Wisconsin State Fair

We spent the day at the Wisconsin State Fair. It was so early that there weren't that many people there. Since the exhibition hall was the closest building we started the day by weaving our way through all the vendors hocking their wares. It was all worthless junk, but fun to listen to the silly sales pitches that made the stuff seem worth while. The people watching is always a hoot as well.

It was barely 10:30 before we passed the margarita tent and I had to have one. After all, I am on vacation today. After I picked up the margarita we were ready for breakfast. I got a Wisconsin-made sausage while Jeff got the omelet. We had to get some milk as well. I tried chocolate malted milk for the first time and it was awesome. It was good to eat something hardy after the pre-breakfast tequila.

As we sat and ate our breakfast, an older couple (meaning older than us) sat down next to us. They were pushing a baby stroller that was holding a little boy who seemed not much more than a year old. They fed him a little spoon of plain ice cream and he seemed to gobble it up with delight. It made me cry. In one minute I was content, the next I was so sad, missing our baby Stephen so badly, missing the opportunity to take him to the fair. The heartbreak hit me hard.

I tried to move on but the image of the content, happy baby just stuck in my mind. We walked through the barns, checked out the sheep, chickens, cows, horses, and pigs. It was good to walk the food off. And the liquor. We went over to the horticultural building, which is my very favorite. It has all the winning entries for the foods and crafts. I love looking at the quilts.

After the quilts, we stopped at the DNR where I asked about getting rid of the hawk in the yard. The ranger told me what I already knew, stop feeding the birds if I want the hawk to go away. I was hoping for a miracle answer. At the House of Harley tent and chatted with a friend. He filled us in on his recent travels then we were off to look for Stonethrow Winery's booth. I passed the information tent to discover that they weren't there this year. The next stop was the WEnergies Park that had lots of information on going green. I picked up a brochure on rain barrels, saw a rain chain in action, and got idea for making my own version of a topsy turvy for tomato plants.

I saw a woman eating the chocolate covered bacon. I wanted to try that until I saw her eating it, it looked gross. We turned the corner and as soon as I saw Slim McGinn's, I had to have the reuben on a stick. It was so good Jeff ordered one. I had a Harp and he had a bottle of water. The Harp was good. Beer at noon isn't a bad thing. At least not at the fair. From there we went through the Merchandise Mile (under the race track grandstand) just to work off the meat on a stick.

We realized that we saw all there was to see. We hung out at a few stops to rest, and we were ready to go home. So we picked up a 6-pack of cream puffs and headed out.