Our State Fair is a Great State Fair

Tracy and I had a perfect weekend at the Iowa State Fair.  We got there Friday evening, and stayed late so we could see the fireworks.  We slept in on Saturday, and then spent most of the day at the Fair, leaving in the evening so we could relax and take a dip in the pool and the (unfortunately disgusting) hot tub.  We got up this morning pretty early, and stayed at the Fair until after noon.  All in all, it was a great amount of time.  It wasn't like the old days when Dad would take his camper, and I'd be there for pretty much 11 days straight, but it definitely gave me my fix.  We weren't rushed, and we saw pretty much everything we wanted to see.  And, our hotel had a free shuttle right to the State Capitol parking lot where there was another shuttle that went right to the Fair.  We never had to worry about parking.  The weather was great... not too hot.  And, it's always the best people-watching of the year.  We were talking about people-watching with one of our shuttle drivers, Jake, and he said the best thing about that.  He said, "Yeah, you can't leave the Fair without feeling a little better about yourself."  You really do see all kinds there.  

Here are some highlights...

Here is my first lemonade of the 2008 Fair.  It's a cherry lemonade that you can only get down by the horse barn.  It's super delicious, and for some unknown reason, it's 50 cents cheaper than any other lemonade at the Fair.  I had several more lemonades, but you just can't beat the first one.

Tracy and I just saw the Butter Cow, and now we're pretending to be FFA kids.  Some kind of FFA queen took our picture. 

The new treat this year at the Fair was "pineapple on a stick."  Of course, it was deep fried, and it was covered with a kind of glaze.  It was really good.  It tasted like pineapple upside-down cake.  Tracy was right, though, when she said the "stick" part is really just a gesture.  My flapping batter was not captured in a photograph due to excessive laughter.

Tracy and I love the skylift.  We rode it twice.  It's really the only ride we love... we'll never forget the double ferris wheel debacle... but I did manage to get her on Ye Old Mill this year.  It's lame, but it's a tradition!

Here's a nice view of the Fair from the skylift.

When you're at the Fair, you HAVE to have a corndog!  Suzanne is convinced that the footlong corndogs are the best.  I have always strongly disagreed, but since I had never really had one myself, I succumbed to the pressure.  I claim to be a Fair expert, so I better know what I'm talking about, right?  Tracy and I each had one before we left the Fair today.  I am happy to announce, that I AM RIGHT!  The footlong corndog is really hard to eat because there is so much stick.  Plus, by the time you get down to the last bite, it's fairly cold.  And, it's really a lot of grease to put down your gullet at one time.  In my opinion, a corndog should be like an appetizer... a few bites of joy.  It should not be the main event.  My stomach kind of hurt after that.  Then again, 3 days at the Fair probably wasn't the best remedy for my ulcer.  Oops.  In conclusion, when referring to the world of corndogs, size really does matter.