The Great Minnesota Get Together

We love the Minnesota State Fair. Love it. We usually plan to go twice during it's twelve day run. There are fun displays, farm animals, exhibits... oh... and there is food there too. My favorite building is the Horticulture building; Rich's favorite is the Food Building. My favorite food is a blackberry malt from the Dairy Building; Rich's is Jalapeno cheese-on-a-stick. Ooo... the fair is always a good time.

{Food Building Mural}
{Walking in - Day 1}
{Poland Stand for D}

{Poland Stand, view II for D}

{Beautiful day!}
{Minimal animals were viewed*, but here are some sheep...}
{And the milking room at the Cattle Barn} {BFB}

{Lots of other people's plans included the Fair that day; 191,071, in fact}

{End of Day 1 = full-fledged carnivore}

{Walking in = Day 2}

{Senator Klobuchar is in the lime green top; Pat Kessler is wearing a blue polo}

{Christmas tree shopping in September}

{More xmas tree browsing}

{Winner! We'll take this one!}

{Love the Horticulture Bldg}

{Largest Pumpkin - 1,186 lbs}

{We were thinking our friends could help us get one of these}

*Apparently Sunday and Thursday are "moving" days for the animals. So we never did get to see the largest boar, walk through the rows of cows or do additional exploring.

Every year we keep track of the food and drinks we consume during our visit, but apparently I'm not quite brave enough to post that on here. However, I will share the $$ stats I heard on the radio as we drove home from our second trip to the fair.

Top 4 2008 Food Booth Gross Revenue (over the course of 12 days)

4. Mouse Trap (Cheese Curds) - $741K

3. Midwest Dairy (source of my fave malts) - $822K

2. French Fries - $840K

1. Sweet Martha's Cookies (chocolate chip cookies) - $2.0M

Can you imagine making $2.0M over the course of twelve days? Amazing!