Minnesota State Fair

Noah and I, his father, went to the Minnesota State Fair last Saturday. Unless you're from here, you wouldn't know that the State Fair is a BIG deal up here. It's one of the largest in the US. Over the 12 day period the fair averages about 1.6 to 1.7 million people.

So on a beautiful Saturday morning, we headed out. We parked in a satellite parking lot and took a city bus to the fair. Noah loved riding the bus and kept saying "Noah ride the bus!".

Once we got into the fair, we headed off to the Miracle of Life exhibit. The exhibit has many animals that were born within the last 48 hours. We saw lambs, calves, piglets and mini-horse. Noah really liked it but was a bit reticent about actually touching the animals. He did touch a piglet, however. I have to admit the little guy was pretty cute!

Next we headed off to the rides. We went on the carousel but he called it a merry-go-round . He really enjoyed the riding the horse up and down as it went around and around.

We then went over to a ride that only Noah could go on. It was a seat that went around in a circle. As we waited for the ride to stop, Noah kept saying "Open the gate". He was ready to go.
Noah loved the ride. Every time he came around, he had a smile on his face and mumbled about something. He talked the entire ride!

I told Noah after the rides that we could get a treat. So once he got off the second ride, he said "I want a treat". So off we went to find a pronto pup. A pronto pup is a type of corn dog; who knew there were different variations of a corn dog! Anyway, I tried to share the pronto pup with Noah and he did not like that. He loved it and got very mad with me when I tried to take a few bites. Trying to reason with a newly minted two year old just doesn't work.

After the pronto pup, we went in search for our next treat. As we walked around for the next ten minutes, he kept saying "I want a treat" over and over. Finally I settled on a gyro. He liked it but not as much as the pronto pup! We finished off a wholesome lunch (remember this is the place where you can get a deep fried twinkie or snickers bar), we headed over to the dairy barn to get a malt. I asked Noah what kind he wanted (chocolate, vanilla or strawberry) and not surprisingly he said strawberry. I was able to get a few spoonfuls in so that made me very happy; it was very tasty. The locals tell me that it's the best malt at the fair; I can see why.

By this point, we had been at the fair for a couple of hours and I figured it was time to head home and hopefully put Noah down for a nap. After the malt, the sugar high kicked in and he had to do some running around which created a real challenge for me. It was about noon and the place was getting packed. Trying to keep Noah close to me really made me work.

We did finally get back to the bus and Noah loved the ride back. The bus was pretty empty so we got to ride up front and he kept talking about how he was riding the bus. I almost think he enjoyed riding the bus as much as the rides.

Noah and I had a great time and I look forward to going back next year for more rides, animals and artery clogging fair food.