Just a portion of our marathon day at the fair. It didn’t occur to me when I ran into the street to pose for this how unflattering said pose would be…ah well.
So, Saturday we made it to the Great Minnesota Get Together aka the State Fair. G and I enjoy ourselves some fair goodness, however we tend not to take it too seriously. We aren’t gluttons for deep fried food, we aren’t big on the midway, and we generally don’t have much of a plan for when we’ll see what. We usually wander a bit, and head for home. Our usual food stops are generally limited to malts at Empire Commons (breakfast!) grilled sweet corn for me and Pronto Pups for Geoff (for those not in the know–Pronto Pups are not corn dogs), and a bucket of Sweet Martha’s cookies. Once in a while we’ll add in a sno cone or some cheese curds. That is pretty seldom, though.
This year we stepped outside our box a bit. We met up with our friend J and a friend of his around 11 in the Empire Commons. We had planned to arrive earlier, but silly things like misplaced sunscreen delayed our departure. (Had to stop and pick some up. Factor 70. Applied often through the day.) We indeed started with our malts as usual. However, we decided to try and conquer the Callboard Photo Hunt while at the fair. While we still kept to a relaxed wander…we made much more of an effort to hit things like automotive displays. We split cheddar cheese curds four ways. We drank beer. We got lots of crazy pictures.
We saw a huge chunk of the fair, including an outside look at the side show. Now, i find sideshows fascinating in general. However, this sideshow just seemed sad. A worse for the wear ringmistress stood outside trying for a sexy dominatrix thing, but instead hit the mark of aging lady of the night with a hint of Anne Robinson. We stood and looked on for a bit as she announced that included in their show was one of the remaining munchkins from the Wizard of Oz, a wee man named Poomba. In theory I would love to see one of the Munchkins. However, this little man just looked sad. He looked worn down and out with this sense of desperation for something that was long gone. It wasn’t bearable to watch for long, and did not lure me in to shell out money for the real show inside. Instead we continued on.
We watched some of the guys from Third Lair perform. It was pretty damn impressive. I wasn’t expecting much, since they were working with such a small space, but they really worked it. It always boggles my mind how someone gets to the point these guys are at. How do you wake up one day and decide your going to try and do a triple somersault on a bike? Balls. Pure Balls. Also watching the show was this girl who was the kind of girl I want to be when I grow up. She had this sweater purse, knitted with a skull and crossbone pattern. Freaking adorable. My eyes traveled down to one of the most amazing tattoos I have ever seen. She had this gorgeous, rather realistic dragon snaking in and out of her flesh up the side of her calf. Ridiculously hot. If I had her calves, I would love to rock such a tat myself. Alas, not to be.
We checked out the dogs in the pet buildings. I saw the Chinese Cresteds. I have been running into these dogs a lot lately, and it was nice to be able to put a name to the breed. They are crazy fascinating little guys. I would love to have one. Maybe around the time G finally succumbs into letting me have a Sphinx cat.
We never made it over to the animal barns, and I missed the international market and Horticulture building, which made me a little sad. However, at a certain point, we hit a wall. This, in my case, was due in part to the sudden stinging, blinding pain in my eye. Something must have gotten in there, or it got scratched, but we realized it was time to hang it up for the day. Luckily, before we were able, Click and No Name Slob found us! They were in town for just a bit to get to the fair…I was so pleased to get to see them. They are two of my favorite people, and I can only aspire to be as utterly awesome as they.
On the shuttle back to our car, we realized we spent a solid eight hours at the fair. Considering the heat, and how the sun is my arch nemesis, I think we did pretty darn well. We had big plans to hit a party and then the club afterwards, however, we barely made it to the party before our bed was calling our names.
It was a fun day, albeit exhausting. Yesterday wasn’t so bad, but it finally caught up with me today. I did manage to go for a one mile run, do my lower body strength exercising, and do half an hour on the stationary bike. I’m crossing my fingers it will help counteract the cheese curds and beer.