To Fair Park & Back

Originally I planned on having a post yesterday recapping my weekend & then today was going to be a post dedicated to my day at the Texas State Fair.  However, Sunday night I got lazy & didn't want to do a weekending post.  Why?  Well because Friday was spent at a volleyball game like always (we won) & Sunday was spent relaxing & watching football (Vikings won).  So that pretty much left what I did Saturday which was going to be it's very own post anyway.

This isn't going to be a Texas State Fair dedicated post either though.  Why?  Because I did not do the fair at blogger level ha.  Plus, half the day/night was spent doing shenanigans around Dallas & that cannot be left out!

Around 12:30 in the afternoon I left my apartment to go pick up a friend so we could head to the fair.  The day we decided to go also happened to be the Red River Rivalry game (OU v UT).  Because of this we ultimately decided that riding the Dart to the game was going to be easier than trying to find any parking down there.  That decision is what would make our day exactly what it was.

We got to the train station, had to quickly buy a ticket & sprint onto the train in Arlington.  From there we started trying to figure out where we needed to get off & what train we would need to get on next in order to get off right at Fair Park.  Didn't matter.  We got dropped off at our necessary location but the trains to Fair Park weren't going to be running until after the game had started.  So, we hopped on some buses.

We eventually got to the fair, stood in line, bought some tickets, & then went in search for some food.  This is where I let myself down.  I didn't eat near enough fair food as I should have.  And the couple of things I did eat, I somehow deleted the pictures off my phone.  #BloggerFail  We did drink some beers though!

My first stop was BaconNation.  I got the deep fried mozzarella sticks wrapped in bacon.  So good.  They also automatically came with this amazing ranch.  It was gone before my friend could even decide what he wanted to eat.  Twister potatoes with that insanely awesome cheap nacho cheese on top.  So while he ate those we went on a mission to find a beer garden.  We found one, each got a beer.  I wound up with just a Revolver Blood & Honey because the one I wanted to try was out & since I was at the front of the line I felt too much pressure to decide on something else.  He got a Texas Ale Project Payne Pils.  We stopped at another beer garden & then the Texas Ice House but because it was game day they were all packed full of people.  We wound up at Trio on the Green where we shared a flight of Karbach Love Street, Legal Draft Strawberry Wheatness, & a Nine Band Badge Honey Blonde.  We then each went back for our own full size Strawberry Wheatness.  We also shared a giant pickle because while walking out we had 4 tickets left & as fate would have it, that's how much a pickle was...

I go to fairs for 2 things.  Food & animals.  So our next stop was animals.

GIVE ME ALL THE ANIMALS!  Ok, give me all the cows...

Of the 6 Octobers I've lived in Texas I've gone to the fair 4 of them.  This year though was the first year I ever rode the Texas Star (the giant Ferris Wheel).  My friend told me it was a must & I do love a good Ferris Wheel...

I of course also had to get a picture of Big Tex.  Fun (or sad) fact.  The very first year I went, I drove up from Houston to go & the night before my friends & I went was when Big Tex burned down.

Moving on.  After spending a ton of money, & getting tired of fighting the sea of burnt orange & red, we decided to take our shenanigans elsewhere.  And this my friends is where the real adventure began.

We tried to get on the train towards Lower Greenville.  They were only letting people on the train in one direction...the opposite one.  We were told we'd have to get on that way & then get on a different one elsewhere to get where we were actually headed.  We wound up getting off God knows where & getting on a train that seemed to be heading in the right direction (as in the opposite way we had just been going aka the direction we wanted to go) & yet we somehow wound up in South Dallas.  My bad.  At least that ride was extremely entertaining.  We get off, get on yet another train finally in the right direction & get off at our "destination."  The train station was still a mile walk from where we were headed.  So we obviously stopped at a Taco Bell for waters, a pre-dinner taco, & to use the bathroom.

