State Fair

Ahh, the state fair. Funny how it always seems nicer, the longer it's been since you last went. Maria and I went a few years ago and the highlight was taking Nate to the petting zoo. This year was a little different, the highlight for him was all the rides. He couldn't get enough, Maria and I had enough within the first 2 hours. As usual, it was hot hot hot.



These two shots were right after lunch, as we're heading back to the final set of rides for the day. Nate saw this guy juggling and wanted to stop and watch. To finish his act, he was making balloon animals and Nate was so excited to get one. He got a shark. I really like the expression he has in the second photo, he really seems happy.


Nate really liked the slides at the fair. These are 2 of the 3 he rode. We had some difficulty with his height. He's ~40 inches tall, and many of the rides he wanted to go on, you needed to be 42 inches. Funny, the rides were similar to the ones we went on at six flags, but there you only had to be 36 inches. Luckily, most of the ride operators let him go on anyway. Of course, you still had the fair experience of overpriced rides. I think the all day ride pass was like $30, or $3-4 per ride.



Nene, Dani, Claudia and G-pa joined us at the fair. Or we joined them, not sure which. We saw and Nate rode on several of the Michael Jackson Neverland Ranch rides. They were the cleanest nicest rides at the fair.

Claudia had a good time, but she got grumpy after awhile. I think the heat got to her. Also, being shorter, there were even fewer rides she could go on.

Nate showing off, riding the Jet Ski while flashing off the Hang Loose or Shaka symbol.


We're going to have to get Nate up to see my uncle Ronnie. Seems he's already got a feeling for hanging out with the animals and climbing the fence to see what's going on. Only thing missing was a piece of straw from his mouth and a big old ten gallon hat.


G-pa was showing Nate all the farm animals. Nate was curious, but a bit afraid to touch or pet any of them.

All in all it was a good day. Hot, expensive and all focused on the kids. I don't think we'll go next year, it'll be awhile before we gather the courage to go again. I think Nate had a great time, but it seemed to be much better making the trek to Vallejo for six flags. The lines were shorter for the rides and the whole thing was cheaper and better organized. Besides, there was nothing to eat at the fair, if you wanted something healthy. Healthiest thing they had was water, after that deep fried something or other.