A Few State Fair Favorites.

So Joe and I made our annual trek to the Minnesota State Fair last week.

I was actually there to work, but one of the great things about my job is that during the State Fair, I can bring Joe with me.

My organizations (the Minnesota Turkey Growers Association and the Chicken and Egg Association of Minnesota) have a huge presence at the fair – including two consumer booths, where we pass out recipes and information on turkeys, chickens and eggs, and one restaurant (Turkey To Go) that serves up the most awesome turkey sandwich you will ever experience.

On this particular day, it was “Gobble Gobble Cluck Cluck Day” (yes, really – check out our t-shirts in the photos below!) at Christensen Farms Stage, where we celebrated all things poultry with a game show, cup stacking demonstrations, a bunch of giveaways and even the “Chicken Dance.”

(Trust me, nothing says Minnesota State Fair quite like the Chicken Dance.)

While I was working, Joe got to hang out with Auntie Jodi (my sister), Uncle Ladd (my brother) and cousin Audree, who all decided to check out the State Fair with him. (Teacher Man, unfortunately, was back at school for workshop week and had to miss all the fun.) By all accounts, there was plenty of fun to be had at the pet center, the river raft ride (twice for Joe!), cheese curd taste-testing (more on this later) and viewing some of the 4-H projects – along with mega-sized icees, a whole bunch of Sweet Martha’s Chocolate Chip Cookies and some Turkey To Go.

After my work festivities – which included a brief television interview about Minnesota Turkey for me – were over, my sister and brother called it a day and went in search of some much-needed air conditioning, especially for my sister, the momma-to-be. Joe and I spent a couple of additional hours exploring the fairgrounds and enjoying a few of our favorite State Fair things:

1) Quest for the Best Cheese Curds. Joe, like his Uncle Ladd, is fast becoming a connoisseur of cheese curds. (For instance, according to Joe, Culver’s cheese curds are okay but too heavy with the breading; Dairy Queen cheese curds are the bomb – a perfect mixture of breading and cheese.) On the fairgrounds, after rigorous testing of several locations, the best cheese curds use white (assuming mozzarella) cheese and are located past the sheep barn off of Judson Avenue.

2) Handwriting Analysis. Okay, Joe and I can’t help but love the cheesy handwriting analysis, which has been on the first floor of the Grandstand since, like, forever. We turned over our signatures and our astrological signs (Libra and Aquarius, respectively) to the young woman manning the monstrous and vintage-looking “supercomputers” and magically, in just a minute or so (along with $3/each), out popped out a full two-page report on our personalities and horoscopes. All completely accurate, of course. 😉

3) Minnesota Wine Country. Okay, this is obviously one of my favorites. But Joe knows his mom very well and was perfectly content to take a break in the shade and sip his lemonade while I enjoyed a glass of Frontenac Gris from Parley Lake Winery, a local winery in Waconia, MN.

4) The Egg Chair. I swear I didn’t bribe him to like this. I couldn’t get Joe out of the egg chair, which is part of our booth for the Chicken and Egg Association of Minnesota.

5) The Sky Ride. Hands down, this is Joe’s favorite thing to do at the fair. So much so that we rode it three times. Yep – three times. In fact, when we went back for the third time, one of the guys working the ride, recognized us and said “You’re back!”

After the third and final Sky Ride experience, Joe and I headed home and he announced, “I can’t not have fun at the State Fair!”

Mission accomplished.

And now we’ve got the first day of school tomorrow – how, exactly, did that happen?

I feel like summer is definitely on the way out — with school, schedules and activities taking its place. It’s a bit bittersweet, but I also know it will be nice to get back to a routine. Tomorrow I will take a “first day of school” photo of my 4th grader, and of course, post it on Facebook so that Grandma and everyone else can see.

After a quiet Sunday night, with plenty of Earl the Pug snuggles, I tucked in Joe, read the last chapter of “How To Break a Dragon’s Heart” to him and then wished him sweet dreams.

“Mom, I’m still not ready for school to start tomorrow,” he told me with a hint of sparkle in his eye.

“I know, Joe, but ready or not, here it comes.”