It Was a Packed Four Days of Fun with Sharon

I'm taking Sharon to the airport in a bit less than 2 hours from now. It's been a terrific time - a great visit between my High School buddy and I, lots and lots of walking, lots and lots of talking, some eating, some drinking, and some hugs with other friends both at the Fair working, and those who joined us for a day or two of puddling around. Today's post will be mainly pictures. I'm on a tight time schedule this morning to make sure Sharon gets to the airport and I'm at work in plenty of time. 

Lets start out with this one - I'm on the left, Sharon on the 
right. We're in "The Hanger" where I'm enjoying a flight 
of beer and we're eating some very "nummy" food. 

Of course we had to go onto the Giant Ferris Wheel. It's a 
tradition for us. As usual, we met some really nice people 
on our three revolution ride. We always seem to interact 
with the people in our compartment - it's Minnesota Nice 
in action. 

We ended the day with a steak dinner at "Mancini's", a staple 
of St Paul for decades. When they asked if we were celebrating 
a special occasion, Sharon said "40 years of friendship" which 
I quickly corrected. We've been friends for FAR longer than 
that. So I did a quick count - 55 years! They gave us a 
celebratory cake at no extra charge, embellished with a 
caramel 55. It was really tasty! 

On Day 2, we stood at the doors of Horticulture to see 
this year's Crop Art exhibit. It's a crazy popular exhibit 
and if you don't catch it first thing in the am, you'll be in 
line for hours! It takes up an entire room with hundreds 
of entries. So I'm showing you three photos just so 
you get an idea. We weren't first in line, but we were in the 
room very quickly and used the fast line because we're 
not fools. LOL

I'm always amazed by how popular crop art has become over 
the past few decades. It started out as one wall in the horticulture 
building, now it takes up an entire room, and 90% of the people 
standing around waiting in lines are waiting to view them. Crop art 
means the entire image is made from seeds. Think of it as 
living pixels - LOL. 

Let me focus in on one piece, just to give you an idea. This 
isn't a blue ribbon, or even a red one. It's a 4th (or maybe 5th) 
place ribbon. But it's still really nicely done, don't you think? 

On Day 3, Jim joined us. Because it was a Sunday, all of the 
Park-N-Ride lots at the churches were closed until the afternoon, 
so we ended up at a business lot instead. We entered the line 
here, and by the time we entered our bus (and we were on the 
second bus) there were 2 times this many people still waiting 
for transport. They're good at this now, though. The State Fair 
does an awesome job of getting people through their gates with 
relative ease, and the shuttle busses are no charge - SWEET. 

On Monday we went to the Renaissance Festival where I was able to speak to the lady I've commissioned a silk scarf from, as well as caught up with friends. I introduced Sharon to Cherie - Cherie has always wanted a Maine Coon cat, but ended up adopted by two adorable strays. Sharon actually HAS two Main Coon cats (rescue kittens from the Human Society of Denter - $50/each!!!). The two of them, both good friends, bonded immediately over cats - LOL. We had great weather - not super hot, so we wandered for quite a while before we finally ran out of steam. Sharon and I had walked more than 5 miles a day during our three days at the State Fair. Adding Renaissance Festival to it, we certainly got our exercise over the four days. I'm up 1-1/2 pounds, but that's nothing. I'll be back to the pool tomorrow and back into a more normal regime. It was an excellent State Fair, and I'm already looking forward to next year's. I'll be back tomorrow. Slava Ukraini.