State Fair
Yesterday, we visited the Iowa State Fair, though we didn't take Holly's niece and two nephews, due to a scheduling conflict with their parents. But we had a lot of fun, and didn't have to try to keep track of 3 children that didn't belong to us. The weather was nice, it was in the low 70s most of the day, with a brief shower in the afternoon. I'm glad it was cool, touring the swine barn in the heat wouldn't have been much fun. So, without further delay, here are some photos:

Here's Holly, posing with the famous Butter Cow. There was also a scene with the characters from Peanuts, composed entirely of butter, but they all looked rather ungainly. I think the sculptor should stick to the bovine butter arts.



Next, we decided to look at some real cattle, and found the "Super Bull". He weighs in at something like 3,110 pounds, if I remember correctly.



Oh, and in case you were wondering, it IS available:



Iowa is a pretty safe place to live, there's not much crime here, other than criminals stealing Anyhydrous Ammonia from farmers to make Meth. But sometimes, our livestock goes bad. This horse was put in the lockup:



And this sheep has joined the Klan:



There is a lot of food to be eaten at the fair, much of it of dubious origin. We started the day with a cherry lemonade, then a carmel apple, and I ate a stick of buffalo jerky. For lunch, we wanted to find someplace that served real Iowa beef, not some food cart that a vendor hauled in from out-of-state. We wound up eating at the Stockman's Inn, which is next to where they house the cattle. I won't say that it's cheap, but the hamburgers were delicious. And, if it's shaped like a cowboy hat, it's got to be good:



Later, after walking off everything we ate that morning, we split a funnel cake, covered with powdered sugar:



Around 4:30, we decided that we'd seen everything that we'd come to see, and were tired of walking. We got back in the car and drove to Ames where we did a little shopping, then stopped at the Great Plains Sauce & Dough Company for dinner. Our eyes proved to be bigger than our stomachs, however, so I'm going to be eating leftover pizza all weekend.
- posted by Seth @ 7:55 AM