Day 2. Transportation by Eggshell

In the days leading up to our visit, I read most of the State Fair website so that I could develop a plan. Most of what's described here was on my hit list :)

First I wanted to see all the stuff on a stick. We saw teriyaki ostrich, hotdish, Pronto Banquet on a stick, gator, and Scotch eggs. For sheer cuteness and how'd they keep it on a stick-ness, this was my highlight:


Sadly, due to the events of the Scrabble party the night before, I wasn't in the mood for carny-fried mystery victuals, so I had nothing on a stick until right as we left I bought a frozen banana. I believe this is cheating, because I'd have that banana anywhere anyway.

I made a stop over to the Minneapolis Star Tribune shack to introduce myself to James Lileks, whose website I've enjoyed for almost as long as I've had access to a graphical web browser. Nice guy. Funny in person. Discussed moleskine notebooks, since I had my personal book with me at all times during the fair. Disagreed with me about whether the Headhunter category in the gladiolus competition was going to reflect headhunters or not. That was cool.

Moving along, we made a visitation to the Princess Kay exhibit to see a Butter Princess' likeness being sculpted. That was tremendous. The chilled booth rotates slowly, and the princess and the sculptress do their work.


The Ag-Hort-Bee building is where I pinned most of my hopes. There you find the bee exhibits, crop art, flower displays and vegetable competitions. We saw squashes so huge that they resembled large sleeping animals:


The bee exhibits featured a hive behind a screened off area. You can put your face near the screen and feel the wind of their wings and smell the bees' sweet grainy aroma. Who knew?

The seed paintings in the Crop Art room were worth a visit. The Colonel Sanders was the best of the bunch, but the political ones (Al Franken, running for senator, rendered as Stuart Smalley; Dick Cheney depicted in beans as the root of all evil) were pretty great too.


These were the expected pleasures, but there was more to love. We happened upon the tiny tiny tiny tiny horse judging competitions. I saw the most beautiful cow in the world. The craft booth had a dress someone had made in the theme of sock monkeys.
And there is a competition in which people collect post cards and arrange them around a theme. The loveliest was titled "Transportation by Eggshell," and was a selection of Easter cards in which chicks or little people were shown being transported via egg zeppelins, boats and carriages. So sweet.

A good time was had by all :)