When we finally reached Lower Greenville we hopped in & out of bars & restaurants all night.  We of course got popsicles from Steel City Pops, we each got a beer at Snuffers & The Dubliner, tried to get pizza at Greenville Ave Pizza Co but didn't want to wait an hour, & finally ate real food at Charlie's Creole Kitchen.  Our night did not magically end there.  No, we then walked the mile back to the train station where we tried to stop at Taco Bell again.  This time so I could go to the bathroom & he could get a quesadilla.  They were closed.  We made it to the train station.  Waited a solid 45 min.  No train.  Another person had been waiting over an hour.  There were signs saying there would be delays because of mechanical issues but no time frames & no numbers to call.  At this point I was getting crabby as all get out.  I was tired, I didn't want to wait all night for a train that may never come, so finally I marched off & called an Uber.  $32 & an hour & a half later we were back in Arlington.  20 min after that I was finally home.

But hey like my dad always used to say to me when I was younger & things didn't go as planned "Memories"

Next time though I'm driving myself...

The End of Summer & The Great Minnesota Get Together

I love summer.  It is by far my favorite season.  Don't get me wrong I can find something I love about each of the seasons, well winter might be a little tough, but summer is just perfection.  There is a freedom to summer.  But as the saying goes "all good things must come to an end."  I don't know that I agree with that but that is neither here nor there. 

Yesterday was August 31st which means that summer is officially over.  August was definitely the busiest of my summer months.  When looking at my planner there are only 6 days that managed to remain empty.  There wasn't a single weekend this month that I didn't have something going on.  Which if I'm being honest, I really measure time by weekends.  The first weekend was WeFest, the second I was at a family reunion, the third was move-in weekend, and this past weekend I went to the Minnesota State Fair.

I love have a slight obsession with the state fair.  This year I went with my family.  We haven't gone as a family in years.  I was definitely in high school the last time we went as a family and I'm thinking prior to my senior year.  We ate lots of food.  Pronto Pups, Turkey Legs, Gyros, Deep Fried Candy Bars, Deep Fried Reeses Peanut Butter Cups, Chocolate Covered Bacon, Cheese Curds, and of course Sweet Martha's Cookies.  Don't worry we didn't each eat all of that.

We checked out all of the animals.  I love seeing all the animals.  I got to pet a little brown lamb and a beautiful gray horse.  I definitely loved seeing the piglets.  I would seriously love to have a little farm someday.  I love farm animals so much.  I also got to pet a sheep that had recently been shaved.  It felt exactly like the inside of a sweatshirt haha.

My favorite part of the fair though?  Definitely the people watching.  I could seriously spend the whole day at the fair just watching people.  I didn't take any pictures of people, I thought I'd be nice.  There are definitely some characters that make it out to the Great Minnesota Get Together though.  As we were leaving the fair though we passed by some karoke.  So I will leave you with a breif clip of a father, son, & daughter singing some Spice Girls.  Yep, that's right, the Spice Girls.  They had me dying of laughter.

State Fair Food Finder

I love the Minnesota State Fair.  Love it.  I love the crowds, I love the animals, I love the exhibits.  Let's be honest though.  The MN State Fair is all about the food.  It gets bonus points if it's deep fried and/or on a stick. 

My must haves:
- Sweet Martha's Cookies
- Deep Fried Candy Bar

I also NEED to find the chocolate covered bacon that has been there for a few years now.  I'm sure you may be thinking eww but really?  It's chocolate.  It's bacon.  Sweet & Salty.  What more could you really want?

Every year when it gets close to fair time the fair's website launches a food finder, I told you it was all about the food.  So what's new this year?

-Chocolate Covered Jalapeno Peppers (a hot & spicy chocolaty confection) @ Andre's Watermelon

-Breakfast Lollypops (sausage patty dipped in corn muffin batter, deep-fried & served on a stick with maple syrup) @ Axel's

-Sweet Corn Ice Cream (premium vanilla ice cream with sweet kernels of summer corn blended in.  Served in a corn bread waffle cone or dish or as a sundae topped with your choice of wild blueberry or caramel bacon sauce) @ Blue Moon Dine In Theater

-Teriyaki Marinated White cChicken Grilled On-A-Stick @ Chan's Chicken on a Stick

-Pretzel Dog (a meaty hot dog wrapped in fresh pretzel dough and baked to a perfect pretzel texture served on a stick) @ Der Pretzel Haus

-Mexican Horchata (a refreshing cold drink made of rice, almonds, cinnamon, vanilla, & sugar) @ El Sol Mexican Foods

