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Tuesday, September 04, 2007

The Last Hurrah of Summer - Going to the Fair

For the last kid-summer-outing, we spent a day at the Evergreen State Fair. It is a traditional, rural/agricultural fair ('celebrating its 99th year') which always feels like a bit of a surprise. It is only about twenty minutes away from my very-very suburban environment - but once out there I am transported back to childhood visits to my grandparent's farm.


It is a large fair - with things to thrill and delight all ages. The car full of teenagers I brought with me immediately made off for the amusement-park section. It is filled with rides and games, lights and music.


There were food stalls of every sort, emitting smells of grilled onions and polish sausages. My only disappointment was that there were no sweet-potato fries this year (my fair favorite!) Luckily, fresh lemonade was readily available - it was hot-hot-hot!


There were so many things to see - demonstrations of all sorts. The wood-carving-by-chain-saw is always fun for a gander.


Antique farm equipment displays - as well as ultra-modern.


And vendors hawking their wares. Do-dads and fripperies to peruse to your heart's delight...

9 comments:

andrea said...

I love all the end-of-summer photos you've been posting (and your new banner!). It reminds me that I've forgotten about the PNE (Pacific National Exhibition), Vancouver's century or so old summer fair *again*. Now it's raining and after Labour Day and summer seems to be done. :(

Tart said...

Please miss, what are 'elephant ears'? Especially ones which involve raspberry jam or cinnamon sugar?
Should we be worried?

xx A

tlchang said...

Dear Ash, Jack had the same question. They are a local dish - which involves piping out a thin, layer of batter, which is deep fried and sprinkled with cinnamon sugar or spread with jam. It's basically a large, thin, fried flat bread served sweetened. A bit too greasy for me. You may enjoy it, however I'm sure the giant, smoked turkey-leg 'drumsticks' served elsewhere would be more to your liking.

tlchang said...

Andrea - I know. I missed *everything* last year from being so chained to my studio. I've tried to make up for it a bit this summer (and will probably be paying for it soon!)

Hopefully your show does FABULOUSLY and will feel worth the studio-hours-effort!

Fall is good too.

Rebecca E. Parsons/Cre8Tiva said...

your photos are so wonderful as always...i got some good shots while i was i north carolina...missed you while i was gone...blessings, rebecca

Erica-Jane said...

Oh-My-God!!!!
The piggies!
I love those little piggies!
I'm feeling inspired by them, they're soooo cute!
Glad you liked Sleeping Beauty, she is my "early" style, before commercialism and earning a living came in to play...sad really :0(
You've certainly got a lot going on where you live. It looks like you had a great summer.

xxx

Merisi said...

I tried hard not to think "fall", yet couldn't stop summer from at least temporarily leaving us: Weather prognosis is 48 hours of uninterrupted heavy rains and temperatures in the low forties.
We are hoping that the Pope will bring sunshine to Austria for his weekend visit. ;-)

Anonymous said...

Fair fun! I love county fairs. Homegrown, colorful and an energy of joy circling around!

xxxxx said...

Looks like you had a lot of fun!!! Thanks for sharing those moments with us.