Minnesota State Fair

On Friday, we grabbed a shuttle near our hotel to the great Minnesota State Fair.  (The girls had a great time on the bus ride there!) People at work told me (Marel) it's the second largest in the nation (second only to Texas, of course).  Verdict:  It was, in fact, a very large state fair.  Certainly bigger than Alaska's (though that is not difficult).

Our first stop, once there, was the "Wild West Dog Show."  This was a wise move on our part as it was the highlight of the girls' day at the fair.  The dogs balanced on heads and hands, jumped over children, and climbed up ladders with cute little helmets on.  Big hit with the ladies.

After the doggie show, we went to see the extreme trampoline show.  This was one of my favorite parts of the fair.  NBC didn't show nearly enough trampoline in the Olympics.  The show was fun because they show the routines that all trampolinists (?) have to do to qualify for the Olympics.  But then they did crazy things like bounce with snowboards and skis on.  And these guys we saw hold the world record for highest bounce (which they demonstrated).  Sabrina, however, fell asleep and Celia kept saying:  "When are they going to stop jumping?"  Everything was anti-climactic after the doggie show.

Celia and I got to explore lots of farm stuff.  We played on diggers, tractors, and loaders and saw a ton of other farm equipment (and wind turbines!).  

The girls liked sticking their heads in the farmer pictures.

The girls loved this cute little cabin.

And we saw a few tornado cars.  Weird lookin' things.  

There's ONE thing that is NOT bigger at the Minnesota State Fair.  And that is cabbage.  Here is me with their winner for "biggest cabbage."  You kidding me?  What is that tiny thing?  

In contrast, here's this year's winner for "biggest cabbage" at this year's Alaska State Fair.  Don't mess with our ability to grow giant cabbage.  You will always lose.

The food options at the Minnesota State Fair were varied, to say the least.  We took pictures of Deep Fried Alligator and deep fried candy bars, but we stuck to a French chicken pesto dinner crepe and good ole' fashioned Elephant Ear (which was amazingly hard to find).  

The girls made silly faces whilst eating.  They are also modeling some of the many hats we got at the fair.  These ones are the pig variety.

Tom and I ended up as heads of corn.

And the girls got sweet foam John Deere hats (that they're still wearing around the house!).  This was, by far, the coolest part of the Minnesota State Fair.  The girls checked into the "kids farm" and got aprons, John Deere hats, and buckets and were given farming tasks to do.  They had to drive a tractor, plant a seed and get a vegetable, pick an apple from a mini apple orchard, feed the chickens and get an egg, and milk a pretend cow and get a milk carton.

At the very end of it, they turned in their goods (ie: egg, milk carton, vegetable, and apple) in exchange for a pretend dollar.  Then there was a little store where they could choose a snack with their dollar: chips, jerky, oatmeal, or apples.  The girls chose apples and sat down next to farmer Charlie Brown to celebrate a job well done.  It was a great lesson on how those things work.  I thought it was super neat (and free!).

Overall, we had a great time at the fair.  It was hot, smelled like deep fried food, and the girls came home with a solid layer of dust and dirt.  Proof we had a fun time!