Monday, September 07, 2009

A date at the fair

At the end of last school year a friend who also homeschools invited Brian to go on an end-of-year celebration to the Clackamas Aquatic Center, but the celebration had to be put off for various reasons until Sunday. That gave Rick and me hours to ourselves, a rare and wonderful occurrence. What to do together? We still had passes to the State Fair from Rick's one-day stint as horse show vet, so we decided to go again and see whatever we wanted to see. We ate fair food (a wonderful cinnamon roll - mostly mine, good vegan cheesesteak sandwich - we each had one, an "apple pie" caramel apple - we shared, and a Heath Bar shake - mostly Rick's). We walked through as much of the commercial vendor's building as Rick could stand (I enjoy see what is being hawked), took in a lot of the building that houses the county displays, quilts, craft demonstrations and such, and spent a lot of time in the animal buildings. When we first arrived the kids (I think both 4-H and FFA) were holding a timed obstacle course; what a hoot! We watched as two little goats (pygmies, I think) and a piglet did their best to embarrass their handlers. Later we watched some of the Jersey classes (such beautiful bovines!) and a bit of the llama obstacle competition. There were some beautiful specimens of colorful longhorn and miniature polled Hereford cattle; I've never seen the later in person before and couldn't get over how small they were!

In the interest of time (we have friends coming over soon), all photos are lumped together below, but they are in order of things spoken of above.
After seeing as much as we wanted, we still had plenty of time to go home and relax, and even take a NAP. What a welcome parental holiday!

That's it for now from . . .

9 comments:

Deb W said...

Vegan I understand...but a vegan cheesesteak sandwhich????? I don't get it. What in the world does that consist of?

Michelle said...

Hee hee, Deb; I thought I might get a reaction to that! It was actually a tasty blend of grilled onions and brown sauce with some type of thinly sliced product - don't know if it was wheat gluten (seitan) or soy-based - piled on a delicious, soft roll and topped with a cashew cheese sauce.

Gail V said...

Great fair photos, Michelle! I love the county and the state fairs in MN. Your narration made it more fun-- I really like the 4H kids' animal obstacle course.

Bethany said...

Fun to see the photos of the fair! Enjoyed your blog!

Theresa said...

Oh my getting a goat to do your bidding, I can only imagine the frustration of those kids! Are longhorns making a comeback? Hope so. Great fair photos.
I don't know about that Philly Cheesesteak though, I find even the meat variety in the west seems to be suspect, let alone a vegan rendition. I don't suppose whiz was an option! ;-)

MaskedMan said...

If you're going to go vegan, go whole hog (so to speak) and get a grilled portabello mushroom sandwich. Who needs steak? :-p

I enjoy county and state fairs a lot - Much more so than anyone else in my immediate family. So I rarely get to go. :-(

Michelle said...

MaskedMan, I would LOVE to have gotten a grilled portobello sandwich, but I'm afraid no one was offering those at the fair. I thought it was pretty impressive that there was a vegan food booth at all, in the land of corn dogs, deep-fried candy bars and the like. :-)

thecrazysheeplady said...

A miniature Hereford?!? Very cool - never even heard of, much less seen. Thanks!

MaskedMan said...

I guess I forget that I'm spoiled that way, Michelle - I live a loud shout from the heart of Pennsylvania's mushroom growing region, and monster-size portobello mushroom caps are common and relatively inexpensive 'round here.

Anyway, 'fried everything' is pretty much the way of fairs all across this great land - When you get right down to it, what are funnel cakes but fried batter with nothing else inside? After that, fried Mars(tm) bars or fried Twinkies(also 'tm') should be no surprise... ;-)