County Fair

Last Saturday, Dan and I went to the Olmstead County Fair (right here in Rochester). We had a total blast. Dan got his (actually my) money's worth out of his ride bracelet - he rode the bumper cars at least 7 times. While we were waiting to buy pizza a nice lady who was leaving gave us three tickets, which was exactly how many we needed so that I could ride the Ferris wheel with him!

Dan had pizza for lunch and dinner. We tried fried cheese curds (I was proud of Dan for giving them a shot), he didn't like them, I thought they were OK, but wouldn't go out of my way to have them again (very heavy grease taste/smell) and we gave the leftovers to a couple of teenage boys. The famous mini donuts were a hit, however. We loved them. Last of all we had a spaghetti sundae. What a whimsical and yummy treat.

We walked through the craft hall and looked at cows and horses. Whenever we were eating, there was a band playing in one of the halls. We heard three very different groups. There was a little shopping too. There was a magician demonstrating some products, and he and Dan got to talking about tricks. He showed us how to do a couple of things and I bought him two trick decks of cards. Dan impressed the guy with his magical knowledge and he talked to Dan magician to magician - it was pretty cool.

Dan did pretty good with the midway games. His fantastic aim won him a small Stewie (from the Family Guy, one of his favorite shows - he quotes it constantly) that he was thrilled to get. We also spent a good deal of time (and money!) at the Sweeper booth. But we got a great deal of entertainment waiting for the pesky Garfield keychain to drop. Dan tried different strategies of aim and timing to maximize his winnings, and a nice man (whose family saves their loose change all year round so they can try to win the biggest prize in the booth) gave him a cup of tokens when we ran out. His prizes from that booth were some pop caps, a switchblade comb and (the perennial favorite) a whoopie cushion.

Daniel enjoyed his last two camps, and honed his public bus riding skills with two new routes. And last night he got a great big surprise when he rode with me to pick up a package at the FedEx office at the airport - the package was his Daddy! And Daniel was completely surprised. We all had lunch together when Daniel was done with College for Kids and then they did some supermarket shopping and went bowling afterwards. We were going to go to a ballgame tonight, but it's cold and drizzly so we're going to stay in and order pizza instead.

Blair got info from the tourism board and has lots of fun things he wants to do with Dan (like the Spam museum). And tomorrow we'll hit the Mall of America.

The dog was besides himself to see Blair, and spent a lot of time physically attached to Blair yesterday evening. I'm so thrilled to have my family together.