The Fair

Wednesday, August 27 • While we like to spend a whole day at the Minnesota State Fair, the largest 12-day event in North America, we can't this year so we go for dinner. A chili dog, a pot-roast sandwich, a Juanita's Fajita, and a corn dog, all shared and washed down with beer.

We miss the dog building, the art building, the meatball sundae at the Epiphany Diner, the chocolate shakes at the Dairy Building, the quilts and sock monkeys and seed art and human heads carved in butter and so much more, but we ride the Sky Glider (the open one where you can dangle your feet), walk around Heritage Square, and hear a bit of War (but not, alas, "Low Rider") at the Leinie Lodge.



The weather threatens all evening, with occasional sprinkles, so things start closing down early as we stroll the grounds. We buy roundtrips on the Sky Glider and by the time we get off (at the north end of the fair, on Machinery Hill), it's as if we have the whole place to ourselves. Strange yet wonderful and romantic. By the time we make our way through the sheep and poultry barn, down the Midway and out to our Park and Ride stop, then take the bus to the lot where our car is waiting, the weather is no longer threatening but dead serious. We run to the car, dive in, slam the doors, and all hell breaks loose--thunder, lightning, pouring rain.



Not a typical visit to the Fair, but unless you get your pocket picked or make yourself sick on rides and fried food or get knocked down by a big runaway pig (which happens), there's no such thing as a bad visit to the Fair.

P.S. Bebopified started with a post about the Fair, which means we're almost a year old.