’t even get sunburned as we were indoors sometimes. Since we’d forgotten the sunscreen that was a good outcome.

We are tempted to go back for another day as there were plenty of things we didn’t get to see. Decisions, decisions.

Click the title of this post to see the wiki on Junior Brown. He has quite a pedigree.