the iowa state fair.

oh, the iowa state fair. what a place. people come from far and wide to actually VACATION here at the fair. crazies. growing up in iowa, i have always felt that you see it once, and you can go a good 5 yrs without needing to see it again. it never changes--everything is in the same place as it was when i was 5. i guess there's a certain nostalgic feeling about that, though. we took jack today and it was a beautiful day; not the normal grueling heat i associate with the fair. he fit right in since he, too, only has 6 teeth. no, no, just kidding. we had agreed to do a mullet tally at the end of the day, but surprisingly didn't see quite as many mulleted, toothless, 400lb iowans as we usually do. i'm awful, yes? (sidenote, here: my brother tells me that in the med school/hospital they refer to "iowa units" when giving the weight of overweight patients. i believe an iowa unit is 250 or 300 lbs. adam, if you read this, can you clear that up?)

so anyway, first you need to see the butter:


yep, that's harry potter.


and the famous butter cow.

nothing like characters carved in butter to start the day off right. we then moved onto the cultural buiding, where we saw fantastic art and photography, and a huge sand castle that we can only understand to be dwarfs playing the pipe organ. (?!) we walked through the horticulture/agriculture building so jack could stare at the flowers, and through the gardens outside. he found this misting fountain and loved it:


Pure bliss.

then we walked through the cattle barn and covered the stroller tires with manure. yeah! fair! we saw the biggest bull: this thing weighs a ton and a half! the photo does not do him justice, but here's a shot:


onto the swine barn (biggest boar, named "Big Red" and runner up, "Corn Dog.") and then the horse barns (aww, the only animals at the fair not destined for hamburger, bacon, or a life of breeding). we skipped the sheep and chickens. mike had had enough of showing cattle in his youth so we skipped the shows, too. in the varied industries building we saw herky! yeah herky!


we also got to see a 10-yr-old twirl batons to some sort of rock/hula music (hawaiian roller coaster--what?), and a 5-yr-old play beethoven on the piano. it would've been nice to see more of the talent shows (and maybe a tractor pull or something), but alas, we have 1) a baby needing a nap, and 2) a dog who we try not to leave in his kennel during the day for more than 5 hrs. but of course you are all thinking, "who cares what you SAW, we want to know what you ATE." i won't disappoint! we did partake in our fair (ha, FAIR) share of fried food and food on a stick. we started the day out right with a beautiful homemade carmel-pecan sticky roll ($4) and coffee (25cents) made by the madison county covered bridges team. that was a find--homemade and yummy and not fried? wow. i was next up on the food binge and tried a $5 plate of fried veggies--cauliflower, mushrooms, onions, green peppers, & zucchini. quite good. later, when it was officially lunch time, mike got a $5 1/2 lb breaded tenderloin on the fluffiest bun i've ever seen, while i had a nice little plate of potato skins (sour cream, bacon bits, cheese, chives, jalepenos...yikes, and yep, you guessed it--$5). as we were leaving, we didn't forget dessert. mike was determined to try a cheesecake on a stick. it was pretty yummy, actually--just a plain piece of cheesecake, dipped in melted chocolate, put on a stick, and frozen. $3.50, but worth it for the frozen yumminess that was actually not fried. we passed up the traditional corn dogs and funnel cakes, as well as the M E A T--turkey legs and pork-chops-on-a-stick, and did not make our annual visit to the cattlemen's tent (besides, i promised a heifer in the cattle barn that i would not eat beef today).

all in all, it was a worthy 5 hr visit. usually i'm dead sick of the fair by the time we go, which i imagine is because my parents used to drag me through the 4-H hall and make me look at everything. and there was the time i got stuck on the Ye Old Mill ride in a dark tunnel as a kid--all the boats piled up in front of us and behind us, but we couldn't see each other. i'm yelling help through the tunnel, freaking the other kids out, and my mom finally has to crawl from boat to boat to get toward the front and yell at the workers to come help us. it was mad. since then, i've not been a frequent visitor to the midway rides. yet my fair memories this year will be happy, as will jack's.