State Fair Part 2: What we Saw

(Go read State Fair 1 first if you haven't yet.)

In addition to doing things, we also saw a lot of interesting things. I thought I'd share some of them with you!

We went to the vendor show and saw lots of booths. We each got our blood typed - O+ for both of us. Upstairs from that was the Threads and Fabric show. They had quilts, stitchery, crocheting... basically anything you can imagine sewing! I took a picture of the winning Halloween costumes section because it was just so cute! (Plus, it reminded me of you, Mom.)

We went to the horticulture show, where they had all sorts of beautiful plant and flower arrangements.

We saw the infamous butter statues. Yes, these are sculpted out of butter! I thought it was a little gross myself, but I guess it's Iowa State Fair tradition! By the way, the girl is supposed to be Shawn Johnson, although Mike and I both agree that it looks nothing like her.

We went to the antiques barn. To my untrained eye, it mostly looked like a bunch of dusty old junk, but my trash is someone else's treasure! They had this miniature barn inside, and I had to snap a picture of it for Mom. (I'll have you know I got stuck with a barn restoration flyer for appearing so interested!)

We also heard lots of performances. There was a harmonica competition (awesome performers!), the army band, a dancing show, and a dog show! Here's a picture of the dog jumping over a 48-inch pole! (Look closely.)

We also went to the food center, where they had all sorts of food that people had entered to be judged. Here's a shot of some of the prize-winning treats. The hot-dog-looking thing is actually a decorated sugar cookie!

We also went to a craft boutique, wandered around and saw more carnival rides, saw a horseshoes competition, saw a bunch of tractors, hot tubs, and other assorted items for sale, and watched several rides that we didn't go on - the giant slide, the huge bungee jumping machine, trampolines, etc. What a lot to see and do!

State Fair Part 1: What We Did

Neither of us had ever been to a state fair. In fact, here's all I've ever heard of them: 1. When I was roommates with Ashley, she could only afford to go home once that year, so she chose to stay in Utah at CHRISTMAS so she could go home to see the state fair. I thought she was nuts. (No offense, Ashley!) 2. I knew there was an old musical called State Fair. That's it.

However, everyone out here has been talking about it non-stop, so Mike and I decided to try something new. We headed down to Des Moines yesterday to see what all the fuss was about!

Parking was CRAZY, but the carnival atmosphere was very fun. Here's a few of the things we did.

We went browsing through the tents filled with all sorts of crazy things to buy. My favorites were some disappearing ink and these two hats. (Look closely at the tops of our heads!)

We rode the Skyglider, which is this thing that lifts you in the air and takes you slowly over the park. It was fun, except for the time that we stopped right over a dad changing his little girl's diaper!

We went on the Old Mill ride. It was basically just a boat ride in the dark, so I couldn't get pictures inside of it, but here's the old mill and us in the boat just as it started.

We rode the gravitron. (Yeah, remember that old thing that spins you around so fast that you can't lift yourself or your arm or head off the wall?) We were both kind of dizzy after that!

We went to a cooking show. They were selling cookware. Very EXPENSIVE cookware, I might add, which meant that (of course) we wanted to buy some. But we didn't. The show was still fun, and the sample food was still very good.

And of course, we went to see the animals. That wasn't my favorite part (a little too stinky for my tastes), but you have to do that at the State Fair!