State Fair 2012 - The Giant Slide

Ya just gotta see it to believe it.

State Fair 2012 - The Giant Slide

Oh, what fun!

State Fair 2012 - Dale's Blog

The following is from Dale's blog. He posted this on August 23:

"...now we're entering the high holidays of the Minnesota calendar. The Minnesota State Fair. I've written before that if you are not from Minnesota, or a state that has a really big state fair, the state fair thing is kind of.... incomprehensible. I know because being from Colorado, the state fair never ever crossed our minds and no one I knew ever went."

"The Minnesota State Fair, however, will draw close to 2,000,000 people this year -- 40% of the population of the state. The fairgrounds are in St. Paul (well, a small suburb named Falcon Heights, but whatever), so it's easy for metro area folks to get there and the fair and big city are a draw for people from the rest of the state. The fair has animals galore, farm machinery displays, 4-H displays, a whole building devoted just to dairy and dairy products (along with the butter sculpture of Princess Kay of the Milky Way - don't worry, if that doesn't make sense, I'll post a picture soon), lots of beer gardens, political speeches, and midway rides. But most of all - food. Most of it on a stick. There are always new entries into the food category. This year someone is doing deep fried butter on a stick."

"I just threw up a little in my mouth."

"I'm much more of a french fried potato kind of guy and the newest french fried potato entry this year is  this:"

"The picture isn't great, but it's poutine - french fries with gravy and squeeky cheese curds. I've had this in Canada many times and I'm surprised it's taken this long to make its way to the States. Just the thought of this is giving me a head rush. Well, we're going to the fair tomorrow, and, to bring this post full circle, I think I'll precede the visit with a good long workout. Because damage will be done. And I don't even care."

State Fair 2012 - Dale

Dale joined us all  a couple of hours after I met Mike and Charisse. Mike's friend Andy joined us a little bit after that. Dale and Andy both got gyros. Later, Dale picked up some poutine which he had been dying to try since he saw Charisse's Facebook post about it a day earlier. He was sweet to give me a taste. We both loved it. I love this picture because Dale looks so sweet (which is true) and also because he looks like he's having so much fun (also true).

Photo taken Friday August 24, 2012

State Fair 2012 - O'Gara's

Mike, Charisse, and I stopped at O'Gara's. They got some beer and I got some black-cherry-hard- lemonade type thing. It all went down pretty well, I think. Hey, everyone needs a little liquid sustenance on a hot day at the Fair...

State Fair 2012 - Skyride

Didn't ride the Skyride this visit but got some video footage of it. Sadly, it doesn't look as good on Blogger as it does on my computer.

State Fair 2012 - Meeting Mike and Charisse

I only had to work half a day today as a compensation for the school open house last night. I took the opportunity to get to the State Fair. I left work about 2 p.m., hopped a bus on Cedar Avenue heading for downtown, tranfered to an express bus I caught at 7th and Nicollet and soon found myself deposited near gate 9 at the Minnesota State Fair. It was hot but gorgeous otherwise when I got there. I met my friends Mike and Charisse along with their daughter Shayla who had brought along her friend Jessica.