-Fresh Fruit Wraps (sliced fresh fruit wrapped in a soft tortilla with sweet & creamy cheese spread) @ Fried Fruit

-Northwoods Salad On-A-Stick (mozzarella cheese, grape tomatoes & dressing served over chilled wild rice) @ Giggles' Campfire Grill

-White Razzy Puppies (a Belgian waffle with white chocolate baked into the waffle then dipped in a dark chocolate & drizzled with a Swiss style raspberry sauce) @ Grannys Kitchen Fudge Puppies

-Pizza Kabob (3 individually flavored Green Mill pizza rolls served on a stick) @ Green Mill

-Jamaican Jerk Fries (french fries fresh from the fryer & dusted with Harry's own Jamaican Jerk seasonings with additional spices and sauces available if you dare) @ Harry Singh's Caribbean Restaurant

-Coushari Rice with Lentil (this vegetarian staple from Egypt has distinctive blended textures of rice & lentils with Holy Land's own sauce on the side) @ Holy Land Deli

-Chow Fun (a new Vietnamese wide rice noodle stir fry mixed with vegetables from Pham's Deli. 8/29-9/1) @ Midtown Global Market

-Deep Fried Apple Pie (deep fried, homemade-style individual apple pies, served hot with a dusting of cinnamon & sugar, with your choice of vanilla or cinnamon ice cream) @ Minneapple Pie

-Yankee Apple Pie Chocolate Covered Sandwich (Minnesota grown apples sauteed with spices topped with chocolate and grilled in Brioche bread) @ Moe & Joes Coffee

-Crab Fritters (Caribbean-style crab fritters with southwest dipping sauce) @ Ollie's Crab Fritters

-Carnitas Asian Fusion Taco (pork carnitas served on a flour or spinach tortilla with cabbage 7 a mixture of cucumber, jalapeno, red pepper & tossed with Asian sauces) @ San Felipe Tacos

-Dirt Dessert (a childhood facorite served up State Fair style with crushed Oreo cookies, vanilla pudding, whipped cream, cream cheese & a few gummy worms for good measure) @ Spaghetti Eddie's

-Old Fashion Style Bottled Soda Pop made with Cane Sugar (strawberry, orange, grape, root beer, cream soda, lemon sour, black cherry, creamy orange) @ Spring Grove Soda Pop

-Starberi Brand Yogurt with 8 fresh fruit toppings & 4 candy & cereal toppings @ Starberi Frozen Yogurt


So there you have it.  The 20 new foods making their debut at this year's fair, which begins August 25th.  I highlighted the ones that I will definitely be trying to track down this year.  Looks like once again I will be stuffing my face.  Perhaps I should try to go more than one day...

Last Chance Day @ The Great MN Get Together

Yesterday was the last day of the Minnesota State Fair. It took us about 2 hours instead of around 1 to get there due to terrible traffic on I-94. We did eventually arrive though around 5. The weather wasn't perfect by any means but it wasn't terrible either. It sprinkled off & on and was a little cool but that's ok with me because walking around the fair in 90 degree weather isn't all that great either ha. We managed to get a good 3ish hours in before it started to down pour therefore leaving us to decided to end our day at the fair. We didn't go to the midway for rides and games but we did a lot of walking around, and of course a lot of eating. It was me, Branden, my roommate Kayla, his roommate Danny, and Danny's friend AJ. I didn't get to try any chocolate covered bacon though because we didn't know where to find it. Oh well, there's always next year! And without further ado, the pictures! (Most will be of food fyi lol)

Grandstand & sky ride

Cheese Curds

Steak Sandwich

Deep Fried Twinkie

Branden As A Twinkie

Foot Long Hot Dog

Deep Fried 3 Musketeers & Snickers (Danny & AJ Got The Oreos)

Gyro

And Of Course No State Fair Trip Would Be Complete w/o Sweet Martha's

Sky Ride

The Great Minnesota Get Together

The Minnesota State Fair. My favorite thing about summer. 12 days of nothing but fun. All this fun starts today. I am sad to say that if I get to go this year it's going to be the very last day of the fair, September 6. I would really love to go on a weekend but Branden & I are going camping this weekend & I work next weekend :(. School automatically rules out weekdays... EXCEPT Labor Day! The final day of the fair. Here's to hoping I can go!