The state fair 2008

On Thursday I had to go over to school to orient the new social work students. They are so cute when they are new and freaking out. And since I was already at school, it seemed like the perfect day to go to the fair. (Really, Amanda and I had this planned out before hand.) One thing I learned, when I park on the St Paul campus, somehow I'm magically inside the fair gates and I didn't have to use my ticket. Does that seem right? I feel ethically ok about it because I already paid for the ticket as part of the Milk Run and I didn't get to use it then.

What did we do? We went to check out the livestock. Only the horse barn was open. There was a sad moment when I thought we weren't going to get to see the chickens. You may remember how much fun we had with them last year. Luckily, the chickens were in the only other barn that wasn't being cleaned when we were there (no, seriously). Amanda challenged me to get a picture of a chicken screaming crowing at the camera. I didn't have any luck, but I got some good ones. I think some of these chickens look like real life people.

Thumbs.

The Mad Guinea Hen

Santa Claus

Big Hair Chicken

Big Hair Chicken's Equally Big Haired Girlfriend

Chicken Little

The Dick Cheney Chicken

And the big fat mad chicken

After that, it seemed like it was time to walk around and sample the food. We did, in fact, eat a deep friend candy bar. Actually it was reese's peanut butter cups, one for Amanda and one for me. I can see the attraction. But I wouldn't want to eat it every day.


After that, Amanda said she was dared to eat chocolate covered bacon which I also wanted to try. In retrospect, the big bacon on a stick (which is coated in maple syrup and hot) would probably have been better. This dish would have been better if the bacon was hot, although I understand that would present a melting issue.


Amanda did get her corn dog. We also had french fries (not pictured) because we forgot about the Australian battered potatoes.


We rode the Space Needle which did not bother me but apparently made Amanda quite uncomfortable. It's so nice to be the stable one in high spaces from time to time.


We also checked out some favorites at the fair. The agriculture building, the green building and the international bazaar. We had to walk by machinery hill to get the green building (which is a dumb location) but on the way, we saw the Toyota Experience which was something about hybrid cars. We went through this traveling exhibit and got points by doing all the different kiosks. I got enough points to plant a tree in Tennessee. And I got to "test drive" a Prius with Amanda cheering me on watching in the background.


All in all, I had a really nice day. We spent a long time walking around. When I got home I realized I still had to go to the Y one more time this month to get the discount. So at 9:30pm I went over to the Y and ran off all that crap some of that crap I ate at the fair. It was quite a challenge to remember to wake up and go to work the next day. It felt like the start to the weekend.