Mikey and I went to the NC State Fair this past week. What a nice treat for us to sneak away and have a “date.” We got to hold hands and laugh with each other.
Here’s the list of things we ate at the fair this year:
- A gyro with lamb (my personal fave and a tradition every year for me.)
- A giant turkey leg (first time for us! Pretty good! Tasted a bit like ham, very smoky, very delicious, but pretty ridiculous looking.)
- French fries with vinegar and cheese and ketchup
- Peach cobbler with ice cream
- Fried mac-n-cheese (another first for us; wasn’t good in our opinion. Like little triangular greasy nuggets of cheesy macaroni. Came with a side of nacho cheese. Ew.)
- An order of fried vegetables
- Another order of french fries with vinegar and ketchup (from the guy we couldn’t find earlier in the day and settled, so of course we had to get the real deal.)
- A caramel apple
When I say, “ate,” please don’t misconstrue.
What I mean by this is that we buy a dish at 6-7 bucks a pop to try two or three bites apiece and throw. They give you a MOUNTAIN of food and grease and charge you your child’s college tuition.
Who could eat all of that? What a waste. I wonder how much food is actually thrown away at the Fair each year, and it makes me sad because there are so many hungry people in the world.
I really wish they’d cut their portions in half. People really only want to sample several things at the fair anyway; no one wants 16 pounds of fried fill-in-the-blank.
What a waste of good food.
But, the food was GREAT.
We made it over to the petting zoo, which is another annual favorite of ours. They have goats and a water buffalo and even a camel, all of which you can pet and feed carrot slices. This is one of my FAVORITE things to do at the Fair. The animals are so sweet and friendly!
We sat and watched a few cycles of some of the midway rides. I kept asking Mikey if he’s ride the Free Fall Drop ride with me, but he said that he wasn’t interested in seeing the peach cobbler and fries again. Ha! But he’s a “Zipper” kind of guy, and last time we rode that one together I had to sit down for 30 minutes afterward and concentrate hard to stop the spinning. Ugh.
We looked for one of those goofy “Haunted House” cart-rides, but none seemed worth the money. (I cannot BELIEVE how expensive these rides are!! A dollar a ticket? And most rides are like 7 and 8 tickets??? CRAZY!)
We had more fun sitting together and watching the other people’s reactions to the mind-scrambling rides, for free.
There’s something about the Fair to me that reminds me of my childhood. It’s funnel cakes and Ferris wheels, corn dogs and midway games, but it’s the nostalgia of it all that keeps me coming back every year. It’s almost like walking through a time machine back to childhood, except it’s better because Mikey’s there with me.
All in all, we spent a fantastic few hours together. I’m so glad we went!
We were just talking about how someone needs to create a sampler plate at the fair. Most people want just a taste of everything anyway. Think of the money you could make with something like that!!