Saturday, October 25, 2008

State Fair!

There's nothing like the North Carolina State Fair!
If you haven't been... make a trip of it some October if you're around!
On Wednesday, we decided that it would be worth it and educational enough, to take Taylor Anne out of school early for a trip to the State Fair. I'm so glad we did! The weather was really great. She learned a lot about NC Agriculture, how food is made, and how many animals are raised. We all had a great time! We have two kids who wish they 'were an Oscar Mayer Wiener'... and then promptly asked... "What's a wiener?" Ha ha Ha!!!!

Taylor Anne was impressed with how big the tobacco leaves actually are... and at first thought they were really cool plants... then when she found out what they were used for, she decided that she didn't like those plants anymore!


One of the really cool things about the fair this year: they had an art competition with local high schools painting various types of animals... cows, horses, chickens... We have pictures with several of these which were displayed throughout the fairgrounds.


We enjoyed looking at the cut flower competitions, and Taylor Anne was impressed with how many different types of roses there were!

This was one of our favorites!

Of course we HAD to visit the petting zoo - strategically placed at the far end of one of the midways. It was fun, the animals were friendly and...
YES - WE Washed our hands a LOT that day!


There were so many rides this year - it seemed nearly twice as many as I saw the last time I came... 2 or 3 years ago? The rides were pretty expensive though... $4-$6 per person (of course they took tickets, but that's how much it was) We didn't ride this one, but I got a fun picture anyway!

We visited the poultry tent... saw some cool chickens. Taylor Anne liked the Silkies.

Here's a pretty Gray Splash Silkie - yes - this is a chicken with fluffy, fur-like feathers, neat huh?

Anderson loved holding the chicks, he and Taylor Anne were very gentle. There were even ducklings to hold. (We washed our hands again after this tent)
Here's Taylor Anne trying to pick up a squirmy duckling.
"Mr. Dave" had a professionally made coop on display in the poultry tent for everyone to see how easy it would be to keep some in your own backyard... and he sold plans for them there too!
There were several Ferris Wheels.

Anderson checks out a remote-controlled ambulance at the public safety part of the fair. He walked all the way around it and checked it out really well. The ambulance's name was "Andy".
There was a shiny new school bus to take a peek at too - they have 5-point harness seats in there for the Kindergartners to ride in! They also were much more padded seats than I remember riding in, and the aisle was much narrower! Only about 12" wide! Anderson had to check it out of course!

They also had a remote controlled school bus - it talked to the children, and answered questions, asked them their name, had real conversations! It was neat! It kinda freaked Anderson out!
After the safety exhibits, we found the NC Pottery tent - Yay! I had never seen this at the Fair before - I'm so excited that there were so many potter's works on display, and for sale here.

Taylor Anne was so excited to see one of the art horses was actually a unicorn!

Anderson fell asleep...

While Anderson was sleeping, we decided to try a real "State Fair" treat - Funnel cake!

Taylor Anne's first bite...

Yum!

Taylor Anne and I got to ride on the kiddie swings... she still wasn't tall enough to ride by herself on the bigger ones. It was fun!

A family photo taken by a stranger, we took theirs, and then they took ours. You may need to zoom in - I don't think the lady felt comfortable with the zoom on my camera.

We had to try the Deep Fried Mac & Cheese... here's Mike reaching for his wallet - $5/serving...

Not worth it... we won't try it again...


More fun miniature trains! This one had so much detail, it was really wonderful to see. We all enjoyed looking at it for quite a while. There was a whole 20x40 tent which was filled up with this display in the middle. Very impressive!


Overall we had a great time - saw a lot of really cool things, and learned a bit more about NC too! There were a few things we didn't do... we'll save them for next year!

5 comments:

John said...

Looks like you guys had a blast! We spent an evening at the fair last week ... we were only there for a few hours but the kids loved it. I hope to have some pictures up on my blog soon ...

Anonymous said...

Looks like so much fun! I like the silkies too, but hear that they aren't very nice. I wonder if that's true. I hope your chicks doing well!

Lynn said...

Great pictures - my kids are older now and they go on their own. So I skipped this year. I'm a little regretful - now that I've seen your pictures. It doesn't look to crowded. It's a whole different and much better time with young kids along. Brave you trying the fried m&c!

Egghead said...

Your fair looks really fun. Ours is not nearly so great. OK but not great. I love that you showed your coop and sold some plans.

Erica said...

I loved the hot dog pictures! That made me giggle so much! Adorable! Looks like you had a blast!