Fran Fran and Henry hit the Fair on opening day!
There’s nothing like the first day of the Minnesota State Fair! There’s a buzz in the air, everyone’s excited, the true fans that have waited all year for this are on their way to the Fair with their snappy Fair tee shirts, their marked up maps, chattering about what they’re going to eat first… in short, day one is all about being surrounded by MY PEOPLE! And the Fair itself never looks better than on day one: the grass is still green, all the workers are cheery, and the sidewalk hasn’t yet turned into a carpet of smashed Sweet Martha’s cookies.
With that as the setting, Henry and I put in a solid 9+ hours at the Fair today! It was a last-minute boys’ day today because of a very poorly timed foot stress fracture that has sidelined my partner in all things Fair, @[1049225603:2048:Katie Richards Fabrizio]. She had to sit this one out (don’t worry, I know she’ll find a way to get to the Fair one or two times this year one way or another…). So a quick spoiler alert - if you’re looking for my usual amount of new food reviews, this is not the post for you. Since I was single parenting and letting Henry drive the schedule today, I was pretty much limited to what’s available on a line between the animal barns and the Kidway, and we were also missing one of our team members who usually shares the burden of eating all that food! So today we played it pretty much straight down the middle as the Fair goes - only one new food today!
On the other hand, seeing the Fair through an 8 year old’s eyes is always fun. So, without further ado…
Last year’s sleeper hit was the Turbo Jump trampoline. When I spotted no line, we made it our first stop. Now, this, like almost all rides at the fair, is objectively a terrible deal value-wise. But…
…how much would you pay…
…for two minutes of pure joy?! This ride does it every time for Henry.
As he came off the high (see what I did there?) of the Turbo Jump, he declared we should have mini donuts for breakfast. It’s day one at the Fair, so yes, Henry, that’s exactly what we should do!
Speaking of breakfast, today was also open house for the new school year, so we spent the first part of our morning at school and got a late start to the Fair, missing breakfast hours. So, I jumped right into lunch with the first and only new food today, the Turkish Pizza from Blue Moon Dine-In Theater. Is it worth it? Yeah, I’d probably do it again. The meat is spiced really well and the toppings were fresh and gave it a cool balance, and it was plenty of food for $9. But it’s not a pizza. You can’t pick it up by the slice, the naan is way too soft for that. It’s either a fork situation or you’re rolling this up like a burrito. It might work better as a bowl with naan on the side. (Henry thought the meat was a little too spicy, by the way.)
He was much happier with the all-you-can-drink milk nearby (he opted for chocolate, of course). At $2, still one of the best deals of the Fair (we refilled 4 times today!)
And that was as long as Henry could stand to be at the Fair without seeing some sheep haircuts! (We talk about the sheep haircuts all. year. long!) Into the sheep barn we headed, and there was plenty of haircut action to take in.
After haircuts, we headed across the way to his other favorite, the horse show. He sprinted up the ramp into the arena, and we watched the Jumper competition.
After the horse show ended, we wandered through the DNR Building (great wildlife display diorama, which I totally forgot to take pictures of) and stopped to feel a coyote pelt and learn more about them. Then it was time to head over to the new location of the bike and skate show. This was the surprise hit of the day for Henry. He loved it!
We watched the entire show, visited with the athletes afterwards, and then stayed ANOTHER half hour to watch them practice.
This captures Henry’s excitement as we sat in the grass and watched the performers fly through the air.
We headed over towards the Kidway, which conveniently brought us right past the corn roast. I was really nervous about this because our weather has been so terrible this year for growing corn (have you noticed the corn plants are still tiny around here?) But…phew…the corn was solid. It wasn’t last year’s transcendant experience, but definitely what you expect when you think of Fair corn. More of that to come in the next couple of weeks!
Henry revisited some of his favorite Kidway rides from last year, including the pirate obstacle course/slide…
…and the dragon coaster. New this year: our little daredevil does coasters (including adult-sized ones) hands-up now!
Speaking of old Fair favorites that often go overlooked…on the way back to the animal area I detoured for some Big Fat Bacon. Henry played it cool, pretending he didn’t want any before I bought it. Then I offered him a bite. Then he ate 2/3rds of this. :-) As Fair guilty pleasures go, it’s pretty hard to beat the carmelized sweetness, crispy edges, and unapologetically fat-infused salty delight that is thick-cut bacon on a stick.
You know I love my random discoveries at the Fair. Today’s was the Bucket Brigade - bucket drummers who did an “impromptu” (so impromptu there happened to be a cameraman onsite…) performance in the middle of a busy thoroughfare. Henry loved the percussion music, no surprise there!
After the corn, the other thing I was worried about was whether Turkey to Go would return to form after an absolutely awful year last year. And the verdict is… YES! No more dry, overdone turkey. The bun on a Turkey to Go should be soaked by the time you get to the backside of the sandwich, and they nailed it today.
A quick pass through the Miracle of Birth barn. Baby sheep!
Henry has always loved this milking machine you can play with in the Cattle Barn. Now that we’ve been so many years with him, it’s fun to see him going back to his own little traditions!
Another of my favorite classics, the Pretzel Haus pretzel. I’ve apparently passed my love of this on to Henry, as he ripped into it before I could even take a picture!
Why watch just one horse show in a day when you can watch two? We were back for the evening Performance Jumper show (just like Jumper, but faster and timed). Earlier in the day we visited the horse barn and met Nairobi and his rider Shannon and she chatted with us as they prepared for this competition. So we had a horse to root for, and he won his class!
Finally, after 10 hours, we headed towards the exit. Which passes right by a Sweet Martha’s stand, and since Katie requested we bring her something….
….we headed home with an entire bucket (that was a reasonable interpretation of “bring me something”, right?) Well, what was left of the entire bucket, anyway. And this year’s Fair poster, of course!
Mission accomplished!
We’ll be back on Sunday with a lot more adults on hand, so I’ll have a lot more new foods to report on then. Hang in there!
