In Which We Go to The Fair

Friends, I haven't gone to the County Fair in ages.  I think the last time I went was with a friend, maybe when we were in middle school.  I remember we were there at night, trying to find my friend's parents to go home.  It was really exciting and pretty at first, and we felt so super-cool and grown up being on our own.  Then we got into the area with the rides and games, and there were a lot of drunk and seedy looking people, and it scared the bejesus out of us.  Haven't been back since.

Until today.

I had the day off, my best friend had the day off, and we decided to get our Fair on.

Let me just start by saying: heck of a lot different than I remember it being!  Much more family-friendly, Disney vibe than I remember, and no drunk people.  Of course, we were also there during the day when many families were around, so that could be part of the difference.

Do you want to see pictures?  Hope so, because I took a lot of them!

We started with the gardening/horticultural displays where the theme this year was Lights, Camera, Action!

This might be the closest I ever get to the Hollywood sign.

Olaf and a Minion

We wandered through the games and rides.  We tried to win a prize and lost.

Most of the time, we wandered around checking out all of the animals.

Word of advice:  you don't really need to walk through the cow barns.  Their heads, for the most part, are facing out.  You will just get to see a lot of cow derrieres.

The sheep had some interesting outfits.  The sign said it was to keep them clean.  

There was a giant pig, which we did not go to see.  We were afraid the poor thing was being force-fed to get that big, and we weren't about to give money to support that.

 We watched the pig races. (Hand-raised by the owner's children.  You could even meet them after the race.)

We watched some of  the practice session for the Dock Diving Dogs

 I don't know which pig this is, but I just loved that their names were Sassy and Big Momma.

We saw cows, sheep, a camel, llamas, goats, and a horse.  Honestly, that sheep (bottom left) only loved me enough to let me capture that picture because I had just fed it.  I've got nothing on the girl kissing the horse -- don't know who she is.

I do know, however, why the horse was there.  He was one of the horses who would be involved in a very special event.

We tried to make friends with one of the pigs.  

It was a little warm, and he/she was one of the few pigs who was even up and moving. I kept calling the pig Buddy and Bud.  Don't know why.  Apparently that's what I do when I meet a pig.  My friend went with "Piggy Wiggy".

We also watched the Pot-bellied Pig Races.  Not a fast race, but cute!

And we met a robot, who was messing with a guy in front us, and then decided to take a cute picture with a little girl.

We ate some fair food, but nothing crazy that you need to see in pictures.

And, of course, the only time I saw anyone I knew the entire time was when I was buying alcohol. To be fair:  the Lavender Hops cider from Awestruck was delicious, and I needed a bottle to take home. Consider it a grown-up "souvenir" from the fair.  

Now, I must make treats for my book discussion group at work tomorrow night.  Go back to your busy lives, people.  Nothing more to see here.