Fair Fun

We went to the MN State Fair yesterday and had a great time. Granted, we were only there 3.5 hrs, but it was plenty for us to see a lot (and wear ourselves out). We arrived a little before 10 am. Weather was beautiful, perfect really. Sunny and low 70s. Parked the same place as last year and walked about 10 minutes to the gate. No real standing in line to get tickets and in we went.

Started by going into the Horticulture building. I don't think we'd been in there before. Checked out the plants, flowers (lots of orchids), followed by the bees and honey, and crop art. Lots of landscaping displays by youth groups and businesses. Samples of honey were available along with being able to buy lots of MN honey. I never realized how many different bee keepers/honey makers there were in MN.

On to the animal barns next. Checked out the goats. Kate saw them and said 'puppy'. No, goat. "Puppy". We never got her to say goat, but she was having fun looking at them. Back across the street to the cattle barn. Didn't spend much time here. Once again, "puppy". No, cow. Personally, I felt sorry for the dairy cows. We skipped the pigs, and headed to the horses. This time we got "puppy, no". Hmm, slight improvement. She enjoyed watching the horses though. We walked by a pair of American Cream Draft Horses from the MN Zoo right as one decided to stick his head out of the stall. Definitely caught her attention. Someplace around the animals I got a Scotch Egg. Hmm. But I dropped only 2 bits in. Good way to diet. =)

Next up, more walking. Wound our way over to the grandstand and some Sweet Martha's Cookies. Joe bought a bucket and we ate the overflowing cookies until the lid would fit on. They need a size between the cup and bucket. Cup, too small, Bucket, too big. Lots got brought home, but it's as I stated in an earlier post, warm chocolate chip cookies are hard to screw up, but as room temp, it becomes easy to tell they are not the greatest. My mom's chocolate chip cookies and Brenda's chocolate chip cookies are better. We sat for a short while under the grandstand. It was almost cool sitting in the shade and there were only a few others sitting in the area too. Very peaceful.

On to the Creative Activities building. Probably my main reason for going to the fair. It's part of what defines the purpose of the fair to me. Got to have contests where MNtans can enter their wares. What else is the reason for a fair...oh, the food. Ick. We spent over an hour in the Creative Activities building. So many quilts, afghans, wooden items, and other things handmade. Beautiful quilts. Lucky for us, Kate fell asleep just as we got there, so we could take our time. I wanted to take pictures of some of the quilts to show my mom, but didn't. I'm doing my best to remember what they looked like anyway. She wouldn't be happy we saw a couple Mariner's Compass quilts that we liked (a lot of work to make). There was one quilt made by at least 20 people that was over 10,000 pieces. The little squares were all about 1/2 by 1/2. It was amazing to think how much work went into it. The actual quilting on it was minimal which made sense considering that the quilting would distract from the piecing. We also saw a beautiful black whole cloth quilt where the "blocks" were color changes in the quilting thread. I wish the fair would post pictures of the work on display. Also in the building were some weaving and spinning demonstrations. I decided I want to take a weaving class and grabbed a classes brochure.

After the Creative Activities building we headed next door to the 4H building. Happened to be walking by some judging of quilts. Glad I wasn't being judged. I figured they'd be hands-on about it, but I like the idea of them just hanging it up and standing back. Yikes! Some clothing (more like prom dresses) were on display and seemed impressive for teenagers to create. A couple 4H groups had Wii's set up, which didn't seem very 4H-y to me. Kate was still asleep and we were walking by a "Rock Band" group getting set up (as in Playstation or Wii "Rock Band"). We moved by quickly so they didn't start and wake up Kate.

I'm getting tired about this point, but we continue on to the Fine Arts building. Kate woke up shortly after we got here and I was tired, so we cruised through pretty fast. Some very nice art work though.

Lunch time! I'm starving. I read online that one place had kid's meals for $1.50. Kate got 2 chicken tenders in the shape of smiley faces, a bag of mini-carrots, and sherbet (well, she didn't get the sherbet). I found the Gizmo stand and had one of those. Like the Scotch Egg, I dropped the Gizmo when I had a few bits left. Oh well, more dieting. Joe wasn't hungry...or rather, didn't want fair food.

Overall, we spent $22 to get in, Scotch Egg was $6, Cookie bucket was $14, 2 large pops was $8, Kate's meal was $1.50, and my Gizmo was $7. Just think if we hadn't bought the bucket o'cookies!

Headed out shortly after eating since we were tired and had seen what we had wanted to see. The only we didn't do was the Giant Slide. I think Kate would have liked that.

Vacation!!

Yeah! I bought CA tickets today for a trip this Fall. We love visiting Monterey, CA and it works great to have family there (free lodging!).

We'll do lots of outings, but the Monterey Bay Aquarium is always on our to-do list. It never gets old for me. Making that visit even better is yesterday's release of a white shark in the Outer Bay exhibit. This is their 4th and we've been fortunate that 2 of the previous 3 we have seen at the aquarium on other trips. Obviously we've had great timing!

It'll be Kate's first airplane ride and we're (or at least I'm) a little nervous. 4 hrs is a long plane ride when she typically gets antsy on a 3 hr car ride. But at least we'll be able to move around a little more.

I give up already!

I finally decided reading Life of Pi was not worth it. So, it officially moved to my "read" list and the new shelf "i-give-up-already" on GoodReads. Once I realized I didn't care what happened to Pi, it was all over. I would have been just as happy to see Richard Parker eat him for lunch. Of course, that would mean no story to tell. Not a big loss in my mind.

Next up: Breaking Dawn by Stephenie Meyer.

