It's amazing how much there is to write about if I just get out of the house and away from the computer for a while. Last Wednesday, J.P. and I went to the Minnesota State Fair for a day of fun and food. Click any of the images in this post to see the rest of our photos.

We got a late start and didn't arrive until about 1:30 PM. And in preparation, we hadn't eaten anything before we went. Can you guess what we did first? We stopped at J.P.'s favorite rib place, Famous Dave's. We were so hungry that I forgot to take the picture until after we'd eaten a few.



Other things we consumed in our 10 hours? Corn dog, southwestern egg and cheese burrito, crepe stuffed with ham and cheese, spaghetti and meatball dinner on a stick, lots of root beer, deep-fried Milky Way bar, and of course cheese curds. Probably a few other things too, but I think I may have blocked them out.

We saw plenty of animals in this state known for its agriculture:



We didn't go into too many of the barns, so this was about the extent of it.

But we did go into the horticulture building, where we saw the prize-winning 840-lb. pumpkin . . .



How many pies do you suppose that'd make? Not sure I'd want to eat one. The horticulture building was also the home to crop art:



The level of detail is amazing—click the link to view some of Lillian Colton's work—she's a pro. Portraits of Richard Nixon, Willie Nelson, and Jesus; she's done them all.

I was reminded of Suzie in the 4-H building when I saw this diaper cake.



I love looking at the kids' projects. Even if I didn't, we would've looked at ALL of them this year because it was raining when we were in that building.

And finally, my very favoritist part of the Fair: the butterheads! I don't know why I love them—they never change from year to year. Maybe the consistency is what I love.



This is Princess Kay of the Milky Way, Minnesota's dairy princess. She's crowned at the beginning of the fair, and there are seven or eight other girls in the contest. Each of the girls has her likeness sculpted in an 85-lb. block of butter (you can see one of the blocks in the background) as she and the sculptor sit in the middle of a rotating cooler at the fair. Then when the fair is over, the girls take their sculptures home. I've heard that many of them are frozen and taken out again at graduation next spring. Imagine spreading a little of Princess Kay's ear on your sandwich.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, September 06, 2005 at 4:48 PM.