Last week (on my birthday), I went to the Orange County Fair. My review of the day is in the form of a Thursday 13.
1. Just after we arrived (and after we'd perused the crafty area), I spied a booth selling lemonade. I ordered a frozen strawberry lemonade. And it ended up being more trouble than it was worth. (They had to go to another booth to get the drink? It was unclear.) The drink was tasty, after I did get it. But they were doing the paper straw thing (deep sigh), so the straw disintegrated long before I finished.
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| Frozen Strawberry Lemonade |
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| 2. Pumpkin in the "farm" section of the fair. |
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3. On the other side of the pathway from the pumpkins.
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| 4. In the floral arrangement building. |
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| 5. Also in the floral arrangement building. This is made to look like a Pente board, which, considering I just talked about Pente in last week's Thursday 13, I just had to include. (There was a tableau of floral arrangements made to look like games.) |
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| 6. Fair food. No, I did not sample any of these wares. (A funnel cake chicken sandwich? Really?) But I couldn't pass up a shot of what you could order. (Lunch was fish-n-chips.) |
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| 7. After lunch, we hit the hobbies area. This was from collections. I had to take a pic of this Barbie collection for Jamie. |
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| 7. (Cont.) The rest of the Barbies. |
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| 8. Same building as the collections was the table settings. I don't normally care about table settings, but Twilight Zone? |
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| 9. Still in the same building, the quilts. The dresses are made from old handkerchiefs. |
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| 10. And, of course, the reason we were in the building in the first place, the knitting. This is such a great way to use up leftover yarn. I aspire to this level of creativity. As you can see, it won a ribbon. |
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| 11. Cosplay is a category one can enter their creations in. And this one caught my eye. (Still the same building.) |
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| 12. Very busy image (sorry!), but in the middle is what I was looking at--a crocheted dragon. As you can see, it's huge. |
13. After this, we went into visual arts (photography, painting, and woodworking). I did not take pics of pictures. We left soon after that. And I was wiped out. At the car as I took off my backpack I hit my ear with the strap, and my earring flew off. I managed to find the front, but the back was gone. (We looked for a while. Moved our car. Alas, it probably ended up under the car next to us, and while we poked our heads under as far as we could go, it was not far enough.)
We were only there about four hours. It was not a terribly hot day. But, I still managed to get sunburned on those bits of skin I missed with the sunscreen. The story of my life.
Does your county hold a fair? Do you go? (Technically, this isn't "my" county fair as I live in Los Angeles County, but I'm so near the border with Orange County. And LA County's fair is so much farther away.)
I quit going to the county and state fairs. Everything about them is expensive and the food can make me sick, if I don't resist. The animals are condemned, going to auction after and I don't like to look at condemned animals.
ReplyDeleteOur state fair is in Sacramento (I think), so I've never been to it. Understandable.
DeleteJamie:
ReplyDeleteI live in Hollister, in San Benito County. I have not gone to our county fair in years. It's usually at the end of September or beginning of October. San Benito is the last county in California to hold its fair. Our group at work took a trip last year to the Santa Cruz County Fair. We thought about going to the Monterey County one this year, but it comes at an awkward time for us to schedule it, starting at the end of this month. Don't yet know about a repeat trip to Santa Cruz County, though. That one is in mid-September.
LA County's used to be mid-September, but they recently changed it to May. I have no idea if that worked out better or not.
DeleteJamie again: And thanks for the shoutout. I typed the previous comment before I even saw the Barbie pictures.
ReplyDeleteOur New York State Fair runs from August 23 to Sept 2. I've been to it three times (it's about 80 miles from where I live). We are debating going this year. I know someone who has won ribbons in both needlework and baking at the state fair. I admired that crocheted dragon, too. Our county fair ended a few days ago-I haven't been to that in years and have little reason to go. I enjoyed looking at the food poster. Fair food is fair food but you'll never find deep friend avocados at our fairs (I don't think?).
ReplyDeleteDeed FRIED avocados. Anything deep fried wouldn't be my digestive friend anyway.
DeleteI love to look at the weird food. I do not partake of it. (Most just doesn't even sound appealing.)
DeleteCounty fairs are so much better than most state fairs and less crowded. Hate the paper straws though. You should watch the show Carnival Eats. I still haven't come upon any of the tasty treats they feature, just the same old, same old.
ReplyDeleteI look to see if anything interesting will pop up. And I usually just shake my head and go "uh, no".
DeleteOur county fair is held at a historic site called Olde Bethpage Village, which is a recreation of a 18th century community. We thought the fair was …how shall I put it …boring…and spent most of our t8me explir8ng the historic site.
ReplyDeleteThat's too bad. I like to look at the entries for photography and knitting. If those weren't there, I'd probably skip the event.
DeleteI didn't go to our fair, it was too hot. I like the art/craft buildings, and used to enter. My kids did for years. I like the dresses made of vintage hankies. As a child I only cared about the livestock barns where you could pet the sheep and goats and all the 4-H animals. Fair food is so expensive. I used to love the corndogs, but then they started refrying Foster Farms, it still had the name on the stick! I can buy those at the store.
ReplyDeleteI did not take pictures of the livestock. We visited, but I wasn't that into it.
DeleteLove the marigold and the frangipani in the arrangement.
ReplyDeleteOur fair is also going on.
ReplyDeleteWe had our county fair over the weekend but it was almost 100 degrees so we did not go. I'm not into sweating that much.
ReplyDeleteI don't blame you. Yikes. I believe our high was 82-ish that day. I like the fair, but I melt in high heat.
DeleteHi Liz - we have a variety of fairs of various sorts highlighting particular items, or general items from the county ... I haven't been to one for ages. Four hours is quite a long time - looking and wandering ... I love the dragon - fun to see ... I'm glad you had a happy birthday day ... cheers Hilary
ReplyDeleteyes...we have 95 counties in TN and I know most, if not all hold a fair. The county next to me has theirs going until Sunday. I am not a big fan of fairs, other than to walk around and take pics. To see the craft areas and things like that. Don't you just hate when you want something, have a taste for it and then it is just not what you thought it would be. Disappointment. I am glad you got out and went to the fair. Hope you enjoyed it.
ReplyDeleteI did. It was sad that the drink wasn't as awesome as I had hoped, but I'll know for next time.
DeleteOur State Fair is going on, but I've not gone in YEARS. Think I was in my early twenties the last time I went. Our country does one as well, but I've never been to it. I used to like to go to the Ross County fair where my grandma lived when I was a kid and visited her for a week in the summer. She always had roses in it. The quilt and the knitting are awesome.
ReplyDeleteI've never been to our state fair. Way too far away.
DeleteAs pro-waste reduction as I am, the straws are a dumb idea that doesn't do anything. Maybe clean up all the fishing line in the ocean before worrying about straws. The rest of the fair looks neat, though. I hope it wasn't too hot.
ReplyDeleteI haven't attended a county fair for over a decade. I'll share you the boring details of why, besides the similar hatred of heat/humidity. Be well!
ReplyDeleteAw, that's too bad. But if it's not your thing, then it's not your thing.
DeleteI love the Pente floral arrangment and oh! Those Barbies! (Sorry about your earring.)
ReplyDeleteI am often surprised by what catches my interest.
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