So this morning, Rob headed off to a distant river a couple hours away for a very special celebration for a very special friend who passed away in January. Meanwhile, I stopped in at a bridal shower for one of my most favorite redneck ladies. Don’t worry, I mean that and she will take that as a compliment. Please note the camo hat with tiara.
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| Antlers up! Original plan for their honeymoon was to go hunting. I think Hawaii won out, though. |
I then “did the Fair” all by myself for a few hours. Although I know I could have put the word out and had company, I still wasn’t feeling great from yesterday’s rough start to the whole Fair Food Feasting thing. So I thought some slow and steady wandering and resting in the shade might be just fine for a few hours.
Much to my surprise, it was a rather peaceful afternoon. Rob didn’t arrive until 4:00pm so I had about 3 hours to take my time and try to regain some semblance of an appetite. Don’t get me wrong, though. I missed Rob terribly and actually got my hand stamped to exit the Fair so I could meet him in the parking lot as soon as he texted me he was onsite. Here’s how I kept myself entertained in the meantime:
Whey better than the Robotics non-demonstration
I decided I wanted to make a concerted effort to go see new things today, stuff I am not typically interested in. The 4-H Robotics Demonstration at 1:00 was perfect! Knowing that 4-H schedules are merely suggestions, I checked in with one of the adults at about 12:45 to make sure the demonstration was still planned. Assured it was, I went in search of a boring hot dog and my appetite.
I returned at about 1:10pm and found a whole lotta nothing going on with the robotics kids. They were tapping on their computers and chatting with each other, but nothing was whirring or motoring or moving stuff around. I tried to look interested, but nobody struck up a conversation and I didn’t have the energy to start asking random questions so I decided to move onto the next 1:00 4-H activity on the schedule: Poultry Conformation Judging.
I wasn’t sure exactly what I was looking for but I figured the barn with the birds it in would be a good guess. (See, award winning head space!) As I was heading over there, though, I got totally distracted by several benches set up in the shade all facing an older woman sitting at a table decorated with flowers and a plate of grapes. I saw one seat open on a bench so I sat down and realized I had just happened upon the completely unlisted and unadvertised Goat Cheese Judging. I stayed there for 45 minutes, utterly fascinated.
I learned all sorts of Fun Facts about cheese making, mainly that it is whey more complicated than I ever imagined. There’s lots of chemistry and patience involved and lots of room for experimentation. I heard about Greek cheeses and Mediterranean cheeses and English cheeses. Salt, acid, texture, carbon dioxide, peptides, washed curds, microenvironments, soft vs hard vs grating cheeses…all sorts of notes that I am not entirely sure what I plan to do with.
I was thoroughly impressed with the judge, though. While the first impression was that she might have been at Woodstock and lives with a lot of cats, she totally blew me away with her ability to taste a sliver of cheese and detail at which point in the process things might have gone wrong and why.
She was critical but benevolent and encouraged audience participation. She completely explained her thought process behind each award and I walked away almost inspired to start trying to make cheese myself. Almost. But that’s pretty impressive considering how much more I prefer to purchase my food than prepare it. Great job, Judge Mary!
Chatted up by Viola
After the cheese judging was over, I went in search of a quiet, shady spot so I could write a quick blog for the newspaper. I found a completely empty table under a tree and set up shop.
I had just gotten started when a friendly but tired looking woman in her 60s ambled over and asked if she could share my table. I smiled and invited her to enjoy the shade as I kept typing along. I was down to the last few edits and choosing a photo when the woman finally couldn’t take it anymore.
“What ARE you doing?” she asked in the most delicious southern drawl.
And thus Viola from a teensy town near Corpus Christi, Texas became the first and so far only person to ask me why I am working on a computer at the Fair. That includes all of last year, too.
Much like I have found with Texans, Viola and I became fast friends chatting about the weather, warm rain versus cold rain, people watching, the weirdness and hairiness of Portland, the concession but wisdom to move near family when one gets older, the utter and surprising betrayal a body can impose as one ages, neuropathy from diabetes, anxiety, soft serve chocolate ice cream, and the community gathering and spirit that a county fair done right can engender. You know, all the typical chit chat.
We probably talked for about a half hour. It was unplanned, unscheduled, totally spontaneous, and utterly enjoyable. THIS is one of the huge benefits of going to the Fair every day. Plenty of time to see everything AND plenty of time to make a new friend.
He flinched a lot less than I did
Finished with my blogging, I decided to walk around a bit and eventually settled in for a nice piano concert. It was a young guy who pretty much only said his name and otherwise played the piano with fingers flying so fast they were blurry. The decidedly un-Fair-like interlude was very relaxing and peaceful, except when the horn from the Sling Shot ride behind the stage blasted a reminder that we were at the Fair and not Nordstrom.
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| Turns out he is a friend-of-a-friend and I was told he used to be in a goth heavy metal band and toured South America. Now that's talent cuz there was NOTHING near goth or heavy metal in Nick's performance. Well, OK, he IS wearing all black... |
It’s tough to be a pirate these days
Rob FINALLY arrived at 4:00pm. If my back and knee and sense of propriety in public had allowed, I would have leapt on him with both legs wrapped around his waist when I finally spotted him outside the Green Gate. My Fair Buddy was back!!!