Oh the Fun

You're probably thinking Fun, like at the State Fair, amusement park, swimming pool, etc. But that's not the kind of Fun I'm talking about. This kind of Fun is found at a restaurant in Columbia Heights called Asia Chow Mein. The dish is really called Chicken Curry Fun, but we just call it Fun. I was first introduced to Fun over a year ago. Some coworkers would talk about getting Fun for lunch, but I never joined in. One day I was convinced to go with them.

There's a reason Fun is so good, but we have a difficult time expressing the specifics. With each bite, you know you want to have more...even though you are full. When a group of 13 goes to lunch and 10 of them get Fun, you know it's got to be a good dish.

So what's in Fun? Well, Fun noodles (similar to fettuccine noodles), chicken, green peppers, onion, curry, and spices. There might be some other ingredients, but they all blend together. There's usually a few orders of hot hot (along with extra peppers available at the table which has recently been dubbed the 'bucket of pain') and the rest are medium. Even I get medium and I'm a wimpy spicy eater.

I've only ever had one other thing (Beef Chow Fun) which was nothing like Chicken Curry Fun other than using the same noodles, so I can't speak to their other dishes.

Here's where to find them since I know you're going to want to try Fun.
Asia Chow Mein
4905 Central Av NE
Columbia Heights, MN
Phone » 763-571-4425

State Fair time

I drive down Snelling Ave everyday and I'm not looking forward to the start of the MN State Fair. Ugh! It'll mean finding another route for 2 weeks and even that route will be slow since everyone else who drives Snelling does their best to avoid it too.

But, who doesn't love the state fair? Oh, wait...ME! Now before getting up in arms and hate me, I do have my reasons. They are as follows:

#1. I admit to being biased: I think the Iowa State Fair is better. Check out Wikipedia's entry on the Iowa State Fair. Scroll down to "A national cultural event". You'll notice MN State Fair's page doesn't have anything like that.

A side story: My mom is not a big fan of the Iowa State Fair, but the last few times I'd been there, it was with my parents who were volunteering in the Hall of Flame. The Hall of Flame is an exhibit about fire safety, etc and is largely staffed by volunteer fire departments. The first year we volunteered, we found Smokey the Bear and Sparky the Fire Dog costumes in a back room. So, my dad got in the Smokey costume and I got in the Sparky costume and we hit the fairgrounds. The costumes were roasting hot (head to toe foam and polyester and temps in the 90s), but it was a lot fun. Kids would come up and want to shake our hands and get pictures taken with us. We got a free ride down the giant slide (not that I could see anything). I have fun memories about being in those costumes. I don't think anything at the MN State Fair can top that.

#2. I don't really care about the food. Sorry, stuff on a stick is not a "must have" for me. There are a few things I like, but overall, I can pass on most of it (cheese curds come to mind...ick!). Yes, there are Sweet Martha's Cookies, but then again, how can you screw up a warm chocolate chip cookie?

#3. Better people watching at other events: You know what you'll see at the state fair. Nothing is shocking there. You expect to see scantily clad women and lots of mullets. A favorite people watching place of mine is the opera. You may think I'm nuts, but it really is more interesting.

#4. Food stands as your destinations: See #2, but I don't get mapping out your day based on food stand locations.

#5. Sitting for hours at a TV News stations broadcast site so you can get on TV. I'll preface this with not being a big local news devotee anyway. Just give me the news, I don't care who you are. I think the biggest turnoff for me here is one year sitting for over 2 hrs to get on TV and then the TV lady out in the crowd talking to people on camera seemed disingenuous when close-up. I felt like she couldn't wait to get backstage so she could laugh at the people in the audience with her fellow news people.

#6. Getting stuck in a crowd of screaming Fergie fans with a bawling 4 month old. Nuff, said.

#7. The animal barns are close to empty of animals. Being a farm girl in my youth, I kind of like seeing the animals and I've always been disappointed by how few there are in the barns.

After all that, you may be wondering why we go to the fair. Each year we think we'll like it better, but each year that never seems to happen. This year, I have a plan...okay, I saw the plan in the Pioneer Press and it made the fair actually seem like fun. So, I think we'll plan our day better and go as just the 3 of us.

Maybe next year I can write a post saying I love the fair.

Surprise!

Joe sent me chocolate-covered strawberries from Shari's Berries. Of course he sends enough to share with coworkers (I can't eat 2 dozen by myself!). They go quickly and people really enjoy them. If you are looking for a tasty edible to send someone, these are perfect. Joe has sent them 5-6 times over the last 6 years and they have always been wonderful.

Now, one rule we have is that flowers/edibles/etc should not be sent for the typical holiday, birthday, or anniversary. That means I don't want to get flowers on Valentine's Day as it says to me you waited for a reason to send something. I don't want you to have a reason for sending something! So while my coworkers are enjoying that tasty chocolate-covered strawberry, they are asking what's the occasion or, better yet, what did he do wrong. I am always please to say there is no reason. And the follow-up (usually from the guys) is that Joe needs to stop doing that as it gives the rest of them a bad name. Hmm, maybe you should send something to your wife.

Additionally, I think sending things goes both ways, especially when there are so many more options than flowers available. Joe (and of course his coworkers) have enjoyed the same chocolate-covered strawberries.

Still reading...

I'm still trying to read Life of Pi. At the moment, I've made a deal with myself that I won't read the 4th Twilight novel (Breaking Dawn) until I finish Life of Pi. Seems like I need some incentive, but maybe I should just give myself permission to give up. On the other hand, part of me thinks I'll get more into the book and I just need to give it more time (although with being at 180 pages of the 300 page book, it's also had its chance).

So, give up or keep chugging along?