New Beginnings: State Fair 2012

Another year at the fair has come and gone. We only thought we were going for one day this year. Jolynn and I ended up going twice. We went on Friday with Jon, Mike and Margaret, then again on Monday with my mom. Friday was once again, all about the food. Our first stop was getting Jolynn's hand casted. She did really well. No fist this year. I wanted her to do the age with her fingers, so we were trying really hard to do bunny ears with her fingers. Didn't happen. She ended up with a high-five looking cast. (picture later)

We did the normal fair food - corn dog, foot long hot dog, fried cheese curds, mini donuts, corn on the cob, Chicago Style Hot Dog, pretzel, funnel cake, $1 milk, malt from Milk Booth, and fried pickles. We tried two new foods this year - bacon ice cream and Poutine. Both were nothing to rave about. A new food for us but not for the fair was a Philly Cheesesteak. Now this was something that will definitely become a new staple fair food for us.

In past year's Jolynn was so young that she basically was confined to her stroller. Not this year. I can see that there will be two days of fair for me in the future. One with and one without Jolynn. The first day I didn't even go in any buildings. So I thought Monday would be the day for me to hit all the buildings and merchandise areas. Ha, right! The only reason I was able to get a glimpse of the Grandstand shops was because my mom kept Jolynn busy looking at the DNR fishery. Both days were spent doing fun things with Jolynn. It was fun seeing her enjoy all the different things to see and do and she is such a people person that she would make "friends" at every location. She would be so sad with they or us had to go. "where my friends go" she would say.

I also noticed that being there at night is a whole new experience. I really enjoyed walking around when it wasn't steaming hot with the sun beating down on you. People also seemed to move differently than during the day, more cautious about where they were going (maybe because of the darkness). Jon pointed out that there were no strollers (double or triple wide) and no motorized carts. The old people and kiddos have gone to bed.

On Friday, Mike and Margaret took Jolynn back with them from the fair. Jon stayed with me to catch the Wilson Philips free concert. We got our seats at 6pm. The show didn't start until 8:30pm. It was a good thing we did though - there had to be close to 6,000 people there. Only 2,000 seats were available, so that makes for a lot of people standing room only. It was an awesome concert. Jon told me to stop at Target the next day and purchase their new CD - Dedicated. After the concert we took the bus back to Oakdale.

We weren't going to go on Monday. Mike and Margaret were going to go but decided to go to the casino instead. They asked if we wanted their tickets. I thought my parents were going on Monday so I took M&M's tickets. Well Monday came and Bumby hurt his back while up north, so just my mom, Jolynn and I went. I thought this being my second trip that I would get to go in the buildings. Not happening. It was an all Jolynn day again. Rides at Kiddie Park, playing in the bubbles at the Mr. Bubble booth, dancing to music played on free stages. Luckily my mom was with so I was able to take a quick run through some buildings.

Here a few pictures from the two days - there are more on Facebook. (FYI-there are more pictures from day 2 than 1 because my phone died 2 songs into the concert and my phone died shortly after the ride pictures.)