Utah State Fair

The annual Utah State Fair was this past month. As it has been another bucket list item for us (yes, we lead such adventurous lives) we decided to go on the last weekend. I think I remembered the fair being much different than this one. Back in 2007, Mark and I went to the Ventura County Fair and I don't remember it being so crowded. That said, we picked perhaps the worst weekend to go since it was not only closing weekend, but the same night as the BYU vs University of Utah game. I can stand crowded places for a while, but soon my patience and interest in staying wears thin. Plus, fairs always bring ahem...very classy people which can bring about entertainment to an extent.
They had a tractor exhibition area. Sadly you couldn't cross the rope to get pictures on them.

We also visited the livestock areas. Surprisingly, the sheep and goat areas didn't smell that bad. It was the chicken and cow areas that were almost unbearable. This is a blue ribbon chicken.....obviously. 

 We found a few picture boards and couldn't resist getting a "family" picture. I knew Mark always would have looked great as a redhead. And doesn't the neighborhood city councilman look great with a pitchfork? I'm not sure if I'm supposed to be carrying back milk from milking the cows or getting water from the stream. Either way, I have some awesome legs.

 My innocence was lost when I, along with my sister-in-law, realized that while we were in the goat arena, the announcement they made for showing the goats was for people to buy them to kill them- not as pets. And the "packer"...well let's just say I realized that he didn't just fit them neatly into crates into a big truck. So after we viewed the displays of sweet animals who were about to be auctioned off for killing, we decided to enjoy some roasted corn. (Though I later enjoyed a pulled pork sandwich.) Seriously, Mark has converted me to corn on the cob. It's messy and there's no polite way to really eat it, but that has to be one of my favorite parts of summer: corn on the cob slathered in butter with some seasoning salt, garlic or other savory flavorings.

 After enjoying some fair food, we decided to wait a while before hitting up any rides. We saw this awesome juggler from Oregon. He juggled hakysacs, baseballs, and even did one or two little magic tricks. His show was pretty impressive.

 After the juggler, we meandered over and found the Lemur display. If you sanitized your hands, they actually let you pet one under the supervision of their "friendly" staff. This little guy here was kind of crazy. He kept hopping back and forth on the cage, perhaps a little unsure of the strange looking humans staring back at him.

 I got this shot while we were waiting in line for the scrambler ride. Rides are overpriced at fairs to say the least, and Mark's siblings didn't want to go on any rides so we picked one before we left. This Ferris wheel actually was pretty safe with the seats being more of a booth style rather than a ski lift type chair. Ferris wheels scare me, but I felt that it wasn't a true fair montage without the Ferris wheel and a nearby popcorn booth in the picture.

 On the way back, our car hit another milestone in life. To celebrate us paying off our loan and finally getting the title in the mail, it hit 115,000 miles. It's been a good little car and I'm almost certain after the past 6 months it could drive from here and the airport/Salt Lake area on autopilot.