Day Two of the Minnesota State Fair was a beautiful day - a Saturday. This would be our longest day because we would be at the Fair all day, and then would be joined by DH and Chickie after they closed the shop down for the night. We would be at the Fair for more than 12 hours, so we had our walking shoes on.
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Sharon and I always go on the "Big Ferris Wheel". Sharon doesn't like amusement park rides (I adore them), but we both love the Ferris wheel. These cars sit up to six adults comfortably, and from the top, you can easily see the downtown areas of both St Paul and Minneapolis. We've done it during the day and also at night. It's one of our favorite things to do. |
There were a lot of things we hadn't seen on Friday. We had been bouncing around quite a bit, looking for the places where the MN Fair Map said to go. What is that? Well, every year we do the Fair's history walk - going from station to station and punching our map at the appropriate locations and reading the historic explanations. They had four new locations this year, so of course we had to do it. We still had at least half of the punches still remaining, so off to the barns we went (after Sharon got coffee and I had a lovely container of Danielson's Onion Rings to kick off my day).
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For our lunch, Sharon had this - it's called a "Tailspin" and she said it was quite tasty. It looked lovely. It featured smoked pulled pork, crunchy coleslaw, home-made pickles, BBQ sauce and a hash brown potato waffle cake. |
We went through the Dairy Building to see the cows - they had two Highland cows again this year which is always a treat for me. Then we went to see the dairy goats, and walked down to the swine barn to look at the farrowing mother pig and her adorable piglets. A bit farther along we admired the heaviest boar winner for the year, cresting out at 800+ pounds (last year's winner was a whopping 1220 pounds!). We continued on, wandering through various buildings - Eco Experience, the Grandstand (shopping!), and smaller exhibits - ending up at The Hangers for a late lunch. Sharon had a "Tailspin", and I had their "Island Hopper" special of a half pineapple with meat. I also added a flight of beer. As usual, I took photos of the beer menu so I could identify which ones I liked more than others, but this time I chose well and liked all four of the different brews. The pineapple was lovely also.
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I selected the "Island Hopper" for my lunch, along with a flight of four different beers to try out. The "Hopper" is chicken breast with Teriyaki sauce over white rice with pineapple chunks and green onions served in a hollowed out half pineapple. It was excellent, and I also liked all four of my flight choices, so this lunch was a total win. |
After our meal we continued wandering the Northwestern part of the Fair, of course taking a detour to see the dogs in the Pet Pavillion. The Fair constructed new spaces for the pets and visitors several years ago and it's much more pet and people friendly now. After another couple of hours wandering, I decided I was hot and wanted a non-dairy ice "cream" shake from West End Creamery. We hadn't wandered the West End Market yet, so it was a good excuse to head that direction. Before long we heard some great drumming and came upon the Xolotl Dance Group - Aztec dancers from our area who are well known nationally for their outfits and dances. Of course we had to stay and watch them. The sun was pounding down, the two drums were being expertly played, and the dancers were marvelous.
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It was a very hot day and the sun was pounding down, but the dancers never flagged. Their energy was driven by the two drummers they had, and they were beautiful and rather amazing to watch. |
After they wrapped up, we continued and I got a marvelous strawberry-banana non-dairy "ice cream" shake from West End Creamery. We settled on a grassy knoll to listen to a Native American band play in the nearby bandshell. We motivated when DH and Chickie texted they were on their way so we texted that we would meet them at a specific (Almost a) Footlong Hot Dog stand. Chickie arrived first, so she and Sharon had a chance for a catch-up chat. Then DH finally arrived. He always starts the Fair out with a dog with fried onions and mustard. Hunger assuaged, we continued our wandering, even going through the Midway after dark and finally exiting around 9:15 or so. So, we missed all of the kerfluffle when a fight broke out later. We found out in the morning that there had been a fight near the Midway and that one person had been injured by gunshot. Since everyone passes through metal detectors to get to the grounds, it is suspected that the gun was thrown over the fence to the shooter. Obviously there was a plan in place. But the Fair is well policed, and the single injury was mild.
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The costumes are elaborate and each dancer makes their own. Each dancer has a specific position within the group as well as some dances that are theirs, others where they would watch others dance. I'm just showing you the dancers and some of their outfits here. They are NOT costumes, by the way. They are outfits, well researched and well made. |
I'm not really sure exactly what happened. Tensions were running a bit high - Sharon, Chickie and I all felt a bit "off" as we wandered the Midway and then got our final food for the night. I had been glad to leave. Diana Ross was the headliner for the Grandstand performance that night, and there were a lot of absolutely beautiful women of color wandering the Fairgrounds before the doors opened for the concert. I have a feeling all of those gorgeous women caused the guys to "posture" a bit more, which led to the fight. As a result of the fight, though, the Fair was shut down a bit earlier than the usual 11:00 pm end time. Still, things could have been much worse. All in all, it's a well patrolled and well policed festival ground, and we got home just fine.
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As you can tell, each outfit is absolutely distinctive and different from the others. The actual dances they perform also are different, although they all blend into a whole experience. The group are the Xolotl Aztec Dancers and they are always a treat to watch. |
On Monday I'll post my final day photos of the Minnesota State Fair. Sundays are always for the four of us - Chickie, Sharon, DH and myself - to wander the International Marketplace one last time, and take in the Agriculture building, the Fine Arts building and every nook and cranny of the Creative Activities building (as well as lots of other things and food, of course). So, until then, have an excellent weekend and please stay safe. Slava Ukraini.
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