Fran We hit the Fair on day 1 with Henry for a family day! With Katie Richards Fabrizio
Team Fabrizio is back at one of our favorite places on the planet, ready for another 12 days of Great Minnesota Get-Together fun!
First order of business: breakfast. I hit the Blue Barn for last year’s breakfast winner, Wild Bill’s Breakfast Bake. What a yummy way to start the Fair - eggs, roasted chicken, chorizo, corn tortilla layers, salsa, lettuce, pickled onions. Still awesome. We’re off to a good start!
I also got their French toast bites. These were surprisingly good and surprisingly light, with berry sauce and cream, and green pop rocks, because - Fair! Aside from the pop rocks gimmick, this was legit French toast. I’d be happy with this at any restaurant. Also, bonus points to Blue Barn for serving breakfast all day. Between a late start and parking challenges, we didn’t get in the Fair until after 11am. I thought my breakfast dreams were dashed, but no!
Speaking of parking challenges - this is the most crowded first day of the Fair I can remember. By 11am, all onsite and most park-and-ride parking was already completely full and the Fair was crowded. Luckily, I have contract parking at a U lot near a park n ride. Came in handy today!
Henry has been talking about the sheep haircuts since last year’s Fair, so it’s no surprise this was his first stop. Spent a good hour with the sheep today!
We did eventually settle into our family tradition at the Fair, watching the horse competitions in the Coliseum for another hour.
Today was the hunter competition. They’re judged on control, horse neatness, and their attire! The kids (we saw the pony classes) did great!
During the horse competition, we made a run for classic Fair favorites from previous years! Henry opted for the corn dog.
I went with a Pretzel Haus pretzel.
Katie renewed her love affair with the pickle dog (pickle wrapped in pastrami with cream cheese). I don’t judge. :-)
After horses we visited with the pigs. Henry meeting a baby pig.
Henry also fed marshmallows to Kermit the pig. Kermit’s owners saw Henry and invited him into Kermit’s stall to rub his belly. Kermit snuggled in for the attention.
We passed through the horse barn too, where we chatted with a guy from a Clydesdale horse farm in Utah. He and his horses are on the midwest Fair circuit. They were beautiful and enormous! They’ll be pulling the fancy carts later in the Fair’s horse competition.
Anyone who’s followed my Fair posts over the years knows I’m not happy about the coffee situation at the Fair. Good news! There’s a new vendor, Anchor Coffee House, and they seem legit. A sorely needed addition!
I tried their nitro cold press. I think it’s every bit as good as the Farmer’s Union one, but I need to verify on a later visit. :-) Creamy and a little sweet tasting without cream or sugar. Nitro magic!
Katie kicked off her 2018 run of custom Fair tee shirts! Here she’s holding not one but two of her tee shirt’s namesake item. Peterson’s once again did not disappoint. Both Katie and Henry gnawed on these things down to the bone. They did seem especially good today.
We stopped at Cafe Caribe to listen to some live music. Lift Bridge (my favorite MN brewery and maker of the amazing mini donut beer) made another new beer for the Fair this year - Key Lime Pie beer at Cafe Caribe. I’ve never been excited about Cafe Caribe but the music was good and I trust Lift Bridge, so I gave it a go this year. Beer is better than I expected - it’s a good light beer for hot weather and live music, so it fit the occasion pretty well. After last year’s pickle beer disaster, it was good to have a better sour beer experience. It gets a little sweet with the sugary rim, but I had no trouble draining this cup. :-)
Henry tried something new today - bungee trampolining! Can you tell from his face that he liked it?!
We wrapped up our day with a trip on the Skyride. Family selfie in the air!
On the way out, we stopped for dessert. We kept it simple and grabbed a cone of Sweet Martha’s.
Visit 1 in the books! And did you notice, Katie and I both spent the entire day at the Fair without eating anything fried, and that wasn’t even intentional! The Fair is so much more than fried things on a stick!
So much more to do - despite all we did today, we have yet to make it into any of the exhibit buildings, or any of the kidway/midway rides, or any of the stage shows, or any shopping, etc… etc… so much more to do!
Our next trip is Monday. Enjoy your weekend everyone - especially if you’re going to the Fair!
