The Great Minnesota Get Together
It's that time of year again, time for the Minnesota State Fair. It started this morning and runs through Labor Day, and we'll be going tomorrow.
We already bought our admission tickets (you get a discount for buying them ahead of time), and we have our Blue Ribbon Bargain Book full of discounts and buy-one-get-one offers on merchandise and food.
Speaking of food, check out this list of what's being served this year: 2006 Fair Food. I dare you to find a more mind-boggling list, or one more grease-laden.
This will be my fourth year going to the fair, which means I've managed to get there each year I've lived here. Though I never pass up an opportunity to tell people how much I miss living in the South, I will admit here in writing and preserved on the internet for all time: I love the Minnesota State Fair.
My one day visit each year always proves exhausting, but it's thoroughly enjoyable. I still haven't learned my way around too well, so you'll always see me carrying my map-on-a-stick, trying to orient myself while listening to my husband tell me for the 213th time that Dan Patch was a famous racehorse. He says it every time we go by any of the signs for the street named after Dan Patch, which, if you know the layout of the fair, is quite often.
Despite my grandiose plans each year to actually see some of the animal exhibits or watch the parade or ride one of the Midway rides, I never seem to get around to it. People-watching and eating food-on-a-stick are the activities of choice, interspersed between looking at exhibits of blue-ribbon-winning pies and quilts, and artwork from elementary school children, and listening to the politicians spout off on the politics of the day. I have yet to meet a politician-on-a-stick, but I'll keep my hopes up that this year is the year.
Free stuff is always plentiful, unless it's the coveted yard stick that everybody but you seems to be able to find. Post-it notes and Scotch tape from 3M are always around, as are pens with zillions of different companies' logos. Junk, mostly, but once in a while you find a treasure. Last year at the then-new Jack FM's booth there were goodie bags with coupons and flyers, including a $5 off coupon for groceries at Rainbow Foods (we picked up 4 and made back the cost of admission), and The University of St. Thomas's purple visors were a blessing in the noontime sun.
I think I will take my camera for the first time this year. Maybe I'll get some interesting shots of various foods-on-a-stick, and if I'm lucky, I'll get a picture of a former coworker of Heather's at the Axel's booth.
I'm keeping my fingers crossed that the thunderstorms that have been predicted for tomorrow morning really are confined to just the morning, and that we can find the new-to-us location of the Express bus pickup without too much difficulty. And as long as I remember to take our tickets and bargain book, and lots of cash, the rest of the day should take care of itself.
See you on the flip side. I'll be the one that smells like I've been batter-dipped and deep fried.
We already bought our admission tickets (you get a discount for buying them ahead of time), and we have our Blue Ribbon Bargain Book full of discounts and buy-one-get-one offers on merchandise and food.
Speaking of food, check out this list of what's being served this year: 2006 Fair Food. I dare you to find a more mind-boggling list, or one more grease-laden.
This will be my fourth year going to the fair, which means I've managed to get there each year I've lived here. Though I never pass up an opportunity to tell people how much I miss living in the South, I will admit here in writing and preserved on the internet for all time: I love the Minnesota State Fair.
My one day visit each year always proves exhausting, but it's thoroughly enjoyable. I still haven't learned my way around too well, so you'll always see me carrying my map-on-a-stick, trying to orient myself while listening to my husband tell me for the 213th time that Dan Patch was a famous racehorse. He says it every time we go by any of the signs for the street named after Dan Patch, which, if you know the layout of the fair, is quite often.
Despite my grandiose plans each year to actually see some of the animal exhibits or watch the parade or ride one of the Midway rides, I never seem to get around to it. People-watching and eating food-on-a-stick are the activities of choice, interspersed between looking at exhibits of blue-ribbon-winning pies and quilts, and artwork from elementary school children, and listening to the politicians spout off on the politics of the day. I have yet to meet a politician-on-a-stick, but I'll keep my hopes up that this year is the year.
Free stuff is always plentiful, unless it's the coveted yard stick that everybody but you seems to be able to find. Post-it notes and Scotch tape from 3M are always around, as are pens with zillions of different companies' logos. Junk, mostly, but once in a while you find a treasure. Last year at the then-new Jack FM's booth there were goodie bags with coupons and flyers, including a $5 off coupon for groceries at Rainbow Foods (we picked up 4 and made back the cost of admission), and The University of St. Thomas's purple visors were a blessing in the noontime sun.
I think I will take my camera for the first time this year. Maybe I'll get some interesting shots of various foods-on-a-stick, and if I'm lucky, I'll get a picture of a former coworker of Heather's at the Axel's booth.
I'm keeping my fingers crossed that the thunderstorms that have been predicted for tomorrow morning really are confined to just the morning, and that we can find the new-to-us location of the Express bus pickup without too much difficulty. And as long as I remember to take our tickets and bargain book, and lots of cash, the rest of the day should take care of itself.
See you on the flip side. I'll be the one that smells like I've been batter-dipped and deep fried.
posted by Connie | 4:46 PM
1 Comments:
Sounds like fun!! The food sounds like the best part to me. ;-)
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