Fran Today was opening day for the 2017 Minnesota State Fair, and I went with Katie Richards Fabrizio, Henry, and Sally Richards. Lots of fun and food!
State Fair 2017 is underway! First stop - Warner Coliseum for the horse show. We watched the youth jumper class competition - young kids riding these horses!
I stepped out to get some breakfast for us, and came across our Minnesota Governor, Mark Dayton, doing a Q&A with Kerri Miller and the audience at the MPR booth. I love stumbling upon these kinds of things at the Fair!
Meanwhile, Henry and Yaya were enjoying the horse competition. Henry is in his usual “intense watching and cheering” mode.
Our first new food item for this year - the Bacon Fluffernutter from the Sandwich Stop. Cinnamon bun stuffed with bacon, marshmallow, peanut butter and pressed on a panini press then covered with powdered sugar and served with syrup to dip. We all agreed it was intense and needed to be shared. I liked it a lot, the others thought it was so-so.
The search for decent coffee at the Fair continues. This was from the Cloud Forest stand. I like their eco-consciousness a lot better than I liked their coffee. Cold press and cappuccino, I thought both were weak. Outside of the Farmer’s Union and the People’s Organic stand inside of French Meadow, good coffee is really hard to find at the Fair.
More horse competition. Hard to see how young the riders were.
Henry could not pause for a picture, there was intense horse watching to be done! Katie is rocking her homemade Fair shirt here. This shirt got many rave reviews from strangers over the course of the day!
After horses, we went to the sheep barn on Henry’s request, because he remembered the sheep haircut from last year and wanted to see it again. The sheep farmers spend hours cutting and grooming the sheeps’ coats before the judging.
We’re here to win!
We’ll see about that!
Luckily right next to the Sheep Barn is the Pretzel Haus, my snack category winner from last year! Here we’re trying a salted one with butter. The dough is so good!
More sheep haircuts!
This is Henry’s “I’m watching sheep getting their hair cut!” dance.
After sheep, we headed towards the rides, which took us right past the roasted corn stand. You didn’t think we were passing that up, did you? The corn is strong right out of the gate this year, unlike last year when it started so-so and got better as the Fair went on.
Katie’s artistic shot of the sky swings! There will never be a photo of me on that thing, that’s for sure!
The weather was perfect - 70s and sunny - and that brought the crowds out for what is usually a quiet first day, attendance-wise.
Henry found a great attraction in the Kidway, this pirate obstacle course! There he is high up on a bridge!
We also hit the slide on the Kidway. Both boys had a lot of fun!
Farmer Henry driving his tractor.
Monster trucks!
All those rides made Henry hungry. This About a Foot Long Hot Dog stood no chance against his appetite.
After he polished that off, he went after our Peterson’s Pork Chops! And if you were paying attention last year, you know that this pork chop was crowned Best Fair Food! He has good taste. I suspect this won’t be our last pork chop of the year.
And here he is eyeing up dessert, the Minneapple Pie. Fried apple pie topped with vanilla and cinnamon ice cream. It was a huge hit when it debuted a few years back, and we missed it the last couple of years, so this was a happy moment. Great crust, still-a-bit-crunchy apples, yummy ice cream. It all works. Between the four of us, we made quick work of it.
Katie again showing off the tee shirt outside of the Horticulture building. She’s got other ones planned for the other Fair days, too - stay tuned!
We staked out some high, shady ground to watch the daily parade. There were four giant cattle statues in the parade.
Henry approved of the cow statues and all the high school marching bands and old timey fire trucks, too!
Ok, I apologize for this picture, but the deal is I have to show you everything we ate. And it’s really hard to make jerky look attractive in a photo. This is teriyaki jerky from Cynthia’s Sausage, and despite this photo, it’s delicious! Very tender and flavorful. Probably the best jerky I’ve had at the Fair.
Sally was craving a Turkey-to-Go sandwich, that oft-overlooked Fair delight that the Fabrizio/Richards clan loves, so that was our next stop. It’s conveniently/ominously placed right across the street from the Poultry Barn… The sandwich is as good as ever!
A bit later, we made a quick detour to the Preferred Pickle stand for the deep fried pickles. We get ‘em every year, love those sour, crunchy little buggers!
We paused when Henry zonked out. We were by the All You Can Drink Milk booth, so I went for the half-and-half chocolate and white milk combo. I usually don’t want milk in hot August weather, but the cool breezy 70s weather this year was perfect for this.
Tired boy is recharging!
After the nap, Henry wanted to see more sheep! So back in we went… this shows how close the farmers sleep to their animals when they are at the Fair. Air mattress in one pen, sheep in the next. The farmers are really dedicated to their flocks!
MORE haircuts!
….and MORE HAIRCUTS!
At the end of our day, we briefly met up with our Ness cousins Konr, Jenny, Adelaide and Kellen. Fellow Fair lovers, they had just returned from an eclipse-watching trip to South Carolina last night, but that didn’t stop them from hitting the Fair opening day! Love the dedication, guys!
That’s a wrap for visit #1! Our next visit may be Saturday (weather- and babysitter-dependent). Bye for now!
