This is my third year (2010, 2011) going to the county fair with my boyfriend. Aww. The fair is becoming one of our yearly traditions. We donated some used clothing to get free tickets, and also one free ride each (saved us from paying an unnecessary price of 40 bucks).

We went with a few of my friends, but since they all met up first in a nearby city (where we all went to college together – wow that feels weird saying, since I just graduated this summer…feeling old already, haha), the boyfriend and I decided just to meet them there at the fair instead. We live extremely close to the fair, so it would have been pointless to meet them up there and then drive back here for the fair. Ironically, our friends were like an hour late because they got lost LOL. I told them to meet me at my house and that would have been so much easier if they listened to me, so that’s their loss. haha

We had fun looking at & petting stinky-but-cute animals. Some of the extremely low-pitched BAAAAAAHH noises sounded hilarious and scary (demonic) all at the same time.

As usual, as one of the highlights of my fair trips is always the food, we enjoyed some yummy foods. Surprisingly we didn’t eat very much, but the the things we got were really filling. We had a huge, delicious, meat-packed gyro for lunch and crispy, Australian battered potatoes for dinner (nutritious, I know lol). Since it was a hot day, we had multiple cups of refreshing Orange Julius. None of our friends ended up eating any crazy fair food either. I was hoping for at least one of us to eat something weird! Maybe next year.

We also watched a show put on by the Peking Acrobats. It was really impressive and entertaining. The picture I took was of the women doing a chair balancing act…which was supported by four urns at the bottom!!!

The rest of the afternoon was spent looking at competition entries and then vendors selling random things. The competition entries varied from beer-making to miniature models to costume-making to scrap-booking and more! Everything was really fun to look at; it definitely inspired some of us to be more crafty. Some of the stuff the nine-year-olds can do would put you to shame.

Late in the the afternoon/early evening, our friends were tired and pretty much done with the fair, so they went home. The boyfriend and I decided to head on over to a nearby park to rest and take a nap. I packed some towels and blankets in his car, so we grabbed them and walked over to the park (since the parking ticket is not good for re-entry and we didn’t want to pay for parking again). By the time we felt more rested, the sun had already gone down, so it was much cooler when we headed back to the fair (free re-entry since we got our hands stamped). That was when we had our Australian battered potatoes dinner and started enjoying the nighttime view of the fair. I have to say both daytime and nighttime are both very different experiences. Daytime is a sun-friendly summertime feel, while nighttime is when there are all of the pretty lights & night owls coming out.

Boyfriend played some carnival games and won me a My Melody stuffed animal from Sanrio. It was one of those watergun shooting games. There were 6 other people playing (only one person wins out of the 7), and honestly I didn’t think he was going to win, but he did! We also played the coin tossing game, where you toss a quarter onto this slippery surface and if your quarter lands inside the rainbow, you get a prize depending on what color you landed on. You can’t even touch the black outline to win, though. I won a medium-sized stuffed animal for once!

It was the best of both worlds, coming to the fair twice in one day. I got to experience the fair during the day with my friends, and then I got to experience the fair at night as a romantic date with the boyfriend.

At the end of the night, we used our one free ride and went on the Ferris wheel, which makes this the third year we’ve done that. Riding the Ferris wheel at night really is the best ending to the fair. The ride is surprisingly long and gracious for our tired feet, we get to cuddle together, and enjoy the view with all of the lights. I should have taken a picture of the other side of our Gondola as well; it overlooked all of the lit buildings in the city. We even saw two fireworks in the distant sky right before our ride ended! We went home incredibly tired that night, and really happy.