The Greatest of Them All

I've waxed overlong in the past, so this year, I offer a short commentary to accompany lackluster pictures.

We arrive and wait outside of the bathroom. This should be an advertisement picture for the fair.

The free circus wasn't as impressive this year as in years past, but the girls were still transfixed.

This clown was not funny-- not even a tiny bit funny. He revived my certainty that I could fill the role.

Nor was this young contortionist funny, though she was amazingly flexible.

The Michael Jackson impersonator was not funny, either, and since the girls don't know who Michael Jackson is, his well-executed moonwalk was lost on them.

But he did juggle flaming torches, which earned him points. (I think of Mister Lonely and want to watch it again.)

This man, however-- this Fabio of the Equine World, this "I-can't-believe-it's-not-butter" on bareback-- was very funny, though not intentionally. I thought he was the funniest part of the show and couldn't stop giggling at his manly feats of horsemanship.

We toured a train. This poor woman had expired already. There was nothing we could do.

This woman was furious that we surprised her without her wig on and studiously ignored us.

I planned ahead, apparently, and dressed my girls to coordinate with the vintage decor.

Onto the free petting zoo!

I include this picture because of Annika's expression given to the chatty man at my elbow.

Mildred has always loved zebras.

Piper does not share this love.

Susannah fell head over heels for the sheep.

I liked the bored baboons.

We all liked the showy parrots, whose shy temperaments belied their feathers.

I have no pictures of the yaks, the giraffes, and other exotic animalia, but I do offer a blurry picture of a baked potato.

We don't spend oodles at the fair, because most of the activities are free, but one necessary (NECESSARY!) expenditure is for baked potatoes. For one dollar, one receives a baked potato with desired toppings (I always request sour cream, butter, and cheese, because I'm a pig). This year, in a moment of largesse, John bought eight giant baked potatoes for our lunch....and then promptly kicked himself for not buying nine. You see that man in the lower left corner of this picture? The one with salt & pepper hair who's engrossed in his potato-eating?

He's the real reason I took this blurry picture of a baked potato, because he was the customer directly behind John. He gave his order, and in a flurry of excitement, he received a voucher for a year's worth of sour cream because he'd just ordered the twenty thousandth potato of the 2012 Fair. Do you know what I could have done with a year's worth of sour cream?! I could have gained enough weight for 15 babies, that's what I could have done. Oh, well.

But wait! There's more!

Another necessary expenditure (NECESSARY!) is buying 30 tickets to the Rainbow Milk Bar. By the end of the day, I was so full of chocolate milk, my skin turned brown.

Millie had anticipated this moment for weeks. She bought four tickets with her very own money and ordered herself some chocolate milk. Ahhhh. She's a girl after my own heart.

Lucy ruined her dress by the end of the day, but the four cups of chocolate milk were almost worth it.

Butter! Butter! Butter! (Sorry for the lousy picture. I didn't really care about artistic merit the whole day; it was more about the butter.)

We had fun watching the acrobatics troupe Zuma Zuma.

We watched a bit of a big band performance. I enjoyed this couple's pizazz.

Drank more milk.

Went on our yearly ride. (Thank you, county fair ribbon money.)

Millie looks like a petulant child here, but, contrary to appearances, she was not pouting. For the first time, she realized just how high we were and kept muttering, "I'm scared." I was too busy trying to haul Piper back inside the car to take more than this one picture, but I'm glad I did. Millie and I had a good laugh when we saw it in the safety of our house.

Oh. I guess that's all I have.

We saw lots more, and our feet were sore by the time we trudged to the van.

The Abrupt End.