Usually by now, Rob and I have wisely taken a day off from fairing. To rest, do laundry, refamiliarize ourselves with our cat, eat “normal” food. Boy, I can tell we’ve skipped that respite this year! Yowza, our bodies are talking to us! We’ve averaged 4.5 to 5 miles of walking each day, which is at least one mile more than usual. I will be switching to a third pair of shoes tomorrow just to give my aching feet something new to play in.
We arrived before the Fair opened this morning to help open
the Gazebo and get the first shift of volunteers situated. As Rob and I walked away, I overheard one of them say, "Wow, that was a GREAT orientation!" That made my little eavesdropping heart so happy! Marketing Intern
Trevor returns tomorrow, so we get to saunter into the Fairgrounds at more
lunchy hours from now on. YAY!
Rob and I spent the morning accumulating steps as we crisscrossed the Fairgrounds several times procuring needed Passport supplies and delivering them to various departments. We think we finally have a handle on all the different goat and beef departments, though I'm still a little fuzzy on the difference between a meat goat and a market goat. And now that I think of it...people eat goats?!? Ewwww.
The Swine Superintendent’s wife was super helpful in officially filling in the very last blank on our Passport Department Participant Spreadsheet! Yes, folks, we are DONE!! Only took us 5 days! We celebrated our accomplishment by visiting the Beer Garden for the first time this year. We split one tiny plastic bottle of the one and only wine offered (Barefoot Chardonnay) in celebration. Cheers to a completed spreadsheet!!!
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| Note the tiny bottle on the table. And don't I look all adulty and IDed with my neon "She Can Drink Booze" wristband? |
When we were trying to track down the Swine Superintendent,
we chatted with a 4H Pig Mom that I remembered from last year. She remembered
me, too, and told me how much her daughter Taylor had enjoyed talking to me and
my mom last year. I was so touched! Rob and I waved our paddle
around at last year’s livestock auction to modestly support Taylor, which
apparently made a big impression. Talking to people about your 4H project can literally pay off!
Eager to reconnect – especially after learning that Taylor is a huge supporter of the Passport to Fun program – we found Taylor near the pig show ring. I thoroughly enjoyed chatting with her, talking pigs and Passports, and basking in that glow of community that comes from fairing (almost) every day, every year. Yay Fair Joy!
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| I can't wait to wave my auction paddle around again on Saturday when Taylor enters the show ring! She is aging out of 4H after this year, so it will be my last chance to $how her some love and $upport. |
With our Passport Spreadsheet officially done and no Gazebo
duties until the 8pm close, Rob and I decided to finally explore the Big Air
Conditioned Building.
We wandered through the commercial area where we went largely unaccosted by salespeople selling really sharp knives, flagpoles, chiropractic adjustments, and mattresses. I got two of my rings cleaned in return for listening to a much-rehearsed spiel, and Rob chatted up a nice saleswoman selling permanent Christmas lights for houses. It sounded like a cool idea until we did the dollar math. YIKES!
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| I was loving the idea of Rob never having to go up on our roof again, but decided we can hire one of those light installer people for a LOT less than the $8-$10K it would take to add these fancy lights to our house. The infinitely customizable app sure looked fun, though. |
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| My great-grandmother's wedding ring and my engagement ring are so sparkly now! I will have to circle back to get my wedding band spiffed up. |
We poked around the fruit and veggies entries. All the ripe tomatoes looked tantalizing, as did some beautiful plums. It was clearly snack time.
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| I have never seen so many grape entries at our Fair before! I pay attention because Rob has occasionally entered our Riesling wine grapes. Curious, I looked at the entry tags. Most of these were from the same family. Nice work Stephanie, Jennifer, Jason, Ryan, Emma, Gene, Nathan, Brody, and Kayla. I wonder if they have any grapes left to eat?? |
Over in the Fine Arts, Crafts & Hobbies, and Quilting exhibits, I spent some time seriously contemplating my favorite picks. This is a very important pronouncement each year. Although they didn't reach Favorite status, a couple of entries made me laugh out loud.
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| Favorite Kid Art! Pasta art made by 3-year-old Shannon with watercolors and noodles. Shannon likes sunshine and balloons. I like carbs. |
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| Favorite quilt! I love the mix of happy colors and the design is really intricate! For some reason it made me think of the circus. Or Southwest Airlines. Same difference. |
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| Spotted in the Fine Arts exhibit. Best I can tell, it was entered after judging, out of view of the judges. The artist even drew their own purple 1st place ribbon! The title of this masterpiece is "Man Stick." Might it win "People's Choice"?? |
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| I'm so intrigued by the correction on this entry tag! Originally named "Large painting of nightmares (but not really scary)" nightmares was crossed out and replaced with "Herb childhood pet" So Herb was a nightmare?? |
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| The accompanying artwork. This is presumably Herb. At minimum, his hat looks like a nightmare. |
We capped off the day with Tyzen’s early hypnosis show. He did different prompts than in his late show, which was a fun surprise!
We found out that a friend was featured in Tyzen’s late show last night! We were SO bummed we pooped out after the Demolition Derby and went home. BOOO!!
Texting with Andrew’s wife, we learned that – as Tyzen promised – Andrew remembers everything he did on stage. He said he was very aware of what he was doing but didn’t feel embarrassed at all. However, he would NEVER have done any of the imagined harmonica playing, body building, or duck CPR (just go with it) in “real” life.
Last I heard, an adult daughter was high-tailing it back home to watch the full video of Andrew's hypnotic antics on Mom’s phone. I’ve asked to be on the distribution list if Andrew ever allows the video to go viral (at least amongst his friends). FAIR JOY!!
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| Participants all snuggly to keep warm. |
FAIR FOOD FEAST COLLAGE!
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| Top Row: The Italian Raclette Smashed Potato again. SO good! I would eat this every day if possible. Boring-looking Lemon-Basil-Cucumber water from the Raclette booth. Usually cucumber water tastes like dirt. The Lemon and Basil make it refreshingly undirt-like. YUM! Playing with caramel now! This is a Caramel Cookies n Cream milkshake, as recommended by my friend Ali. Great call, Ali! The caramel actually added more saltiness than sweetness so I enjoyed this more than just plain Cookies n Cream. Bottom Row: Barefoot Chardonnay from the Beer Garden to celebrate the completion of our Passport to Fun Department Participants Spreadsheet. It was the only wine choice in the beer garden. It was very appropriate for the setting (a covered tent on dirt). We will be celebrating with real wine after the Fair. Chicago Dog from Boppin' Bo's booth in the Food Court. So disappointing! The ingredients were fine, and I enjoyed the pickle, but the hot dog was like a long cocktail weenie. So small and slightly mushy and totally unsatisfying. I can not believe I paid $9 for it! BOOO! Churro Sandwich from the Don Bigote Churro booth near the Grandstands. Rob ate most of it but I really enjoyed the cinnamony churro and the quality vanilla ice cream. It was quite large for the price, too. Rob said the leftover churro milk was really tasty. I will be trying something else from this booth! It's a little tricky, though, since the menu is in Spanish and the price tags cover up the descriptions. What I order next will be a mystery! |
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