Meet Me at the Fair

Yes, we finally made it to the Wisconsin State Fair.

Known for its abundance of dairy cows, fried food, food on a stick, and especially its famous Cream Puffs. More about that later...

This sign made me laugh. "Fresh Fried Vegetables." No wonder we have an obesity problem in this state. When you think you can get your veggies coated in tempura batter and oil and still call them fresh, that's a problem. But it's vegetable oil, so that counts as another serving, right?We saw all kinds of food on a stick: frozen cheesecake, pork cutlets, even spaghetti and meatballs. But this guy killed us. He was carrying around his turkey carcass so carefully that I wasn't sure whether he was trying not to put an eye out or hoping to find one last morsel of meat left. Doesn't that make the fried vegetables look a little better?
And then there was the display of beautifully mounted animal heads. At this point, I need to mention that I have a serious aversion to taxidermy in general, but after this display...
Look at the animal to the left of the hind quarters. Isn't he just begging for a thought bubble?

One of our favorite parts of the fair was the pig races. They were the cutest little piggies!
Here is my ubiquitous cream puff. My sister Grace heard about these in her dietetics program at the U from a friend from Green Bay. I always assume that anyone pursuing an advanced degree in food must know what they are talking about, so I was excited. My mom makes delicious cream puffs with a lovely lemon filling, so I had high expectations from a fair who set up a drive-up window outside fair grounds just to deliver cream puffs to the masses.
Here it is, in all its creamy beauty.

Grace, it was full of nothing but whipped cream. Not even vanilla-flavored cream; just cream. As someone who only uses the real stuff (none of that non-dairy whipped topping in this house, no sir), this was quite disappointing. I hope that you will invite your Wisconsin friend over for dinner one of these days and make Mom's lemon cream puffs just to show her what they can taste like at their best.

The other highlight of the fair was the contests. I have always wanted to enter the fair. As a child, I did the State Fair piano competition, but it isn't held on the fairgrounds, and I had to dress up, so it didn't feel like an authentic fair experience. I think it would be great to wheel out a Steinway to the middle of the show arena and let the contestants perform for the FFA crowd. Classical piano needs a little whooping and hollering every once in a while.

The girls entered the hula hoop contest. Daisy and Anna won for their age group.
Anna entered the "biggest smile" contest. She didn't win, but she gave a noble effort.
Then, all three of them entered the best dance move contest. This was the big one, generating a rather large crowd. I was actually a little nervous for them. Lizzie and Anna won with back handsprings. I admit, it was kind of unfair to throw gymnastics in, but it was the showstopping move. We were very excited, so excited that we only got this one lousy picture. Their prize was a reusable grocery bag which we use every week at the store. Yee-Haw!
We skipped the cow barn to stop at the art station. We are always suckers for markers and stamps.
All in all, the fair was a good time. We're glad we went... once.

The next weekend, I went to Chicago with three friends from church. We took a tour of the city via river boat and at Navy Pier, the Blue Angels put on a show. They flew in between the buildings downtown and even though they were military planes flying in formation, the sight of planes flying low in a major metropolitan area made my heart beat funny. How much longer will that happen?
This is the view of Lake Michigan from the Hancock Observatory. I am so lucky to have Jen for a friend!
And here is what happens when the girls get the camera. Look how clean the green room is; kind of makes you want to buy the house, right?
Joy of joys: Lucy finally will watch a few minutes of TV at a time. Anything to detract from the number of minutes every day that she spends destroying the house.
Kelly got to spend a day last week golfing in Kohler. That is where they had the PGA event last month and it is a very fancy course. Knowing nothing about golf, I have no idea what to write, except that one of his co-workers said that he really "tore it up." I think he meant it in a good way, but it paints a bad golf picture.