The State Fair of Texas

Last Wednesday, Luis, Bethany, Caleb and I went to the Fair - or, as Luis calls it, The State Fair of Texas. Throughout the month of September, Luis's class learned all about the Fair. Turns out it's his teachers F-A-V-O-R-I-T-E time of the year. Each day was a different craft about the Fair. One week, Luis made various foods that you can get at the fair: funnel cake, corn-on-a-stick and cotton candy. He made a ticket booth (with a picture of him as the ticket taker). He made an Auto Show sign, a Pig Race picture, a Ferris wheel, an "Elsie the Cow" and assorted other goodies. The very last day, they made a giant Big Tex, the mascot (sort of) of the Fair. Needless to say, Luis was pretty jazzed up about going - though in the end, he really had no idea what to expect when we got there.

We rode the train (the light rail) to the fair - thinking it would be an extra treat. Turns out it was an extra 90 minutes because we didn't think to look at the train schedule (I was thinking it ran like the Metro in DC; I was wrong) and then Bethany and I wanted to hop off at the changing point to get a coffee from Starbucks. Sigh. Lesson learned.

The first thing that the boys saw were these things you sit on to have your feet rubbed (vibrated, really). The boys loved them - and then wanted to sit on them every time we saw them. We saw a lot of them.

Not surprising, there were several places to see tractors, both big and small. There was the photo op place to take a picture on the small tractor, the place to actually ride a small tractor, and the John Deere booth (where the salesman took off the "Do Not Sit On Tractors" sign so that Luis could sit on the tractor). In fact, Luis's souvenir from the fair was a little John Deere tractor.

Photo Op Tractor

Tractor for riding in the Hands On the Farm exhibit

The REAL tractor

When it was lunch time, I was prepared to indulge Luis in all kinds of sugary and fried foods. (I was also prepared to indulge myself in some good carb-loaded food - which I did.) I had previously promised him cotton candy at the fair. But in the end, all he wanted was popcorn and ice cream. I was expecting to see lots of crazy fried food - fried butter was the new thing this year. Though the only really strange thing I saw this:

Fried Stuff - Typical Fair Food

We spent a lot of time looking at animals. We saw a dog agility contest that consisted of border collies catching Frisbees and black labs doing long-jumps into the water. It was fun, but mostly it made me sad that Ashley can't do those tricks anymore. The kids did not seem impressed. We saw puppies, kittens, and bunnies on display - a big hit. But the best was the petting zoo. They had typical farm animals (cows, goats, sheep) as well as some animals not native to Texas. My favorite was the kangaroo that was carrying around a baby in her pouch. I never saw the whole baby, but depending on how the momma moved around, an elbow or foot or tail would stick out of the pouch. It was mesmerizing. When I showed it to Luis, he was non-plussed. His response? "Look Mommy, a TURTLE." They also had alpaca, deer, zebra, llama. Luis was eager to pet the zebra. It took me at least a minute, while taking the second picture, to realize that the zebra had bitten Luis and was not letting go.

Luis was much more scared than hurt. He kept saying, "Mommy, that zebra BIT me - and that's not nice." