County Fair

One of the problems with having less computer time because I'm having fun doing other things is... I fall behind on blogging the things I'm doing, LOL. So over the next couple of days, I will relive all the fun I've been having.

On Thursday after work, I drove to Todd's work to meet up with him. He rode his bike to work in the morning because we're having the transmission rebuilt on his Explorer. Sad to spend the money, even sadder that we'll probably have to get a new car in the next few months. We've had the Explorer since October 2001 and were hoping it would last longer. Anyways, we met up with Monika at Todd's work and rode with her to the San Diego County Fair at the Del Mar Fairgrounds.

We have lived in San Diego for 10 years now and have not gone to the County Fair once. Mainly because we abhor the fair traffic, and we don't like fair rides. It always seemed like a huge hassle to go to something that's not even of interest to us. But Monika has lived here a couple of years and has never gone. So we went together on a weeknight, hoping the traffic is less bad. And it was.


Photo courtesy of Monika.

Look, ponies going round and round! Don't they ever feel bored? I kind of felt sorry for them!


Wow, that's quite a food stand... almost looked like a double-decker bus!


A butter sculpture family. Mmm... do they run from bread? Is a big piece of toast their worst nightmare?


We were hungry, so the first order of business was to find some food.
Hey look, a list of all the food you can eat at the fair!


Rides, junk food, and crowds.


Our first stop was at a roasted corn booth.


After the corn, we walked around, overwhelmed at all the choices. Finally we split up to get our food and met back together. Monika talked big about having fried foods and chocolate covered bacon. But we found her with a teriyaki chicken bowl with broccoli. Who has broccoli at the County Fair??? Monika does!


Now Todd, on the other hand, lived up to his fried foods reputation with the choice of fish and chips.


I got calamari and chips. It was pretty good.


After dinner, we walked around looking at all the spectacle, and looked for dessert.
Hey... FRIED BUTTER anyone???

and hey, it's even Food Network's #1 fried food at the fair!

Check out the size of that funnel cake. If this dude can eat it all, it would be free. But according to Monika, who stopped by later and saw his friends eating it, he did not get it for free.


We played a water gun game and Monika's friend Wendy won a big banana.


I think Monika had banana-envy and hijacked it for a while.


Dusk at the fair.


Somehow I'm not really convinced...


Monika played a game in the hopes of winning a big banana too.


But she got a little banana instead.


Still on the hunt for dessert, we found fresh cream puffs and shared one.


Meanwhile, Monika and Wendy found the chocolate-covered bacon.


On the way out of the fair, we stopped by the animal pavilion.
It's kind of sad to see the word "beef" right above the cows, eh? Cows are much bigger close-up in real life than far away from the freeway.


I think I liked the sheep the most. They were all sheared and wearing clothes.

We were told that they were all sheared so that their muscle tone can be seen for auctions. And the "clothes" were not to keep them warm, but for keeping them clean.

This little black sheep wanted to get friendly.


Aww... sheep snuggles.


We had a lot of fun with Monika, but overall I don't think the fair is our type of fun. We don't like spinning rides and that's the majority of rides there. It was crowded too. It took us a LONG time to get out of the parking lot when we left. But now we can say that after living in San Diego for 10 years, we've finally gone to the county fair!