I was a bit worried at first that the day was going to be a rough one. I totally got overheated while in the Grandstands for the Barrel Racing show at 2:00. We only stayed for about five races before I decided I needed to find some air conditioning. It was a good call. The rest of the day was fine, especially with the two liters of water I consumed.
I was craving pot stickers by the end The air conditioning we found came packaged with watching three young 4-H'ers do their public presentations on a small stage in the exhibit hall. Two were sisters, probably ages 6 and 8. The third was a friend about the same age as the older sister. I heard from a 4-H mom that the kids can choose just about any topic for their public speaking activities. I can only assume today's three girls are taking Chinese lessons together because their 20 minutes on stage mostly consisted of them reading a series of pre-produced short stories... in Chinese. Apparently we learned all sorts of things about butterflies and tigers and dogs and fruit and the major food groups. One girl authored a story herself about a stick bug. It had something to do with Yoda because his name was mentioned a lot. Or maybe that's the Chinese word for bug? There were about eight adults in the audience, only two of which were moms. I don't think any of us understood a word of what the girls read but it was adorable nonetheless. Most adorable was the youngest girl whose love of being on stage grew before our eyes. She laughed and giggled and twirled and threw her arms in the air in excitement every time she spoke, was about to speak, or had just spoken. It wasn't long before she was looking for any opportunity to reach for the microphone to hear her voice through the speakers. So cute!
The teen years are so much more amusing when you are in your 40s We browsed the 4-H exhibits and also strolled a bit through some of the animal barns. I noticed we kept coming across various groupings of 4-H teenagers...mostly girls...in dramatic, whispering "And THEN she said..." conversations. I am guessing nearly four days of Fair life have been just enough to stir up all sorts of teenage angst and romance and gossip. Fortunately, I am at an age where I am largely invisible to teenagers so I plan to do some stealthy eavesdropping when we see more of these Teen Clusters. Stay tuned!
Rob's bird brain Looking for somewhere to sit while enjoying my Hawaiian shaved ice, we decided to watch the Pirate Parrot Show. The show was at the Fair last year and we enjoyed it several times. We didn't really have plans to see it again this year but its bleachers are very conveniently located next to the giant snow cone. What unexpected fun today! The show is still surprisingly educational; the pirate does a fantastic job of sneaking information in while you think you are just being entertained. We once again heard a little bit about the pirate's recent divorce. However, very intriguing was the addition of a piratey wench whose official job seemed mostly to be wrangling the colorful conures -- a job which the pirate seemed to handle by himself quite adeptly last year. I'm tempted to attend a few more performances to see if I can figure out the real story behind the wenchy Miss Demeanor.
That gossip fodder aside, the highlight of the show was having a couple of conures hang out on Rob's head for about ten minutes. They were delighted by the small vent holes on his baseball hat. I was delighted by the continuous photo op. So. Many. Bird. Photos.
There were signs posted but who reads them? We decided to take the long route to the Grandstands and walk through the Carnival. We passed the Zipper ride (known in my time as The Vomit Comet -- a horrible spinning while spinning ride) just in time to see a cell phone come flying out of one of the cages. I saw three parts zoom over the crowd: the phone, the battery cover, and I think the battery itself. A guy in his early 30s retrieved the pieces when the ride was over. No idea if he needs a new cell phone now. Lucky for him, Verizon has a booth over by the hot tubs.
I'm not an animal rights activist but still... We spent a couple of hours in the evening at the Roughstock Rodeo. I now understand "roughstock" to mean any rodeo event that does not involve ropes. So we saw some bucking broncos, barrel races, and bull riding. Bull riding is the main event tomorrow night and I think I saw somewhere that it is a different organization putting it on. Frankly, I hope so. While tonight's show was very entertaining and moved at a pretty good pace, the bull riding was a bit concerning. I have seen a number of rodeos over the years and I have never seen so many agitated and out-of-control bulls. After the rides, a number of the bulls bucked around in the arena, chased the clowns and wranglers, charged the horses, and otherwise refused to go through the gate to exit. This resulted in the wranglers using some pretty brute to force the bulls to leave. A number of bulls fell to the ground during the skirmishes; I've never seen a bull do that before tonight. Talking with some friends afterwards, Pam said it best when she described the situation as "too much cowboy." Rob agreed that the guys seemed to be trying to control the bulls physically instead of mentally (i.e. outsmarting them).
Comic relief Despite all the bull stuff, the rodeo did provide two rather amusing nuggets:
1) This quote from the announcer about one of the cowboys: "This guy can ride anything with hair on it." 'Nuff said.
2) One of the snippets of songs that played between riders was "Cotton-Eyed Joe." All of a sudden, kids all through the grandstands were dancing a routine, sort of like a flash mob. Belt buckle move this way, arms in the air like a lasso that way. It seemed so familiar, the dance. Then I realized the kids were all dancing the routine from the Wii game "Just Dance." Cotton-Eyed Joe is one of the songs on that game. I know because I've tush-pushed to it myself. Maybe tomorrow they'll play OutKast's "Hey Ya!"??
Food Research I had two Fair Food discoveries today, one good and one bad.
The good is very good. Deliciously good. Rob and I tried some Prosciutto Fries from a vendor that is related to one of our favorite local restaurants. I call the restaurant "The Butter Place" because they use butter in just about all of their dishes, including their spaghetti sauce. Anyway, we decided to find out what "Prosciutto Fries" are and discovered they are addicting. Lots of butter, shaved cheese, prosciutto slices, some fresh pepperoni, all on top of a heap of lightly crispy french fries. Yep, no cholesterol tests for us for a few months at least. YUM!
The bad discovery was actually a good thing to have learned. I now know I don't like anything at a vendor booth called The Smokehouse. In past years we tried their elephant ears (incorrectly billed as The Best) and were very disappointed. Tonight we tried their corn dogs because someone recommended them. We decided to add a side of onion rings, envisioning something involving Walla Wallas. Verdict: I wish I could get both my money and my stomach space back. While the hot dogs were good, there was hardly any corn batter around them. And the onion rings were all batter and hardly any onion. What onion was there was thin and tasteless. Such a disappointment. But at least now I know.
And on that note, here's today's Fair Food Parade. Oh, and today's walking mileage was a low 2.04 miles. I noticed at one point that my pedometer was incorrectly positioned, and we did a fair amount of walking one slow, small step at a time while looking at the 4-H exhibits. So I may have walked closer to 3ish miles, but the data is the data and thus shall be logged as 2.04 for today.
 |
| Cap'n Crunch Chicken Strips. Oddly sweet in mostly a good way. Definitely worth a try. Not sure I'll get them again, though, because they were too dry. But that could have been operator error. From the Bruchetta booth next to Hula Boy. |
 |
| Realizing how insanely tasty Prosciutto Fries are. Oh, the butter! |
 |
| A big lemonade shortly before I decided I needed air conditioning. |
 |
| Mixed Berry Pie from the Church Ladies booth! SO HAPPY!!!! |
 |
| A piratey Hawaiian Shaved Ice. Cinnamon, pineapple, and lemon. Next time I'll skip the lemon; it didn't add much. But the cinnamon was as tasty as last year and the pineapple reminded me of those Missile Pops Popsicles I loved as a kid. Mmm. |
 |
| Thoroughly unimpressed by the Smokehouse booth's measly version of a corn dog. |
 |
| Now I'm mad. Their onion rings suck, too. Boo! Shudda had corn on the cob instead. I must learn to better trust my instincts. |
No comments:
Post a Comment