The MN State Fair with Sharon - Day 1 in Pictures

I'm back - did you miss me? LOL So, because I'll be playing catch-up for several days and trying hard to recover my life after four days at the MN State Fair and the Renaissance Festival with my best High School buddy, Sharon, it's photo blogs for a few days. Not a hardship, though. I'm going to take you through selected photos from my past week and the many things Sharon and I experienced at the Fair and Fest. Here we go ...

We started with breakfast at the Blue Barn. Even though they
had two new foods I was interested in, we decided to split their
bacon and deep fried potato puffs instead. We each had two and
it was plenty to start the day. After all, the coffee was the most
important thing - that and taking deep breaths of happiness. We were
at the State Fair once again and that's our happy place. 

One of the first buildings we went through was the
Grandstand. A major vendor there was celebrating
SPAM - it's a Minnesota product, and I actually enjoy
it, although opinions are divided on it. Still, I loved
the t-shirt enough to return on Day 2 and purchase one.
Paul Bunyan and Babe, the Blue Ox are iconic up here. 

We dropped by the DFL booth to see what was going on and buy our
political buttons for the year. Here are the four I ended up with - the
full LGBTQIA flag, a button supporting Amy Klobuchar for
President with the State Fair ferris wheel image, button #3 says "Science
Is Not a Liberal Conspiracy" - loved that one, and the final button says
"The Oceans are Rising and So Are We". We returned the next day to
put our beans into the candidate tubes. Elizabeth Warren was ahead
by almost a full tube of votes over any other candidate. 

Later in the day we went to the Horticulture building. Their
central courtyard was dedicated to a celebration of
Minnesota legends. The actual center was a variety
of flowers, crystals and lighting celebrating Prince. 

Surrounding the central Homage to Prince were smaller
collections supporting everything Minnesota. Here are
Paul Bunyan and his Blue Ox Babe surrounded by a
colorful display of blooms. 

Here's "Peanuts". Although Charles Schultz was from Minnesota, he
never liked the state. Nonetheless, we celebrate him throughout the
state. Here favorite characters Charlie Brown, Snoopy, Linus and
Lucy are surrounded by blooms. 

You might not think of the "Wizard of Oz" being a Minnesota icon. After
all, it takes place in Kansas. But Judy Garland was a Minnesota
girl, so here we celebrate her along with her friends the
Scarecrow, and in the back left, seated, the Cowardly Lion. The
Tin Man is blocked in this shot. 

Lunch was deep fried walleye cakes (it's a fish, for those
who might not know), accompanied by Candy Apple Cider.
It was delicious. 

We topped the day off with malts from the Dairy Building. Sharon had
chocolate (of course - LOL), I had raspberry. They were fabulous. 

We walked, and walked, and walked, saw lots and lots of things, and had a fabulous time. We left "early" because we wanted to grab dinner at Outback Steakhouse where Sharon had beef of some kind, and I had a lovely maple glazed salmon. Then we were off to sleep until Day 2 - which I will share with all of you tomorrow. Have a great day!