Minnesota State Fair

No reason for us not to attend the fair, as it is only one mile from our niece Kathy and her husband Doug's home in St.Paul. Kathy's sister Martha came from Iowa with her two children Friday night, so, with a total of five children, going to the fair seemed to be the right activity for the day. The day was sunny with a cool breeze, and that made the day perfect. The fair has been dubbed "the great Minnesota get-together" and I can understand why.  I think everyone in the state also thought it was a great day for a fair! And it was a very large fair, there were many things to see and do. Below is a picture of our group trying to figure out which direction we wanted to go, whether to see the livestock or do the midway rides.

It seemed to be the biggest fair which John and I have ever attended. The number of buildings filled with livestock was very impressive. I did not think there were still that many farms in our country today! The first animal building we toured was the horse stables. Fortunately there were a few horses available for petting.

We headed next to the birthing center for the fair. We missed seeing the birth of a calf by one hour. Fortunately the birth had been recorded on video and we were able to see the event on a television screen. It was  awesome to look at a calf who was one hour old, still wobbling around on his legs and trying to make sense of the world he had just been thrust into. His mother went off to eat but she still stopped occasionally to give him a wash over with her tongue. He already looked clean to me! In the picture below he seems steady on his feet but whenever he tried to move he looked like he would topple over any minute.

Everyone loves a parade! We made sure to get over to see the parade after lunch. The fair has a parade daily. It seemed a bit thrown together haphazardly because after we thought it was over with, we noticed some horses and their riders coming down the street after the Minnesota State Marching Band made a second appearance. It was still a fun parade, below is a picture of the Wacky Wheeler. The man riding the wheel could performed some astonishing stunts on it while riding it in the parade.

We put in a long day at the fair. After the children had done the fun stuff on the midway we were ready to call it a day. We had stuffed ourselves on the usual foods offered at a fair; cotton candy, carmel apples, cheese curds, corn dogs and brats. John even try a Scotch Egg. That was not bad tasting; it was a hard boiled egg on a stick, covered with sausage and bread crumbs and then deep fried. Just as nutritious as the rest of the food we had been eating!  With our bellies stuffed and our wallets empty it was certainly time to leave the fair. We were also exhausted. There is something about mingling with crowds that tends to be quite tiring.