Wisconsin State Fair

So this is not so much a review of the Wisconsin State Fair, as a comparison.  I have many wonderful memories of the State Fair.   I remember when I was a little girl and my parents took me to the Fair, one year my mom bought me a white cowboy hat with my name in script on it.  I loved that hat!
A few years later, I remember going on a ride with my sister and screaming so they stopped and let us off.  I remember going with my friends from school, always making sure to check out the horses.
Then came the years of taking all our kids.  Yes that was 20 to 30 years ago.  The pony ride, giant slide, a few rides at the Midway and checking out all the animals, that's what I remember.  We would go on senior citizen day first thing in the morning, less crowds then.  As the kids got older we only went sporadically.
Last year Scott, Heather, Deuce, Leah, and myself took Nick to the State Fair, excited to see how much fun Nick would have and we were not disappointed!  Then this year I went with Dan, Suzie and Steve (Suzie's dad).  Would going with adults be a completely different experience than going with a 2 year old?   Check out below and see:

At the Fair, we always go see the animals:
Last Year

Yes Nick, Grandma said you can touch the pig's ear.

Heather, Nick and a Goat

                                             

















                                                                         












                                                                                This Year

This Chick is doing the Hokey Pokey

I LOVE this Sheep with her Uggs on!!!

 
Picture time... where you stick your face in a hole and you become....
Last Year

a farmer...

partying pigs

This Year

A Llama and a Alpaca

Pictures by BIG MACHINERY

Last Year

This Year

Of course EATING is a big part of the Fair...

Last year..

This Year

Its fun to see stuff with others

Last Year

Leah, what are you looking at??

This Year

awwwww

You can try on things...

Last Year

And Make Funny Faces

                                                   
                                                          This Year..  We tried the wine...

and made sophisticated faces...                                                    

We enjoyed the 2011 Wine Garden.  I liked the Door County Sparkle..Suzie liked the Frozen Tundra...Dan liked the Sunset Splash and Steve liked the Pear Wine "tastes like a pear, I like it".  

Differences.....

Last year we watched the Pig Races...

The Pig races have a huge following, you can see we

had a great view of the race, though it was over in a few seconds...

This year, we sampled the Fried Beer

Interesting picture, it tasted better than it looked...imagine ravioli and the burst you get from that gum that has a liquid center.  The "Burst" in this case was beer.  Suzie- "its ok, I think I like it"   

my comment.."warm beer, yeah not sure about that"

You can see that we basically are programmed to do pretty much the same thing at the Fair no matter who we go with.  There are things we like (The Animals and Eating) and things we don't care about (The Midway and Fair souvenirs).  Though when Nick gets older and maybe has some cousins...I am sure the Midway will play a part in our Fair Day. 

This year I saw the winners of the photo contest and will hopefully be able to find out how to enter that next year.  Suzie and I walked through the Expo center, and I believe they would sell more stuff if they would just reduce the prices...Christmas ornaments 10 bucks..are you kidding me?   

We would watch livestock judging, the coliseum entertainment, or even the doggie weddings IF they are happening when we are walking through.  Suzie was not sure about viewing the pigs, she envisioned them as future BLTs walking around, but I assured her some of those pigs are pets and that made her feel better.

Best Bargain...Go to the Wisconsin Products Pavilion where they sell all Wisconsin products...One area sold Brats, Italian sausage, or a Big Frank, with sauerkraut on a pretzel roll for $3.00.   Better price than anywhere on the grounds.  I had the Frank, very good!   

Next year we will take Nick again to the Wisconsin State Fair and Piper will go for the first time.  Maybe we plan to go when their third cousins, Lawson and Weston, are going.   I hope they will enjoy it and will start creating memories of their own that will last a lifetime!