2022 Visit #2: Date Night

Fair visit #2, our traditional date night visit!

On Wednesday night, Katie and I headed back to the Fair for our date night. We had plans to try some more new foods, do some of the activities that Henry isn’t so into, like the Creative Activities building, and catch some live music.

Since the transit shuttles drop off at the West End, we headed right to Lulu’s Public House to try their two buzzy new items. First up was the tot dog. We had high hopes, but we could tell this one was rushed - it’s a great, substantial hot dog, but it became too much when paired with a thin, greasy coating of tots. We’ve seen pictures of this which a much more generous coating, but I think they were having trouble keeping up with demand, as this seemed hastily put together and fried in too-cold oil. We can see the potential here, but it only gets a 2.5/4.

Next up was their Southern Chicken Biscuit Sandwich. Another near miss - the biscuit was fine, the chicken had a great coating but was a little overdone, and the pimiento cheese was strangely bland. This would have benefitted from some pickles to liven it up. 2.5/4 again.

Feeling let down by Lulu’s we decided to try another new food on a whim, the Chili Dog Sliders at Blue Moon. Glad we did, these were great! The chilis were both really flavorful and decently spicy. Katie liked the green chili best, I liked the red chili best, and the prickly pear slushie was the perfect pairing.

We then wandered through the nearby mural park, where BIPOC artists have been completing murals during the Fair. Here are a couple of samples.

This one was my favorite.

Rounding out dinner, the corn roast of course. Fantastic as always. 3.5/4.

We headed over to Creative Activities building to check in on one of our favorite Fair things, the food competitions. I had never noticed the “set of 3 flavored oils” category before!

The maple syrup entries are always impressive.

As are the breads.

Let’s congratulate Bob from Bloomington. I’m pretty sure his innovative diamond pattern on his peanut butter cookies are what got him the blue ribbon. But innovative patterns were a theme - check out those Charlie Brown zig-zags on 4th place!

I always like checking in on the “Collections” category - it’s a catch-all category literally for “collections of things” so they’re always random and fun to look at. This is probably the most well-curated collection I’ve ever seen, I was really impressed with this!

I was also blown away by this wooden benched carved to look like it was upholstered. How does one get this level of talent??

For our friends of a certain age, here’s a fun one…this needlepoint has one object or phrase from every episode of Friends! See if you can find your favorite episode.

I thought this was clever - various chicken-based dishes represented as actual chickens!

We exited the Creative Activities building to this lovely night sky scene of the Space Tower and a crescent moon. Perfect night for Fair-going.

There was a band playing on one of the free stages that I wanted to see (Low Cut Connie), but first, I needed a mini donut beer. Grabbed that real quick….

….and headed over to the show. They’re known for an energetic live show and they didn’t disappoint. This is a band from Philly that’s been around for like ten years and counts Barack Obama, Bruce Springsteen and Elton John among their fans. The Fair organizers bring in decent talent for the free stages!

With the night starting to wind down, it was time for dessert. We tried the Gray Duck Sundae at Bridgeman’s. This is licorice flavored ice cream. I hate licorice. I LOVED this. It’s probably the best ice cream I’ve had at the fair. The crunchy mini marshmallows absolutely made this perfect. It wasn’t over the top too-sweet or massive like so many of the Fair ice cream things. Loved it! 4/4!

On the way out, we made a spontaneous decision to do a round-trip on the Skyride. I love seeing the Fair from above, it helps you sense the ridiculous scale of it.

You didn’t think we were done eating, did you?? One of the best things about the Skyride is that when you’re done, it lets you out right across from the deep fried pickles. Yes please! We ate these on the way out to the bus line. A fun date night at the Fair was complete!