MN State Fair 2018 - Visit #2

We introduce Steve and Pat to the Fair! With Katie Richards Fabrizio Steve Barden Pat Rivera

Dad and Henry boarded an early morning shuttle back to the Fair!

Today was exciting because we were meeting our friends Steve and Pat at the Fair today. They traveled from Georgia to go to the Fair!

After a brief visit to the Sheep Barn for more sheep haircut viewing, we headed over to the Coliseum, where the herding dog competition was underway (sorry, none of the pics worked out). We settled in there with Pronto Pups. I had gone out in search of breakfast at Blue Moon Dine-In, but at 10:45 they told me they stopped serving breakfast already. “But, your sign says breakfast till 11?” “Yeah, it’s basically 11 now.” BOO ON YOU BLUE MOON! :-(

After the herding we wandered down to Peterson’s Pork Chops so I could introduce Pat and Steve to our all-time favorite Fair item! I especially like that the stick is completely an afterthought. It’s not used to eat the chop and actually pretty much gets in the way. But, it’s the Fair, so…. stick.

While eating the chop, Steve looked left and saw the Minneapple Pie stand and had to have one (I don’t blame him). Then, three bites into this one, he (true story) almost went and bought a second one. I had to give him the “pace yourself, rookie” talk, and he got a hold of himself.

Katie joined us soon afterwards, sporting yet another original Fair tee shirt!

Katie brought along a new food from the Blue Barn, the Swedish meatball sandwich with lingonberry sauce. It does NOT photograph well (hello, crime scene!), but it tasted really good! Two reasons - the lingonberry sauce and dill pickle relish really brightened up what would have been a really heavy dish otherwise. Also, the Hawaiian sweet roll was amazing (I don’t know about you, but I could eat those things by the dozen.) So, thumbs up overall!

Katie also brought along some roasted corn. I’m about to make a bold statement - this was the best roasted corn I’ve ever had at the Fair. I hope it stays like this through the whole Fair! A-maz-ing.

We then hit the Kidway for some rides. Henry and mom go old school and take a turn down the Super Slide (the Giant Slide’s baby brother).

After rides, we explored the John Deere pavillion. After some careful shopping, Henry selected some fun and functional John Deere kids’ gloves, saying he thought they would be nice when he helped us pick up sticks in the yard! :-)

We hit up Giggle’s Campfire Grill for lunch. Hit it hard.

This was a new food item from last year that I missed - Duck Bacon Wontons. Super yum! Skip the dipping sauce, doesn’t need it. Glad these are back this year. Definite win!

Walleye fries are a classic. Just “eh” for me. Not bad, just didn’t stand out much.

Walleye cakes. This and the duck bacon wontons are what you should get at Giggle’s. This is a classic fair item.

You know what you apparently should not get at Giggles? ANY SORT OF ALCOHOLIC BEVERAGE. For a place that has so much beer, how do they keep getting this so wrong?? You may recall The Great Pickle Beer Debacle of 2017. And that followed the super letdown of the maple bacon beer of 2016. (Somehow, both of those items are still on the menu.) This year, they introduced Uffda Ale from Beaver Island Brewing in St. Cloud. It’s brewed with lefse and lingonberries, and those are lingonberries floating in it. And that’s a strip of fried lefse. Yep. The beer itself is whatever. It’s a little tart but mostly unremarkable. But, you’re treated to the smell of old fryer grease as you drink this and try not to choke on a lingonberry. This is such a fail. I’m so over ever trying a Giggle’s beer again. On top of that, I also tried a HULA Pineapple Guava Spiked Seltzer from Third Street Brewing in Cold Spring, MN. That sounds tropical and refreshing, right? Wrong. I could barely taste the fruit juices and whatever the alcohol was, it tasted cheap. I’m so done trying to get a decent drink at Giggle’s.

We washed away the bad taste of Giggle’s beer (yeah, I’m going to hold this grudge for a while) with a water tasting in the Eco Experience building. Duluth won top vote, followed by New Brighton then St. Paul.

Henry stopped our convoy when he saw the About a Foot Long Hot Dog stand. Boom - afternoon snack.

We made our way down to the Food Bldg. and to Tejas Express in the Garden. I tried their new Layered Chicken Enchilada. I’ll give this a B. The very good and sneakily spicy salsa verde saved this dish from the soggy corn tortillas. The toppings were fresh and the chicken was done nicely. Would I get it again? No. Do I regret getting it? No. Could do a lot worse. Pricy for the portion, though.

After that we hit the Space Tower as the afternoon storm clouds started to gather.

Luckily we got up and back again before storms hit, and Steve and Pat got their first bird’s eye view of the Fairgrounds. Note Pat’s tee shirt custom made by Katie! Pat and Steve made lots of new Minnesota friends today because of it. :-)

Henry and I wandered over to the Minnesota Twins area. They had a miniature baseball field set up, so Henry took a little BP and did really well!

With thunderstorm warnings posted and the Fair advising visitors to take shelter, we hunkered down inside Warner Coliseum…. and watched miniature horses pull people around in tiny carts all very proper like! We got a surprising amount of entertainment out of this competition!

We also grabbed some Turkey-to-Go while watching the mini horses. I think Turkey to Go is slipping a little. One of these sandwiches was too dry, and the meat, although mostly still good, did not induce the “omg this sandwich is like crack” response of the past. Hopefully, just a one day slip-up, but that makes me worried for what is a top 3 fair item for us.

As we wandered towards the exit, we passed through the poultry barn. Henry (and we) enjoyed the hundreds and hundreds of chickens of every type.

Finally, just before leaving we surprised Henry with one last activity - more bungee trampolining, this time on the larger trampolines! This looks like so much fun!

Visit 2 is in the books. Tomorrow is visit 3, which is an adults-only visit with us and Pat and Steve again. We’re going to hit a whole new side of the Fair (creative activities, fine arts, ag building, more food, int’l bazaar, concerts, more beer, shopping… looking forward to it!)