People People Everywhere and When Did It Get So Hot?

After last night's success with the bus, it seemed like the best option for my outing to the great Minnesota get-together today. The bus schedule is awfully tight on Sundays. Like the bus I needed to transfer to was pulling up at the same time the bus I was on was pulling up. I about knocked over a few people in my hastened departure from the bus. Luckily, people understand things like that and have some patience with it. After a fairly easy bus ride (on three buses) to the fair, I realized it was both crowded and even hotter than I had anticipated. Good thing I was emotionally prepared.

People, people, everywhere. I wonder how many of them there were. Seemed like the whole state.



Much to Amanda's surprise (and kind of my own) I agreed to ride the "space needle". It's a terrifyingly named elevator that lazily raises and rotates, gets to the top and then descends and rotates in a "my grandpa used to take me on this ride" kind of way. It's still really high, but I chose not to focus on that. You can see exactly how many people were at the fair. You can also see where they parked. If you're careful you might catch a glimpse of Minneapolis.





We went to the Health building. I got myself screened for diabetes since there's a history of it in my family and I haven't been to a doctor in about eight million years. My non-fasting blood sugar was 101, which is almost perfect. Yay me! Amanda got her hearing checked. Before they could run the test, they had to find part of the equipment.

No, seriously.


Normal, my foot!



Amanda didn't like that mirror because it swallowed her feet. I think she's lucky, I have twice the normal number of feet now. Thanks. If you're not from around here, you wouldn't understand what this food is. Trust me; I've lived five years and I still don't get it.



And now, for the animals. Oh look, a horse for Amanda to play with.


Let's bring on the fowl. This was the blue ribbon ballet chicken.


Is it wrong that this chicken reminds me of that lady from the view?



That's how my hair looks in the morning too. And no one knows why there are chickens and turkeys with no feathers on their neck.



Or why Amanda thinks it's a good idea to let a duck play with her bag. Yes, I did say "let".

When we walked away, she grabbed the handle and said, "it's wet" in a distressed manner. I was not sympathetic. Amused, yes. This picture just doesn't do justice to how big these cows really are. Simply amazing. I'm wondering if they're the ones who get rBGH.

Oink.


Perhaps the best part of the day was when Amanda assured me that I would never have to go on any of these rides to be her friend.

It was a really fun day. I had to explain to both my parents "what do you do at the fair"? We don't have fairs like that in Ohio. Or at least, not that people actually attend. The bus ride back was equally tight, although less life threatening to the passengers around me when I tried to meet the connecting bus. When I was standing on a corner in St Paul waiting for the 21 (for more information on the 21, see Kelly's blog and this post in particular) the sign on the bank told me it was 92*. I had only expected mid 80's. No wonder I was so hot. I'm amazed at all the people I saw wearing jeans. They had to be about dead. I wonder how many people get heat stroke at the fair each year. Do they keep statistics on that type of thing?