fairing well

It was cool and rainy for much of Saturday morning, but we ventured out to the opening weekend of the State Fair anyway after lunch.  The rain was supposed to be done and it was actually cool and comfortable out with all the humidity wrung out from the doozy of a storm that rolled through last night.  By the time we got out there, the sun was out and it was a perfect 70° outside.  Perfect!!  I think the rainy morning scared everyone off, because it was fairly empty most of the early afternoon.  Even better for us!

Knowing this weekend was supposed to be this perfectly sunshiney "fall" weather, rather than the usual hot and muggy early September stuff, was one of our main motivators for getting out to the fair this year.  That, and we realized we have never taken our kids to a fair... Savannah went when she was just over a year old and we haven't been since.  Sure, we've been to festivals and carnivals and fair-ish things like that, but not a full-fledged county or state fair.  When we mentioned it to the kids, Sawyer actually had to ask, "what's the fair??"  So we whisked him off to show him. :)

We walked though lots of the ag stuff... saw the giant watermelons and honeybees and indulged in the free chocolate milk.  We looked at bugs and butterflies and some giant cicadas.  We petted bunnies (with both kids begging for a pet bunny the whole time we were in there) and chirped at baby chicks and admired the beautiful colors on the roosters.  We went through the "petting" farm... and Sawyer and Savannah fed goats and and sheep, ponies and llamas, calves and pigs.  Remy got down to pet a goat or two and LOVED them, laughing like crazy when the cute little animals would get close enough for him to touch.  We saw part of a calf show and took a peek at a horse show.

And of course the rides.  We didn't do as much as we wanted too... Savannah had been sick overnight into the early morning and although she seemed and felt totally fine from about 7am on, we didn't want to push our luck.  So Sawyer and Ryan did most of the rides, with SJ jumping in on a couple of Fun Houses and of course the Ferris Wheel.  They played a few games too... fishing and throwing darts... won a couple of stuffed animals (and a glowy sword) each.

And the food.  We kept it light as we purposely avoided "fairing" at meal time, but we had to have a giant lemonade, a giant hand-dipped corndog, and the highlight... Elephant Ears.  We've grown accustomed to every carnival cart/fair food selling vendor having Funnel Cakes out here... no one we inquire has even heard of Elephant Ears and they think we're crazy when we ask about it. Funnel Cakes just aren't the same.  Well, the Tennessee State Fair today renewed our spirits by not only having several carts that sold a plate-sized cake of "fried dough" rather than just the squiggly crunchy mess of a funnel cake, but we also found one that actually called it it's rightful (by Northwest standards) name; Elephant Ears!   We were in cinnamon sugar heaven. ;)

We finished off our afternoon on the carousel... (again, low key for SJ)
All in all it was a beautifully perfect Fair day.  So glad we went.
And I think we won the kids over as Fair-goers.

ready for take off!

from the ferris wheel

on the ferris wheel

bessy isn't impressed with sj's "got milk?" sticker

even remy partook in the giant corndog

p.s. we continued our "taste of home" tonight by finding one of our very favorite go-to beers from back home, which has only been available in the northwest until now, in our own corner grocery store!  Good old Kroger is now selling the newly nationally released Henry Weinhard's Private Reserve.  Oh, good old Henry's.  How we've missed you.
And does this mean we'll soon get the amazingly yummy root beer and cream sodas from Henry's out here as well??  One can only hope.