This year we spent 2 days at the Minnesota State Fair with about 100,000 of our new friends each day. It’s encouraging to see the number of people who visit the fair, many of whom are carrying shopping bags (which is good for the economy), eating and drinking lots of beer. It is Minnesota after all. A couple of things we learned:

• The Miracle of Birth center is not full of animals raised by the FFA or 4-H kids; the animals are bred to give birth during the Fair. They are all from commercial farms and the center is a nice way to capture city dwellers’ attention and teach them about the business of raising stock. The cute piglets photographed will be ready for market around February or March.
• The Princess Kay of the Milky Way princesses keep their 400-pound butter carvings for as long as they last. According to a story in the Washington Post, some of them keep them for years, others use them until they are gone. The finalists are all trained in public speaking, responding to media and other skills to prepare them for their future. One of the princesses we visited with told us she is majoring in Agriculture Communications at the University of Minnesota.
• There are really only so many fried foods (or just foods) one can manage in a day. We’d like to say that we tried a lot of the new foods and returned to some we had in the past, but with the heat and the crowds, it was really hard to meet even our own expectations. So for everyone who turns up their nose at the thought of all the available foods, we didn’t even come close to what you think we all actually ate. Our favorites were the Amish Donut (but not the filled one), the Cheese Curd Stuffed Pizza Pretzel (basically a calzone turned into a pretzel), the Mina-Sota Sticky Ribs, Nashville Hot Chicken-on-a-stick and the Meatloaf-on-a-stick.
• The daily parade is actually worth it. The high school band members actually seem to enjoy it and it is just like an old-school, small-town extravaganza. And you get to see the Fairchild and Fairborn, the Fair’s mascots who make a whole lot more sense than running sausages at the Twins’ games.
• It’s also easy to remember that it is a state fair with lots of competitions and judging, like quilts and other fabric arts (things we used to call *shmatas* – thanks dad), seed art (this year’s poster was based on a seed art picture), woodwork and lots of food. Pictured are the jam and syrup entries, not pictured are the cakes, cookies, pies, breads and other stuff sitting in cold storage that everyone wants to taste. Really.
• It seems like a good place to catch up with friends or just spend a little time resting and people-watching.
• While getting to the Fair early in the day might mitigate dealing with the crowds, you will miss the nightly fireworks display. And if one wants to see any of the Grandstand concerts, tickets MUST be bought as soon as the performers are announced.
• There is nothing wrong with being a cheerleader for the Fair. As recent transplants to Minnesota, we are actually look forward to attending.