Food & Fun at the Fair

This past week I went to my very first county fair! A few friends and I ventured over to the San Diego County Fair after work this past Thursday. I was grossly intrigued by the "fair food" I had seen on TV over the years and was especially interested in the chocolate covered bacon. Due to some allergy issues I've been having recently I'm off my pescatarian diet and back to eating meat. Oh bacon, how I've missed you!

Family Ranch Sign at the Fair

My friend Wendy and I met up with Christine and Todd at Todd's office and then carpooled over. I was kind of hungry when we headed towards the fair, and about an HOUR later after we'd waited to enter the parking lot, found parking, waited in line to buy tickets, and then waited in line to enter the fair - I was starving!! But what to eat first?

Todd & Christine Waiting to Enter the Fair

 

Christine and I were the first to take the food plunge and both tried out a fresh grilled ear of corn. Yummy! I love corn! It was a bit awkward to hold the corn and try to butter it with the one pat of butter we received, but we managed.

 CORN!

We walked around and checked out the two main aisles of food vendors and we each decided what we wanted and split up with the plan to meet back with our food. I decided upon the huge turkey drumstick and waited in line for that for a few minutes .. before leaving the line to head over to the terryaki stand. Yep, I went to a fair and I had a chicken terryaki rice bowl. Cop out!  Wendy got a corn dog covered in sweet potato chunks and Christine and Todd got fish and chips.

 Flinstones Sized Meat!

Trying Out Fish & Chips

Sweet Potato Corndog

After eating, we wandered around a bit more and made our way over to the games and rides. I had seen a few people walking by with oversized stuffed bananas that had smiles and big cheeks, and knew I had to have one! We passed one game (water gun aimed at a target to race a toy to the top) where the barker said that if all four of us played, one of us was guaranteed to win. I talked the group into playing and ... I lost. Sniff sniff. Wendy won the banana and they were instantly best friends.

Besties for Life!

I tried my luck at a dart game and won  a small seal/lobster creature. Aka "the slobster". I then played a game of toss the ping pong balls into the floating dishes to try again to win a big banana. A bucket of ping pong balls later and I won a banana! A baby one, not a large smiling one. That's okay, good enough!

Showing Off Our "Catch"

Finally, I Win a Banana!

There were a number of rides at the fair but they all seemed to be the spin around topsy turvy type. We all passed on the rides and made our way back to the food to get the chocolate covered bacon. For some reason I was expecting the bacon to be thick chunks covered in Hershey syrup. As I ordered the chocolate covered bacon the woman reached into a freezer and pulled out a Chinese take-out box. Huh? Oh .. it was frozen? We all tried a piece and while none of us hated it, I don't think any of us were too impressed. What a disappointment! The chocolate was hard (frozen of course) and once you snapped a bite into a piece and chewed it you could taste the bacon inside the chocolate, but it was very underwhelming. Sigh.  

Chocolate Covered Bacon - Meh

The Banana Liked the Bacon

On the way back to the parking lot we made a quick trip into the barn where they had all of the animals. What a sad and weird place that was! The cows were all under signs that said "beef project". Boo, how sad! I like to think that my food comes from the cow and chicken tree, not from a cute little cow standing around at the fair. There were also a lot of sheep in the barn who had recently been sheared and were dressed like drag queens. I thought that their outfits were to keep the sheep warm but apparently it was to keep them clean. I wonder if there was a contest for gaudiest sheep jacket? If so there must have been a tie among many contestants.

"Beef Project" :o(

Sheep in Drag

"Don't look at me ..."

Getting out of the fair was a bit of an ordeal. Exiting the parking lot and getting on the freeway took about 30 minutes. We were all tired and were up past our normal bedtimes, and the time to exit seemed to drag on even longer. Before leaving Wendy graciously gave me her large stuffed banana. Yay! I love him! She has named him Fernando and for the time being he is taking up residence in the backseat of my car. I've had several different people from my running group in my car this weekend and each has given me a funny look when they caught sight of the banana in the backseat. "He's from the fair!" I'd say. "oh ... hm..." they'd usually say in response. :o)

The Butter Sculpture Family 

Fried Butter - EWE!

I'm glad that I had a chance to go to the fair and I'm glad I took a chance and tried out the chocolate covered bacon. I'm not sure that I'd return to the fair again unless someone else asked me to go, but overall it was a fun experience.  And now I have Fernando!

Carpool Mate