Having just gotten back from the Great Minnesota Get-Together aka the State Fair or what I have deemed an exercise in excess it something ceartainly worth writing about. For those that haven’t had the experience of attending this state fair i’ll try to explain a little bit about it, but I must say that i’ll not do it justice.
First is the sheer size of the fair, by my guess, is at least 300 acres large and every available space is covered with a booth (mostly food.) Since I mentioned food it’s appropriate to explain the food in some detail. Just about everything from pie to pickles to pork chops comes on a stick. Second to that I would say that most things come fried, like cheese, candy bars, and chocolate covered bacon. The calorie consumption is staggering, by my estimation the amount of calories eaten in this 12 day fair could feed the country of Liechtenstein for a month.
Second thing that struck me about the fair is that it really does capture what I had pictured to be a State Fair. They had the 4-H kids out in force with their horses, cows, sheep, chickens, llamas, etc. I saw a 820 lbs. pumpkin and I hear there is the worlds largest pig at the fair but I didn’t happen upon him.
Finally is the sheer number of people visiting the fair, the street on friday is wall to wall people and I didn’t even stay for the night festivities so i’d only imagine it got worse than the daytime crowd. The only comparison I would have would be that of the street in Mong Kok in Hong Kong. It was an amazing place to visit, but towards the end I got tired of being crammed in with people stuffing themselves silly.
For those keeping track of my waterskiing prowess the count stands water 2, dug 0. The way i’ve come to see it is man wasn’t made to walk on water, for now… I’ll be back to give it another try, hopefully 100 lbs lighter.
I guess I should first mention that I added more pictures to the gallery and i’ll try to explain some of what has gone on this past week or so.
First on the itinerary was a stop at Mackinac Island. Some people may remember we had to cancel this excursion the last time we went through the area due to inclement weather. Well this time was the complete opposite, the weather was absolutely perfect and we accomplished most everything we wanted to do on the island.
For those that are unaware of what Mackinac island is all about, the whole island is a National Historical Landmark due to the preservation of the island. Another neat thing that I really enjoyed about the island is that almost all motorized vehicles are banned there. The exceptions to this rule being the emergency vehicles (we didn’t see any, but I understand they exist on the island), airplanes (my uncle and I think my cousin has landed on this island), and lawn mowers. So as you can imagine the island is somewhat peaceful with only bicycles, horses, and two legs to get you from place to place. We all rode bikes around the island one day which was really fun and I think just about everyone that goes to the island rides bikes around. We got fudge, which the island is known for. We did a fair amount of hiking on the interior of the island. So all around it’s a neat place to visit for a few days.
Our next stop was up at Basswood Lake up in Ontario Canada. Thanks goes to Bob and Marilyn Kellum who hosted us all. Every day on the lake has a happy hour with lots of alcohol and pupu’s followed by a most excellent meal. I managed to read a few books, went on a few adventures (got my rowing in, along with a trip on a kayak, canoe, and a row boat), went on a few power boat rides, and generally lazed about on the lake.
On a completely different note today marks the end of the trip for my mom and dad who head home today. It’s hard to understand for me that two months have come and gone, we did a lot in such a short time. I think most if not all of the agenda items for them were accomplished while being up here so all in all it was a successful trip for them. It was sort of a role-reversal today where I was dropping them off at the airport. My parting words of wisdom for them was “don’t get into trouble you two.”
Grizzly Adams checking in.
We leave for Canada tommorow so i’ll be out of touch until this weekend. We’ll be staying at a cabin on Little Trout Lake (i think thats the name) which belongs to a friend of my aunties. I think i’ll try and go fishing, row around the lake a bit and just chillout; as if my summer hasn’t already been chill enough.
On a seperate note I no longer have a cell phone. As many of you know I never really wanted a cell phone so once again the debate is whether or not to get a cell phone; that being said the easiest way to reach me now is via email.
We spent the last few days on what used to be my grandparents farm with my uncle and cousin. I think I got to live out the dream of many children this week by getting to drive around a backhoe. It really is everything it’s cracked up to be as moving around in a 50 ton machine is very empowering. Other than that we just putzed around the farm a bit and helped out here and there, so not all that much to share.