State Fair 2008

So yesterday, my friends and I went out to the New York State Fair for the day and had a really nice and mostly relaxing time. Mostly relaxing because during the afternoon it was really, really crowded. Other than there, it was a very nice day. The ordering on this may be a little screwed up, just warning. I didn't keep detailed notes on the exact order of things and the stuff that happened earlier is kinda bleeding together.

We started off by trying to find something to eat. I spotted a chicken wrap stand right off the bat and ended up with a very nice tasty chicken wrap. My friends found some stuff in the international building and then we went in search of wine.

This year, they changed the law and allowed people to wander the fair grounds with up to a 10oz glass of wine which was AWESOME because it was kinda annoying being stuck in one place like last year. So we wandered down towards the wine court furthest from the main gate in hopes that it would be less crowded. It was…because it was closed until 4. Drat. So we went back up to the one nearer to the gate.

On the way, we stopped at one of the food stands. I got some Fried Oreros which I had resolved to try (very tasty) and my friend Jay got himself his first beer. This is the first fair we went to where he realized that he liked beer, so he was looking forward to sampling. As this was his first beer, I had to take a picture of it to document the occasion.

Just as a side note, the place that sold the fried oreos had, new this year, fried cheesecake. I was tempted to give it a try, but honestly, cheesecake is bad enough for you to begin with, why would you fry it??? There was an awful lot of strange fried stuff at the fair this year. Fried ice cream for one…fried pickles was the other one that was just strange to me. Also…in the dairy building we located a new ice cream creation. The Hot Beef Sundae. Hot…beef…Yeah, I think I'll be passing on that one.

On the way, we visited the Horticulture building to check out the sand sculpture, which is another must see object at the fair. It's amazing what they can do with sand and water. This year's was of a ship being attacked by an octopus thingy. It was really crowded around it so it was hard to get a picture. They construct it during the fair, so by the time we went, it was all finished.

We made our way to the wine court which, as it turned out, was right across the aisle from the beer garden. Which was not a very good idea because it was ultra crowded whenever you ended up anywhere near either location. It was crowded enough where we didn't get any wine tasting in early but we did get a really nice wine slushie made from a white wine which was excellent. Even better than the Sangria ones.

After the wine we made our way back to the horticulture building so that Jay could try to eat Kangaroo meat (they were out…) and Wassy could grab a BLT because her slice of pizza wasn't cutting it.  We ate in the little garden they have there. It's a very nice place to sit and eat since it's a little quieter than the main building and you get a good breeze with some shade.

After that, we headed out to the other main attraction of the fair…the Rainbow Milk Bar. They have the best tasting milk ever there. I don't know how they do it…but they do. It's awesome. And cheap since it's a quarter for a pretty decent sized glass. But before we got to the milk bar, the photo op of the day presented itself.

Much like last year where I got my friends picture as a bunny, we spotted this cutout and it was decided that this would be it. So…I took his picture. It only cost me $2, which I think is money particularly well spent in this case. Due to the formatting of the post here, I had to make it a smaller image, so just click on it if you want to see it in full glory.

After we got done with the milk bar, we had to go see the butter sculpture. Last year it was kinda lame, a farmer and his cow. However, this year it was a sculpture inspired by the little Hey Diddle Diddle poem. You know, the cow jumping over the moon and such. And so they did. There was the dish and the spoon and the little dog there as well. I thought it was a lot better this time out. Going with a farmer and a cow seems like they didn't have any good ideas, so they just fell back on the default.

After we got finished there, we made an attempt to see some of the farm animals on display. We made a quick trip through the cow area, and tried to get into the horse building but that was closed because they were preparing for a competition. It ended up being closed all day, at least whenever we ended up in the area.

So we went to see the chickens and the pigeons which was cool. I was more looking forward to going to see the birds than I was the cows and horses. We saw a bunch of different kinds of chickens (including the "Geese" that are pictured to the right…something tells me they ran out of signs). We also saw some baby ducks, some huge chickens that were probably the biggest chickens I've ever seen and the pigeons, of course. We skipped the rabbits because of a case of allergies. The pictures of the chickens are located below if you're interested in seeing them.

After we got done with the chickens, we were starting to get hungry and hit really the only major snag of the day where we had a heck of a time trying to find a place to eat something. Eventually we got that all sorted out and headed down to the grandstand winery to get the wine tasting and drinking portion of the evening taken care of.

It was surprisingly empty there, which was good because we could hang around and move freely without having to trip over people or yell to be heard over the loud crowd. The only problem was that there seemed to be less wineries there this year to sample. But what was there was pretty good. Found a couple of new places to look for and a couple of new wines to try out. Wassy and I ended up getting a full glass of this blend. She got a peach and I got a strawberry one which was very awesome. When we inquired about getting it, we were informed it was a do it yourself type thing which was a little too much work. We both ended up with more white wine slushies and we hit the road to wander a bit and take in the fair at night.

As we were wandering, we passed the haunted house we had seen before and, in our alcohol influenced state, thought that it might be a good idea to take a trip through. Jay was to lead since he's the least affected by such things. So we paid and started going through. Wassy was apparently clinging to Jay the entire time as he strolled through the strobe light-lit hallways. It was mostly the anticipation of what might happen that really got me. Coming up upon things that could move at any moment and hearing the sounds from further on in the haunted house. There was a very startling scream that got me pretty good in the beginning as far as actual scares go. Then we encountered this little midget guy that kinda went "Raar" at us. Wassy found this incredibly funny and started laughing like crazy. The midget appeared to not be impressed. Further on we found a "Do Not Press" labeled button, which…of course you have to press. It caused a loud noise to go off which was startling. And then we arrived at the last room which was a big open space with skeletons coming at you and such. There was a guy there dressed up like a ghost thing (my friends are going to yell at me because I should know his name but do not) which Jay found to be perfectly normal. Even said "Hi" to it and asked how it was doing.

I will admit I am a total wuss, so I was kinda making scared type noises at every corner because I hate it when stuff jumps out at me. Or stuff might jump out at me…It just wasn't good. I think my friends had more fun listening to me than they did going through the haunted house.

After that, we made the last rounds to grab some kettle corn and fudge and headed on home, exhausted, but satisfied that it was a really good fair trip.

Of course now it's officially fall. Boo! I miss summer.