The Texas State Fair

We went to the Texas State Fair last week with Justin's parents, who were visiting us for the weekend.  The weather was beautiful!  And even though we went on a crowded Saturday, we had lots of fun.

Here we are in front of the 52-foot tall Big Tex.  

And of course, no trip to the fair would be complete without a sampling of the fried foods.

Throughout the day this is what we sampled: (starting from the left column, going down)

1) Mom and Dad with their first ever corny dog.  Dad liked it.  Possibly because he doused it with mustard and ketchup.

2) Justin and me with Fried Cookie Dough (also in #3 below).  These gooey balls were big and a very rich start to our fried food sampling.  I think I would have liked them more if they were smaller.

4) (top right) Mom and Dad with a funnel cake. Sometimes the simple stuff is the best.

5) Justin with his fried S'mores.  This was his "must have" this year.  He liked it, but it was rather small.

6) A food booth.  

Towards the end of the day, Justin's dad still hadn't tried his fried butter.  While standing in line, he decided that we had enough of the oiled foods, and bought two frozen lemonades.  Not only were they much cheaper than the fried foods we had sampled, but much tastier.

Justin's dad also came up with this conclusion--The fried foods at the fair all taste about the same.

Next year we're skipping the fried foods and splurging on a turkey leg.

We also took advantage of the beautiful weather and hopped aboard the Texas Star.  This is a 212-foot ferris wheel and the largest in the Western Hemisphere.  We caught some good views of the Fair and downtown while up top.

I think the petting zoo is one of the highlights of the fair.  Where else can you pet zebras, giraffes, and little kangaroos?  This is usually forbidden at zoos and there are always so many babies!  The little baby zebra pictured was less than a week old!  That emu did not like me very much and was trying to nibble on peoples faces.  I just wanted to feed it, but apparently it wasn't hungry.

We also stopped to listen to a celtic rock band--the Killdares, watch the show "Birds of the World" (which was great), the Jumping Dogs (not pictured--I would rate it average to poor), the Pirates' Diving Show (silly at first, but they did some cool dives--including two from 80 feet), looked at the state fair entries--including a huge wall of canned fruits and vegetables, and watched Dan the pumpkin carver.

At the end of the day, we were exhausted and had a good time.  And it was great to share some of our Texas culture with Justin's parents.  We'll end up going next time, but I'm glad I have to wait a year.