We walked around, compared our days, and took photos of the food I was still eating to replace my pathetic selfie attempts. We ended up on the benches at the Pirate’s Parrot show conveniently just minutes before show time so we decided to stay and find out how the show is different after a couple years of bumps.
The Pirate and his parrots first came to the Fair several years ago. It was a very cool show with a huge pirate ship, lots of birds, tons of education, and more laughs than we expected. It was a hit so Pirate Christopher and his flock of parrots returned the next year.
But last year, the show was scaled way back and was actually more of an exhibit. Smaller ship, no microphone, just a guy dressed in a pirate suit festooned with real birds, eager and desperate to answer questions if you decided to stop on your way to the cotton candy.
This year, the ship is bigger but not nearly as piratey. The location is much better, though, and it is billed as a show with actual times and a schedule.
Addressing the changes right off the bat, Pirate Christopher explained at the top of his show that “disaster struck in 2012” and he now has an entirely new ship AND new crop of birds he is still training. Naturally, I was desperate to know the details. And naturally, they were not revealed during the show.
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| Yes, that kid is doing push-ups. He got an answer wrong. Such is life on a pirate ship. |
However, there are many benefits to lingering and taking your own sweet time to move along after a show at the Fair. Primary among them is eventually a pirate might walk past you and thank you for coming, obviously opening the door to an in-depth, personal, soul-searching conversation about nasty divorces and sharky lawyers and a determination to piece back together a life serving the needs of parrots worldwide. Arrrgh.
Oh, and right, this happened.
Finally, my self-appointed status as an honorary Fair Court Princess is official! I even wore the right color shirt to celebrate!
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| It took me a minute to figure out how to pose as a princess. I'm so out of practice! Still awaiting the delivery of my crown. |
So bored, I broke out the selfie stick only to realize its battery was dead
We finished out the day with a concert in the grandstands by Steppenwolf. I thought I only knew one of their songs (“Born to Be Wild”) so I was surprised when I recognized a second. I asked Rob if “Magic Carpet Ride” was really their song or if they were covering it as they had just done with a Muddy Waters tune. Thanks to my spiffy new smartphone and, honestly, some boredom, we confirmed that the Carpet Ride was indeed a Steppenwolf creation and it was born the same year I was.
The concert was ok but I was really just waiting to hear “Born to Be Wild.” The lead singer knew it and teased the audience several times by mentioning The Song but then dashing our hopes by explaining how the next song they were about to play related to their hit. It was amusing at first but then sort of annoying.
So I busied myself watching a guy in his 40s with a jaunty pork pie hat work the dirt dance floor with impressive success. And rolled my eyes at several pairs of smokers covertly enjoying Washington’s recreational pot legalization directly in front of NO SMOKING signs. And smiled and laughed while a little boy about 5 years old did his best break dancing in the dirt to the utter amusement and encouragement of his mom who likely figured the laundry was worth it for a tuckered out little boy at the end.
Nearly an hour and a half into the concert (next to last song), the moment finally arrived and “Born to Be Wild” rocked out across the Fairgrounds. Although a few of the notes weren’t quite as strong as my iTunes version, the moment was still electrifying with everyone on their feet and singing along. A rainbow even appeared during the song which I’m sure heralded something of great significance to the smokers. All in all, worth the wait. Oh, and my new selfie stick (thanks for the gift, Theresa!) is charging as we speak.
Fair Day Data
- Total walking logged on my pedometer: 3.95 miles
- Time at which we saw today’s first set of Magic Broom being carried around: 3:20pm
- Re-entry hand stamp: lamb
Fair Food Feast Parade!
Still recovering, today’s binging was rather sad. Food just didn’t sound good for a good long while. As my weary stomach trudged through the day, I tried to give it peace offerings of mild, happy, uncomplicated goodies. By the end of the night it was doing much better but was still a little shaky. We’ll see how tomorrow goes after some much needed sleep. So, please accept my apologies at this meager and short little parade.
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| Really boring hot dog from the Exhibition Hall. Chosen on purpose for its boringness. I thought about using the selfie stick for this but I felt awkward enough as it was eating by myself and taking a selfie while eating a hot dog. |
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| Rob is back and rescued me from terrible food selfies! This here is a Very Big Sprite which took me all day to finish. In normal life, I only drink one can of soda per week, so as boring as this is, this is still a treat. |
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| I needed salt so I bought this bag of White Cheddar popcorn. It was very tasty and I still have about half the bag left. It toured the Fairgrounds with me all day.Want some? |
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| Ready to ease into something classic and simple: a chocolate vanilla swirl from the Church Ladies Pie booth. In years past, I have determined I like their soft serve ice cream best. |
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| Getting brave! An Irish Sundae with The Works! A baked potato with cheese, sour cream, butter, bacon, sausage, and chives. I finished about 2/3 of it. I was disappointed to let so much of it go uneaten, but given where I started today, I'm pleased with my progress. |
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