Fran First, a Bit More Day 1 Fun
Before I get to our day 2 visit, there were a few things I didn’t cover in my Day 1 post because I wasn’t able to get the photos from Katie’s phone in time. So, here are a few more highlights!
Of course we had the roasted corn. I have this same picture so many times, so to mix it up I went for an artsy look.
We also checked out the giant veggies. The prize winning pumpkin was over 1800 lbs. this year!
We also did some learnin’! Here we are all taking turns learning how to use a weaving loom.
Ok, now we’re all caught up!
On to Day 2!
We turned right back around and went to the Fair again on Friday. Since we’re hosting our out-of-state friends Larry, Ilyse and Jake, I didn’t get a chance to blog our visit until now. It was fairly short and kid-centered, so not too much to report, but there were a few highlights!
After the parking debacle of the day before, I wasn’t about to risk a drive directly to the Fair, and I also thought it’d be nice to let our guests sleep in a bit on their vacation, so we opted for the paid Park And Ride from Bloomington, which it worked out just fine. Comfy busses that came without much wait for $6 total per person. Wayyy less stressful than our day 1 visit!
The ride in was full of anticipation and excitement. Upon arrival our littlest friend was a bit overwhelmed at all of the sights and sounds. So much to do and see he couldn’t process it all and decide what he wanted to do first. I get it, buddy! Luckily, dad came to the rescue with a big win on the Midway to score a dino backpack (pictured with the pretzel later in this post).
That certainly helped improve the mood, as did a big honkin bucket of Fresh French Fries…
…and some deep-fried pickles.
Two Fair food classics that need no further explanation.
While wandering down in the area, Ilyse was intrigued by Hotdish-on-a-Stick. Hotdish is quintessential Minnesota, so she was encouraged to try it.
Meatball-tater tot-meatball-tater tot-meatball, battered and deep fried, with cream of mushroom dipping sauce. Big hit for the native Long Islander!
Food in our bellies, we headed towards the animal barns. Or at least, we thought we would - until our littlest friend encountered the smell of the barns and stopped in his tracks. A little too much farm fragrance for him, he nope’d out of the barns, so we executed Plan B - project Pretzel Factory!
Although the pretzel certainly did the trick for him, for me it was definitely blah. I was hopeful that the Pretzel Factory might fill the void left when the Pretzel Haus stopped selling regular pretzels, but this one advertized as a true Bavarian pretzel wasn’t even close to as good. Sigh.
We had better luck with an old favorite, Turkey to Go.
Our first-timers really appreciated the simplicity of this sandwich, which lets the turkey and marinade shine.
Next up we hit the Kidway for some serious ride riding!
The Kidway/Midway continues to be the most overpriced and underwhelming part of the Fair for me, but the kids love it and as a parent you gotta just roll with it!
While we were tearin’ up the Kidway, Katie made a side trip to Baba’s.
If you haven’t been to Baba’s at the Fair yet, you’re missing out. Their hummus bowls are creative and delicious. Here’s this year’s new creation, the Ba’Bacon Sour Cream + Onion Hummus Bowl.
Delicious!! Tater tots and carmelized onions worked great in this, and the warm pita pillows are one of my most favorite things to eat at the Fair.
From there it was time for the Monster Shop Bump’n breakdancing show on the Family Fair stage. This was definitely a highlight of the day!
The breakdancing was legit, and at the end of the show, they invited the kids up on stage to show off their moves.
That’s Henry towering over all the other kids having the time of his life dancing away. Jake’s chilling in the back of the pack here.
The show ended just before the parade started, putting us in perfect position. We grabbed a seat on the curb and fueled up with some Bridge N Barrel root beer.
The parade is fun at the Fair, short and sweet, 20 minutes or so, but packed with marching bands and typical parade oddities.
The kids were starting to wear down so we slowly made our way back towards the transportation center. That conveniently put us within striking distance of Mouth Trap.
This was the east coasters’ first encounter with cheese curds, and they gave high marks.
And speaking of firsts, of course no first-time visit to the Fair is complete without a bucket of Sweet Martha’s. Our visitors enjoyed these cookies a lot, but were even more amazed to learn that Sweet Martha’s rakes in $4.5M in just 12 days.
After the cookies our day ended with a bus ride back to Bloomington. First visits are so hard to plan, especially with little ones in tow. There’s soooo much to see and do that you can’t possibly get to more than a tiny fraction of it. This visit happened to center on food and rides. We were there hours and yet, except for a brief stop in the Coliseum to see cow judging, we didn’t set foot in any of the permanent buildings - no Ag, Eco, Creative Arts, 4-H, Fine Arts, Dairy, the barns, DNR… and no Int’l Bazaar, North End, West End, Giant Slide, Farm Hands, Singalong, Lumberjacks, Stunt Dogs, Butterfly House, free concerts, Skyride, Space Tower, etc…etc…etc… it’s just nearly impossible to get more than a brief taste of the Fair in one day with kids. So a lot was left on the table, but we hope that what they did get to experience will leave them wanting to come back again!
We forgot to take a group photo at the Fair, so here’s one from mini golf the next day.
The Fabrizios are still trying to game plan our next visit - maybe an adult visit mid-week. Almost certainly another family visit will happen at some point. Stay tuned!
2024 Fair Visit #1!