Sunday, September 11, 2016

A Day At The Minnesota State Fair

Last weekend my husband and I attended the Minnesota State Fair.  It was the first state fair I had been to other than the Wisconsin State Fair, so I was anxious to see how different it was from my home state fair.  I was born and raised in Milwaukee and I have spent the majority of my life living in Wisconsin, so the only fair I had been to before was the Wisconsin State Fair.  The last time I went to the Wisconsin State Fair was two years ago.  I wrote a post about that experience HERE.

Since I now live closer to the Minnesota State Fair which is held in Minneapolis (and only two hours away from my home) than I do the Wisconsin State Fair which is held in Milwaukee (four hours away from my home) we decided to check out a new fair this year.  



Everyone knows State Fairs are all about the food, so my husband asked all the locals at his work what were the best things to eat.  The hands down favorite were Sweet Martha's Cookies, so that was the very first place we went to.   The cookies are served warm for $6.00 for a small cone like you see below up to $16.00 for a pail.  We got the cone and split it and it was more than enough for the two of us.



Although we thought the cookies were delicious, we didn't think that they tasted any different than any normal chocolate chip cookie straight out of the oven.  They sure did not measure up to the Wisconsin State Fair Cream Puff, that's for sure!  My husband and I couldn't understand what all the fuss was about.  I mean, it's just a cookie!  Cream Puffs, we can understand.  They are not easy to make, but cookies?  Who can't make a chocolate chip cookie?  If we go to the Minnesota State Fair next year, we will pass on these.


After we had our morning snack of milk and cookies, we then went to my favorite exhibit:  the agricultural building.  I already wrote a separate post on that amazing exhibit HERE if you missed it. It was in this building that we saw all the honey displays and found so many delicious honeys and honey treats for sale.  There were several honey bee homes on display for people to look at.  I always find this process so unfathomable...that flowers bloom, bees gather the pollen, and we get delicious honey.  God's creation certainly is amazing isn't it?


We were heavily warned that the Minnesota State Fair is extraordinarily crowded.  We were there on a Sunday, and it did seem very busy, but no more crowded than the Wisconsin State Fair.  Finding parking was tough even though we got there when the fair opened.  We never tried the State Fair parking, so I don't know how that was.  We parked quite a distance away for free in a residential neighborhood.


Being a quilter myself, I love to look at the quilts.  I am always in awe of the sewing skills of the people who make these quilts.  My favorite one of all was this quilt I found in the Senior Citizen Center.  I just love the simplicity of it...plus it has two of my favorite things:  cats and flowers!


My husband and I are both avid animal lovers, so we probably spent more time looking at and interacting with the animals at the fair than anything else.  Now here is where I felt the Minnesota State Fair did it better than the Wisconsin State Fair.  I never liked looking at the animals at the Wisconsin State Fair because the buildings are small and hot, and the aisles are narrow and crowded.  They had very nice and very large buildings at the Minnesota State Fair.  The aisles were extremely wide, so you could view the animals with ease.  They also had several animals out so you could pet them (see videos below).  We had so much fun in the animal buildings.

I loved this big bunny, his fur was so soft.


The different types of fur on the goats cracked us up.  This one looks like he is wearing a shag rug.


And this one looks like he got a perm!


 These are horses getting ready to enter the coliseum for a competition.  We saw a small portion of that competition and I included a video below.


Because I live in the country, I see cows every single day, but here are a couple I thought were interesting.  I love the coloring on this cow.  Her owner was so proud of her...she won a championship ribbon.


And these farm kids cracked my husband and I up....look at the boy playing on his smart phone!


We had the wonderful opportunity to see baby piglets nursing (see video below), except we felt so bad for one little piglet because his brothers and sisters wouldn't share a nipple.


And this pig was the largest pig at the fair.  Isn't he ugly?


Perhaps my favorite thing I ate at the fair was a home-made pretzel.  In my entire life, I have never, ever tasted a pretzel this delicious.  I will definitely be buying another pretzel if I go back to the fair next year!


The pretzel only cost $6.00 and it was so large my husband and I were able to split one.  You can choose any topping you want plus cheese for no additional cost.  We got a garlic butter flavored one plus cheese.


And here are some fun videos I took while we were at the fair.  They are all super short, most are under a minute.  They are fun to watch and hear my husband's and mine talking in the background.


We thought the horse smiling for the camera when given a carrot was adorable!


Just listen to the piglets squeal as they fight for a nipple of their mother's!


A portion of the horse competition we saw.


This large rabbit was so soft!  I was so happy I got to pet him!


My silly husband and his Aflac Insurance jokes!


And finally, the 4H musical show.  I was really impressed with these kids, and I thought their set was great!


So what about you, did you attend your State Fair this year?  I had so much fun attending a different state's fair other than my own state fair that I said to my husband we should create a bucket list where we attend every state fair in the United States.  Wouldn't that be fun?

Have a Great Day!  Amy

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4 comments:

  1. Looks like a fun time! So many sweet animals, the bunny is huge and what a cute piglet! Would you believe I've had several people tell me how easy it is to make cream puffs?? But I haven't tried it yet myself. I just buy the ones from Aldi.
    No fair for us this year, maybe I can convince hubby to take us the the Iowa fair next year...but he hates crowds.

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    1. It was a fun day. I remember being so happy all day. Cream puffs are easy to make? They seem so complicated. I didn't even know Aldi sold cream puffs. I agree fairs are always so crowded, that's the only downside.

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  2. Wow! Sounds like you had fun there! So cute animals!

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