The Minnesota State Fair

is a big deal! A really big deal. They way people act about it reminds me of Texas pride. You would think we were living in Texas.



We have gone a couple of times and it is okay. We usually leave a little disappointed. This year we asked around more so we wouldn't miss the good stuff (the fair is HUGE).

We tried:
Corn dogs (made fresh) - Marginal
Deep fried cheese curds - Marginal/gross
Sweet corn ice cream - rip off/just ok (i don't like chewy ice cream)
Lemonade - really good
Malts from Dairy Barn - great

We did two rides:
The Giant Slide - Awesome! The whole family enjoyed.
The river raft - Awesome. Short but the entire family had fun. (there is a plus side to having super tall children - Will managed to be 36 inches exactly)

We saw the biggest pumpkin I have ever seen in my life. We watched bees in honeycomb. We watched the butter princesses being carved. We saw horses, cows, and pigs. It was quite entertaining.

Marcus and I decided to head back sans kids that evening and it was a little less thrilling. More smoke, more beer, more noise - if that is possible. It was still nice to be out together.
Unbeknownst to us, we had chosen "senior day" at the fair. You didn't have to worry about strollers but man were there a ton of motorized wheel chairs. In the honey/bee exhibit one lady rear-ended another lady in her chair. I couldn't help but laugh. It was like senior citizen bumper cars. Another lady shouted out to Marcus to get out of her way. She was feisty!

The best part was finding out that Marcus' cousin was at the fair with one of the coolest rides, the sling shot. We didn't ride it (at least not yet) but were able to have Coby over last night. I had never met him and Marcus hadn't seem him in years. It was great to visit and get to know him. He has two little boys so it was fun to share stories. Marcus had about a million and one questions for him about his business with the "sling shot". And we were able to offer him some non-fair food. In general, it was just fun to have family around.


And that's about it for the Minnesota State Fair 2011 (other than the fact that Marcus is sure to head back to the fair to give the Sling Shot a go!)