My Favorite Things: Candid on a Stick

The Minnesota State Fair. Home of food on a stick. Although, it seems that, over the years, the food on a stick has had to learn to share it's beautiful (is that the right word?) fair with about a couple thousand visitors. Sometimes more. Because man was this place crowded!

I've gone to the fair with my Dad just about every year, ever since I can remember.

This year, we started our day (actually, mid-afternoon) out with the sky ride. Not to be confused with the skyway, the sky ride was imported to our state fair from Switzerland somewhere around fifty years ago.

It would also apparently cost somewhere around a billion dollars to get one of these babies installed between your house and your high school

Might be worth it, though, at least when the district decides not to give you a bus even though you have bled sweated and cried because of everything that school has put you through, stayed up way past your bedtime finishing homework, been involved in all of those time-sucking albeit fun activities, and this is how they repay you?

Anyways.

Onto the real reason I go; the food.

We always get the staples, of course.

Mmmm. Cheese curds.

This is a deep fried twinkie. Absolutely ridiculous. Who even comes up with these things. (The bite my sister gave me was delicious though, so I'll let the ridiculousness fly).

It looked like it was going to storm almost all day. Thankfully for my paper hat, we were only hit with a few light sprinkles.

Um, is this real? And can I have it pretty please?

(I don't think it was, but we did get tiny waffle and nutella free samples. So cute!)

I think that the state fair is probably the best place next to New York to people watch. I was truly not trying to be creepy, I just found myself taking pictures of people, because, well, it was like they were begging for it. Perfect candid shots, ya know?

Too cool for school.

Which starts at 6:30 tomorrow morning.

I don't know what those guys were doing; please ignore them and focus on the subject of this photo (the girl eating corn who definitely looks too cool to go back to school tomorrow, maybe she dropped out our something) thank you very much.

Somehow, maybe because I have a ten-year-old sister, we ended up in the Midway.

For those of you who don't know, that's the part of the fair where all the rickety "adult" rides, with pictures of scantily clad ladies (ew), and a lot of those carnival games that are impossible to win at are located.

I'm not sure I fully understand the appeal of a stuffed donut as a prize, but they seemed to be pretty popular.

Sisters?

We all went on the ferris wheel together. It was actually pretty fun, and felt wonderful to sit for a while.

The clouds had finally blown over, and the drizzle was gone by the time we reached the ferris wheel. The view of the fair skyline was gorgeous from the top.

Also, I couldn't stop photographing the couple behind us. They were adorable.

Horses are so cool. Except for maybe when they poop, and it ends up literally everywhere, just waiting for you to step in it with your new-to-you (meaning six dollars at the thrift store) combat boots.

Thanks a lot, bud.

What if policemen always rode horses!?

YES made it to the dairy building!!! (Pardon the weird greenish-yellowish color, in hindsight, the glow from of the butter sculpture may not have been my best lighting option).