As for the group, needless to say we fell apart very quickly as people peeled off to do our own things in separate groups. Props to Mary who hobbled around on her crutches for her foot which she apparently hairline fractured during the parade on Wednesday. Pictures are worth a thousand words here, so I will keep the commentary short.
On the left is the inside of the large agriculture exhibition hall. On the right is the racetrack (where concerts are held all week) and some of the what seemed like a bajillion vendors of the most fattening food in the world. Although they did have veggie options - that were all deep fried.
I don't know who the flower people are, or the dude in the little car, but suffice it to say a lot of weirdoes were around. Including lots of mullets. My roommate actually suggested I wear a fake mullet because it was a good conversation starter. I passed.
There were a lot of rides at the fair, including a lawn slide, where you slide down a ramp on a burlap sack. Patrick, Michael, Ashley, and I raced down it. Patrick (actually from Iowa) won, and I finished second.
The purpose of the fair is actually to showcase farm animals. Lots and lots of fair animals. I heard there were also some tigers, but I did not see them. The sheep with sweaters were interesting, as were the miniature horses. They actually pulled buggies in some sort of riding competition.
I think these pictures speak for themselves. I picked the picture of the second largest hog because he was named "Corn Dog." My friend Michael from Britain turned vegetarian (he does eat fish, although he is kind of sick of that too now) because he said he was eating too much crap in America. He went by these animals asking everytime "so you want to eat that one for lunch, and that one for dinner." Patrick, Ashley, and I answered an empathic YES each time.
These are the booths for the two parties. The candidates can't actually have booths at the fair, so the parties rent the space and then campaign people "work" them on specific days. Today was Edwards' day, which is why that guy is giving me the evil eye. The Republican guy also looked at me funny. Did anyone else know John Cox was running for President?
The local TV station ran a contest where everyone at the fair got a kernel, and then you could use that kernel to "vote" for your favorite candidate. I, of course, voted for Barry. For some reason, Clinton was way ahead on the Dems side. Romney, to no surprise, was way in front for the Reps.
One of the highlights of the fair is a butter cow. 500 pounds of butter cow. What was different this year was that they also had a butter Harry Potter and owl (Hedwig?). And the cow also had Harry Potter glasses.
Which brings us to food. The Iowa State Fair is the world capital of fried food. Just look at the kinds of things they sold. I started out with a deep fried turkey leg. I finished about half of it before I felt like hurling. It was soooooooo good.
Ashley and I made a pact that we would split a deep fried Twinkie, well, because it's a deep friend Twinkie. It was really good, but it was so overwhelming we didn't even finish it. I heard the deep fried Oreos were the way to go, so if you are ever in Des Moines.
I leave you with some random pictures. The piglets were really cute. The line to hold them was really long, but Meredith sweet talked one of the farmers (surprise, surprise), so he just got one for her. And the day was really, really hot. We're talking 95 degrees here, so lots of kids played in the fountain. We were done after about four and a half hours.
Maybe I will go back next weekend.
1 comment:
I want a fried Oreo, a miniture pony, a piglet and a picture of you riding down that slide on a sack.
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