NC State Fair 2008

Tuesday, Brooke and I headed to the state fair. The NC State Fair celebrates the agriculture aspect of North Carolina as well as rides and other exhibits to enjoy and all the fried pickles, fried oreos, fried pb&j's, fried twinkies, fried candy bars, fried cheesecake, bar-b-que sandwiches, chicken, and huge turkey legs you could want! Each night there is a concert (cost extra) and every day there are special events. Tuesday is always Senior Citizen day and my favorite day to go. (Thanks to a teacher I had in college that told me about this hidden secret!). There are many benefits for seniors and special programs for them, but there are many benefits for others as well. As I sometimes have trouble getting around, the much smaller crowd during the day helps and since there are many sr's and handicapped people, there isn't any pushing going on. It also means no lines for the rides! We got up and went early as the fair actually opens its gates at 8am and the midway and games open at 10am. We had front door parking, enjoyed the exhibits and met lots of wonderful people including members of the Army National Guard, the Navy, the Marines, and the State Highway Patrol.

Here Brooke is in a Bradley Fighting Machine

and with members of our Army National Guard:

This year, Saturn automotives had a huge display of all it's newest cars....of course Saturn wanted us to buy this pretty baby as a Christmas present (excuse me, she just got a car in July for her sweet 16!!):

As I said earlier, we also me some of the NC State Highway Patrol, who had a huge display with cars all the way back to the 40's I guess....looked like Barney Fife's patrol car in the Andy Griffith show. But we stuck to the newer modes of transportation....a decked out SUV...totally awesome inside:
And a SHP helicopter...
If you look behind, you can see the mobile lab, as well as another SUV, the Barney Fife car, "normal" cars, the old NC SHP Mustang, and the SHP Camaro, and the new SHP Dodge. They have a huge arsenal!!

But let me tell you something, Troopers can be quite "friendly" or more to the point flirtatious when they are hidden behind "Andy" the ambulance:He offered his phone number then asked for mine. I told Andy he was being naughty and he WINKED!! I think they took Andy away from that particular hottie trooper because when we came back by, Andy was not out and hottie was working the drunk driving simulator. Needless to say, we didn't do very well!

As I said, the NC state fair is all about honoring and promoting the agriculture of this great state. Here Brooke is with the winning "largest pumpkins":

And here she is with some beautiful cotton plants. I can live with this kind of snow!

There is a wonderful little Harvest tour which shows all the different veggies produced in NC as well as the cotton and the NC Christmas tree industry. This is at the end of the tour, one of many "Shutterbug Areas" at the fair.

(and of course, a close up!)

PBS-NC is a huge sponsor and had a wonderful "garden" of many of the characters on PBS Children's shows. Brooke choose to have her picture made with Cliffor THE BIG RED DOG!!:

One of the neatest things at the fair this year were sculptures made and decorated by area students (I picked up mostly Wake and Durham county schools, but I am sure there were more) that were horses, and cow, and chickens, and even some unicorns, and a few things I am not sure what they were. But they all were beautiful and very creative! Here are a few of them:

(This one above reminded us of her school in it's blue and gold)
And now, the coolest cow, I have ever seen:

And you can't go to the fair without taking you picture in front of the wonderful wall of water and fountain:

We had a great day, beautiful weather, super mom & DD memories. Yes, I took her out of school and she was back to home in time to go to work (don't mess with me about priorities here!!). We arrived at 8, left at 2, met people, enjoyed exhibits, rode all the rides we wanted, ate, even won her daddy 2 prizes on the baseball throw (A Red Sox bumper sticker and a Washington Redskins pennant). She beat me at the water guns game. And we shared a fried twinkie on the way out.

A great day!!