Woodhaven Ramblings: 2014 FAIR! ~ Day 1

YAAAAAAY!!! It's the Fair! It's the Fair! It's the Fair!!

Today's Opening Day started off with a bang. Or, rather, a boom. We had quite a thunder and lightning storm last night that woke up most of the Portland metro at one time or another. We woke up at about 3:30am and then again at about 7:30am. Does it surprise anyone that my first thought was concern for the animals already housed at the Fairgrounds? And my second thought was fear that one of the rides had been struck by lightning? Please don't tell my cats I only eventually wondered if they were OK with all the noise.

We got to the Fairgrounds with much more leisure this morning than the past two years. We strolled in the Green Gate at around 11:30am, well before the noon expiration date for our free tickets. Naturally, we headed right to the Food Court for lunch. We spent the rest of the day wandering around, noting what was new and what was missing. We watched some competitions and then ended the evening with a rock concert. All in all, a very successful first day!

Highlights:

Mmmm, chicken
Always a favorite on Opening Day, we made sure to check out the Chicken Dress-Up Contest. It was quite a feathery array this year, with some kids putting quite a bit of effort into their fowl costumes and others obviously winging it at the last minute. The winner was a jailbird (chicken in jail), complete with a black and white striped suit. My favorite was the second place chicken, dressed as a chicken sandwich. Yes, I was apparently already in Fair Food Mode.

That's a pretty good price for Fair food

When it comes to putting a cat in a costume, safety first
We also stumbled upon another animal dress-up contest that we didn't know existed. We were on our way to find the Pad Thai vendor (shockingly still MIA) and took a shortcut through the Cat Barn. We saw a crowd gathered for what turned out to be the 4-H Cat Costume Contest. I quite enjoyed watching girls (no boys participated...hmmm) explain their costumes and coordinating cat. Rob wasn't as interested and busied himself learning about how to tell if your cat is obese (we will be looking for our 15-pound cat's ribs shortly).

It would have been eerie if they had used a photo of a black cat

Back to the contest, the key quality the judges were looking for in assessing the costumes was the safety of the cats in their attire. Meaning, the cats were not harmed by wearing the outfits. No assessments were made on the safety of the humans attempting to put the cats in said outfits. A wise and scratch-free set of 4-H'ers, most of the ensembles were heavy on the human costume and light on the cat suit. But it was still cute. My favorite was a Princess Leia with her cat kinda sorta dressed as R2D2.

Fashion Revue!
Another Opening Day must is the 4-H Style Show/Fashion Revue. It is where 4-H kids model clothing they have sewn themselves. I am always amazed at the sewing talent and amused by the variety of approaches to modeling.

Today's Revue did not disappoint. I always look forward to Miranda. She is only 14 but she could pass for much older both in looks and confidence. She owns any stage she is on and admirably strutted her stuff today in high heels and a beautiful party dress. She won first place.

A boy slightly older than Miranda decided to ham it up and hilariously exaggerated a cat walk exhibition while modeling his apron made out of a t-shirt featuring a goat (he didn't get a ribbon). We cheered the loudest, though, for Makayla. She is one of our neighbors and she did a fantastic job modeling her pretty green skirt. It was her first time in the revue. Since she came in second place in her division, I'm guessing we'll get to see her again next year, too. Sew on, Makayla!

Oh, signal strength, where art thou?
So as I revealed a few days ago, I am blogging "on the spot" at the Fairgrounds for the local paper. Several shorter blogs throughout the day so I can get some sleep at night. To do this blogging-on-the-go, I am carrying around a mobile hot spot that theoretically allows me to connect to the internet any old time I want to. Well...

Rob and I spent a good chunk of today wandering around the Fairgrounds looking for at least two bars of signal strength. Oddly, altitude seems to play a role. And by altitude I mean 10 feet. I was surprised that the signal was the most useless near the big exhibition hall that supposedly has Wifi in it. I was delighted to discover that the best signal anywhere to be found was in the grandstands. 3 bars and on the 4G network! (Don't I sound techy?? I only sort of know what I just typed.) I also found a nice shady spot behind a transit ticket booth with pretty good connection. I shared the secret hiding place with a Fair exhibitor enjoying her lunch. I suspect we'll be friends before the Fair is over.

Night Ranger Rocks!
The free concert tonight was Night Ranger. I was excited when I found out because I well remember their one hit in 1984. "Sister Christian" instantly transports me to the summer I turned 16. So naturally, with nostalgia for teen angst, I insisted we attend the concert even though I had no idea who was in the band or any other song they ever sang. For all I knew, Night Ranger was a one-hit-wonder.

And, pretty much I was right. Rob was stunned I didn't know a second hit they played. So make them a two-hit-wonder. Either way, it didn't matter. I absolutely had a ball at their concert!

Unlike their "Sister Christian" ballad, Night Ranger is a rather quintessential '80s rock band. And they know it. So even though the three band members (plus a drummer who sort of kept out of the spotlight most of the time) are all well into their 50s, they rocked their hearts out. They tossed their hair around, they did fist pump jumps, they posed for pictures while playing their guitars. They were having the time of their lives, living the rocker dream.

I amused myself by taking hair action photos. Every single picture I took, the guys are smiling big. They were having so much fun, it didn't matter that they were heavy on guitar solos...and I hate guitar solos. It didn't matter that I didn't know any but one song, predictably played at the end. It didn't matter that the grandstands were less than half-full. These guys rocked it like it was 1984 and we were a crowd of 10,000. Their joy was infectious. I think I might be a Night Ranger fan now. Sorry, Zeke.

Stats
Once again, I am wearing a pedometer at the Fair. Today I logged 3.72 miles. Pretty good, I think!

Today's re-entry hand stamp was a bunny rabbit.

I did my pre-Fair weigh-in this morning. I lost 2 pounds since last week, likely due to an excited pre-Fair stomach. I will be reporting at the end of the Fair how much of that weight and more I end up gaining from my Fair Food Feasting.

Which brings us to...the 2014 inaugural Fair Food Feast Parade. Mmmm!

I started off the morning with a Black Cherry flavored water from home so I could use the sport-capped bottle for water refills. Working well so far! The only thing I drank after this was water.

Crazy happy to have my first cob of corn!! I love it so.

The corn on the cob place has reinvented itself to also sell gourmet hot dogs. This is the Chicago Dog. The hot dog was very good. The rest was delicious but reaaaaaally messy. Good thing I was wearing my food stain shirt.

Realizing I forgot to pack dental floss

First Hawaiian Shaved Ice! I mixed cherry and green apple -- after reviewing my notes from last year. Mmmm!

Deep fried ice cream from a new vendor (Las Mesitas -- a Mexican restaurant in Battle Ground). I didn't like it. The ice cream was sort of boring and the deep fried coating wasn't dough. Instead it was like corn flakes. Mushy corn flakes. Ick. Rob helped me finish this one. We won't be going back.