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.