Danielle Blog

Minnesota State Fair

When we went to the Minnesota State Fair last weekend, the very first thing we did was visit the horses. Well, maybe it wasn’t the very very first thing. The very very first thing we saw were the restrooms which were conveniently located by the farm equipment so that you could see the latest in trailers while waiting in line to pee. But I digress. So, we went to see the horsies. And the first one that I felt an urge to photograph was the Clydesdale.

He was chomping down on the hay in the corner, and when I asked his owner/handler if I could take a flash photo, he kindly gave me permission and warned me that when the horse saw the flash, he’d probably be over to say Hi.

Well sure enough, I got a few shots off and then he stuck his big ol’ head out to be scratched and petted.

You can imagine how well that went over with the kids. They suddenly flocked to the clydesdale’s stall to see the beeeg horse. So, I left the clydesdale feeling like I’d contributed to the entertainment of the day.

I also really liked the braided mane on this horse.

It looked very Nordic or Swedish to me, which seemed to be fitting, considering the many Swedish ties in Minnesota.

Also note how once again the horse is eating. Come to think of it, most of the horses we saw were eating. We must’ve been interupting them at lunchtime.

The next stop was the sheep. The sheep are my favorite! If you view the slideshow of the fair pictures, you can see some extras that I’m not including in this post, including more sheep pictures.
The white sheep with the black faces are just adorable to me.

Although it seems like the all white ones might be a bit more sociable and are more apt to stick their heads at the rails to be petted. Heck, who am I kidding? I like them all.

One of the funniest things we saw were the sheep that were getting ready for the swimsuit contest.

I think the one in the pink with the purple bands has a decided edge over the solid green and blue, however, she seems to be the subject of a wardrobe malfunction in that she has bites taken out of her swimsuit. Perhaps that just makes it more risque, and she’ll win points with the male judges.

We saw some pigs – although our time there was brief at best. I’m not sure if it is their lack of fur and hence lack of the cute and cuddly factor, or my penchant for bacon and ham that made me want to skip over the piggies.

We spent a while with the dairy cows and waited around the milking parlor to see a couple of them get milked. One cow came in with an udder that looked like she must’ve had at least 2-3 gallons of milk in there. It was pretty impressive. But they took her back out after having her wait a few minutes. Maybe she was going to get milked in the other demo area.

We also went into the new Miracle of Birth center. It is brand new this year. Interestingly, they’d had two sows give birth that morning. The piglets were quite active as they tried to stand and nurse or as they just wobbled around on their newborn legs. This is in contrast to the litters that were a bit older who were mostly just sleeping.

I saw some cows and sheep that were waiting to give birth and some other newborn animals.

These baby lambs were 5 days old.

After viewing the animals we ate lunch which included something called a pickle dog. It is like an appetizer that my family makes that we call Dill Pickle Doobers (for lack of a better name). The pickle dog was a pickle wedge covered with cream cheese and wrapped in pastrami. I know it sounds weird, but it was the best thing that we ate at the fair. I also had a crab cake sandwich. I’m a big lover of crab cakes and eat them whenever I can.

We viewed the bonsai trees and the orchids (pictures to be shown in future episodes of Flowers For Friday) in the horticultural building and after stopping by one of the radio stations, called it a day.

Finally, we ate a slice of key lime pie dipped in chocolate as we left.

All in all, it was a good experience at the fair. I’m glad that we went.