Tuesday, August 22, 2006

Butter me up

Iowa State Fair!

I'd never been to a state fair, and this beat the Warren County Fair from last year.

Food on a stick: Corn dog. I passed on the deepfried twinkies, snickers, oreos and various other heart failure-inducing foods. Not that a corn dog was any better, but I had to have one.

Best food: Peppermint ice cream sandwiches



Unhealthiest food at the fair: $7 turkey leg. Sorry, Laura; my student's mom told me she'd read an article in the paper saying that was the worst thing you could eat at the fair. Was it worth it?



Cutest animal: baby pig (no picture). Other baby animals: baby cows, baby chicks.



There was more to the fair than food, believe it or not! The first thing we did was check out the Riley Talent Show, and who was playing on stage when we arrived? An oboist!! She was a student of Jennifer Wohlenhaus, principal oboist with the Des Moines Symphony. She was fantastic!! She played a Pasculli Grand Concerto (I think?) by memory and advanced to the finals on Sunday. We were then informed by our friend and judge, Maria di Palma, on Sunday that the oboist won the competition!!! HA! Take that, dime-a-dozen singers!

After spending too much money on rides and games, Laura and I got tattoos. OK, they were only spray-ons, but my scorpion served as a warning to other bugs and I didn't get bitten. We saw the famous butter cow (yes, an entire life-size cow made out of butter), butter Superman (this year only), and butter Bill Riley (founder of the Talent Show). This was followed by the biggest animals (biggest bull, biggest pig, tallest ostroich that will peck your eye out if you get too close), more food, and the cheapest ride...the shuttle bus back to our car at the State Capitol.

All in all, the weather was perfect (didn't get sunburned as it was pleasantly overcast the whole day), the food was fair-like, and the company was fun (Dave, Tracy and Laura). Nothing is quite like the Calgary Stampede, but it was a great State Fair experience. Very different from Calgary...uniquely Iowan. :)

Click here to see more pictures of our day at the Iowa State Fair.

2 comments:

Laura said...

If you remember, the first thing I did was strip that beast of all it's skin, then avoided the fatty parts, and finally chucked about half of it away at the end (apologizing to the gigantic turkey in the sky it used to belong to). Wasn't quite worth $7, but definitely did the job. :)

Jillian Camwell said...

Yeah, the skin definitely was the yummiest, I mean unhealthiest part.

Welcome to blogging, Mom! No to Joan Jett.