A Fair to Remember!

 Last week we got back from our summer vacation to New England! It was a wonderful trip and so nice to be with our families again. I have much to blog about from the summer but until that happens (after I get my pictures--over 1200 of them!--pared down and edited), I wanted to post this blog post I wrote last summer and never posted (did I just say "post" three times in a row? Make that four times!). The Iowa State Fair is being held right now about two hours away in Des Moines. We wanted to spend a day there, but after the road trip from Massachusetts and all the time Peter's taken off from work, we decided we'd just have to skip it this year. We're sick of being in the car and not even a trip to the state fair can entice us! So without further ado, here is my ode from a year ago to the State Fair, now getting its moment in the spotlight after languishing in the "Unpublished" file for a year...

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You didn't really think I was all done writing about the Iowa State Fair, did you? This is my third and final post on the matter. (The other posts are here and here.) What can I say; I found the fair to be rich in blogging material!

Last month I happened to come across an opinion piece in The Wall Street Journal (which is this blog's namesake...they should be paying me for this kind of publicity) about state fairs titled "Our Love Affair With the Fairs." It was a fun little editorial and among other things, it said:  

"State fairs represent the America many of us praise from afar, or live within, or simply puzzle over."

"Fairs...can be traced back to 500 B.C....Fairs have existed as microcosms of society from the beginning..."

"Let's face it: no matter how sophisticated we become, a life-size statue of Elvis sculpted from 800 pounds of butter will always fascinate us. And if you don't understand this, then I'm afraid you don't understand America."

What Midwestern state fair would be complete without a tractor parade?

Classic cars, all in a row

Junk food at its finest

My father ended up buying an organic cotton mattress!

These huge fat snakes make me feel slightly nauseous even now.

We plan on going to the State Fair each summer. It must be the American in us!