olive's first trip to the fair.

Honestly, I don't love the fair.

I don't think I went to state fairs much growing up - we lived in the "city" and they're usually in the "country". I grew up going to the summer festival in my downtown. Really fun, but really different. In college I went to a county fair. Yep, I did.

Since living in Minnesota I've been to the state fair three times. Why do I suddenly attend the fair? It's a little different here because the fair is located right in St. Paul - in the "city". So it doesn't take much planning or extra work to attend. This also makes it really really really busy.

Busy. That is one of the reasons I don't really like the fair. It is SO unbelievably FULL of PEOPLE. Oh my gosh. My first two times I attended on the weekend - obviously more people

Expensive. You have to pay to get into the fair and then pay to do just about anything once you're inside. One of the big draws is food. Specifically food on a stick. Weird, right? I'm cheap frugal.. so expensive fair food is not really my thing.

There are many vendors selling all kinds of things. From trinkets to wine to soap to trucks and snow plows. Nothing I really need. Especially when it cost 25x more than it would not at the fair.

There is music at the fair. But I don't really care. There are big buildings full of animals... I guess that's pretty ok.

This year I thought Olive might enjoy going to the fair. We didn't take her last year - I wasn't interested in lugging baby and baby gear through seas of people. This year I thought she would probably be a bit more interested, we probably carry around fewer baby care items, and I thought going during the week would be a little less... stressful and overwhelming. For both of us.

Our friends Amber and Ethan came along. We met at a park and ride lot in Roseville and took a bus. For free. Instead of paying something like $15 closer to the fair. The bus ride was maybe 10 minutes long. I'm not really sure why would park closer and pay that much.

We wandered around. Ate some food. Had a malt (sugar - oh no!). Found some dogs - looked at them, pet them, got licked by them. Went potty a million times. Drank some water. And took the bus back to our cars when Ethan and Olive started acting a little too sleepy. We're deathly afraid of car naps.

Here are some highlights of our morning:

Riding a big bus:



 

Being cool (actually it was very hot):



 

Olive and some plastic bottles. I guess only 25% of plastic bottles get recycled in Minnesota.  Come on folks...



 

Sampling some kohlrabi soup, after having had some local popcorn, and some local drinkable yogurt:



 

Checking out the dogs.  Specifically this one putting a child.



 

After our third stop for potty we stumbled upon the "Lactation Station" and stopped inside for some "me me":



 

We waited in this line in the dairy building.  Fresh dairy.  From Minnesota farmers.  With pride!  You pay first - so I ordered a chocolate malt (sugar - oops!) and a blueberry yogurt.  Then you go up to the next counter where you get your things.  They handed me a low fat Land o Lakes blueberry yogurt.  Full of weird things included High Fructose Corn Syrup.  Local?  Fresh?  With pride?  I was bothered.



 

Some butter ladies:



 

Oh hi butter girl.