The Great Minnesota Get Together

Is there anything better than the state fair? I love the state fair, it doesn't matter what state you are in the state fair is always a blast. When I was a child and I went to the Wisconsin State Fair, I remember the roasted corn, the baked potatoes, the piglet races -- talk about a cute spectacle! Loved the piglet races. I also remember the cream puffs. A egg puffed pastry cut in half, made into a large sandwich with a HUGE dollop of homemade whipped cream and topped off with a sprinkling of powdered sugar. According to most, one could not go to the WI State Fair without consuming at least one if not TEN cream puffs. The craze has become so big that people get cream puffs to go and they've installed a cream puff drive through so that non-fair goers can still enjoy what most consider god's gift to the human race. Would you be surprised to hear I am not a big fan? That's why they banished me to Minnesota, HA, just kidding! But more seriously, I really don't like the egg flavored "puff" its just not my kind of pastry, whipped cream sure, but puff -- I'll pass. Now take that whipped cream and plop it on a bowl full of fresh strawberries and now we're talking. (Yeah, I know, I have a strawberry problem -- I go to SA - Strawberryaholics Anonymous, but its not working.) So missing out on the Cream Puff has not upset me over the years.

Now to talk about the "Great Minnesota Get Together"... Now growing up in Wisconsin, I thought the State Fair was a big deal. Next to Summer Fest, there was nothing bigger in WI than the State Fair. Boy was I in for a surprise when I moved to Minnesota. Minnesota is home to the LARGEST State Fair in the country. And it is a BIG DEAL. It is directly next to the University of Minnesota's St. Paul campus and the land mass is expansive. I'd say its not terribly larger than the WI State Fair but it is noticeably larger.

For a non-country girl, who doesn't have any farm animals to show, it is my job to eat LOTS of food and check out all the exhibits. And let me tell you, there are a lot of exhibits and vendors. Thankfully, this year they had an app for that - I know kind of goofy but SUPER helpful! Typically, the following foods are a must: The Mouth Trap Cheese Curds, Dairy Goodness Bar - Sundae and Malt, and Tom Thumb's Mini Donuts. (I feel like I am missing one but I cannot remember what it is.) We also sometimes get Sweet Martha's cookies, paired with an endless glass of milk, roasted corn on cob, saltwater taffy, Vescio's pasta, Taco, strawberries and whipped cream (told ya), tatter tots, etc. We try to try something new every year. This year we hit the must stops and also tried some tater tot crowns and spicy sour cream dipping sauce (not recommended) with a glass of beer at 10 AM. Now that's the way to start a day. Then we meander through the Horticulture building and got a glass of Apple Cider, now that was refreshing! Then at 11 on the dot we hit up the cheese curds.

Mike's eyes were bigger than his stomach and he went for two orders this year! We sat down between the Food Building and the Horticulture building to munch. Half way through our orders, we were stuffed. So we combined the curds and went in search of something to top off Mike's tum-tum. I continued snacking on our deep fried cheese while he tried to decide what he wanted. He initially was thinking Pizza, but with all the dairy planned for the day I suggested something with less cheese, so we found a Taco bar outside of the food building and Mike ordered a Taco. When we sat down I checked out the cheese curd stash and I was down to one cheese curd! Now how did I manage to do that? Mike was distraught since his Taco hadn't been that good and I had ate all his cheese curds so he refused to allow me to eat his tomatoes. Whoops. He finished off the last cheese curd and we went on our way to work off the calories and find the next meal.

The next place we head was OF COURSE the University of Minnesota booth. They were giving away mini-backpacks at Noon and it wasn't even 11:30 yet and there was a huge line. Man, I love free stuff, but I don't like free stuff that much -- never mind the fact that Mike doesn't care for free things like I do and wouldn't wait 5 minutes for a free thing (until I get them home and he realizes their utility -- like my MPLS aluminum water bottle which he basically claimed as his own.) So we meandered through checked out the apparel booth where a dad was trying to get his three year old sun to wear a goldy gopher baseball cap, so cute. Then we checked out the Heisman Trophy from Bruce Smith and then we saw it... the FLOYD OF ROSEDALE! That's right all of you Hawkeye fans, you were smelling blood in the water after our terrible season last year, which is why you all caravaned to MN to watch IA blow us out of the water and what happened? Oh that's right, we kicked your booties and took the pig. All rivalries aside, sorry I will be more civil now, it was kind of a big deal to see Floyd. I was super psyched, especially because I was at the game and rushed the field. Did I mention I rubbed his ear? Sweet. 

From there we went to a number of the exhibit halls. We saw the 4-H building and giggled at the entries for "clothes you buy", was inspired by the "clothes you make", was in awe of some of the photographs by the kids, checked out all the things they built and left with the determination to take more photos and finally start on my long in the making sewing projects which were referenced in the Digs Studio post (still on the to do list.) Then we stopped in the Fine Art building, toured the Progress Center, checked out the Pet Center, tried out the John Deers, stumbled back to the food building where we found our Mini Donuts at a soda (that's right, I'm from WI, its not pop.) By that time we were pooped and my feet hurt, but it was time to meet up with some friends, so we headed over to the animal barns.

We started with the horses. We saw the horses from the MN Zoo. We saw a donkey. We saw a bunch of horses, whose breeds I don't remember and wandered around the stables until we ran into a... MINI HORSE! A real life mini horse, it was funny. Then we reminisced about "Rob and Big" for a while and discussed the episode where they took their mini-horse in a murdered out black SUV to a mini-horse competition where they test out Mini's training. Ahh, Rob and Big what an outrageous yet funny show, I miss Meaty - what a cute bull dog. Back to the Fair! We also checked out the Pigs, the goats, the cows and the sheep. I love seeing all of the animals. Then we went to a part of the Fair that I didn't know existed - Heritage Square - It was kind of an old timey area - to see if we could enjoy some music. The music we found was a fiddle competition... not what I was looking for but it was nice to sit.

After a while, we decided to keep moving on so we parted ways with our friends and headed over to the Coliseum to see if I could find the booth for my FAVORITE candy store Trembley's Sweet Shop. At this point, Mike was in need of additional food because his blood sugar was dropping and the crabbies were coming out -- so when we I took us the wrong way we decided to bail on the idea, but not before we found a vendor who was selling Cincinnati Chili! How bizarre, unfortunately for this vendor MNans, like myself, don't understand the excitement surrounding putting cocoa and cinnamon in our chili and poring it over spaghetti noodles and topping it with cheddar cheese, so needless to say the lines we short. Still funny though.

From their Mike decided he wanted to try for the first time ever, which is kind of nuts because they are very popular at the fair, a Pronto Pup! Its a Corn Dog but its not made with corn meal. Unfortunately, there weren't any close by and we were pooped so we headed over to the Dairy Building for our Malts and Sundaes. Mike and I both got sundaes this year, no surprise I got Strawberry, but Mike took one bite of his caramel sundae and regretted not getting his standard vanilla malt. It was still good. We walked over to the Barn by the entrance where all the babies are born and sat down to finish our sundaes before catching the park and ride back to TCF stadium where we left out car. It was a fun trip to the MN State Fair. We got some deep fried things but didn't get anything on a stick (everything at the fair is fried an on a stick, like the deep fried candy bar or twinkie on a stick.) We hit all of the "must" food items and saw all the animals. We did miss the vendors in the grandstand but all in all it was a good trip to the fair and I am already looking to going back next time.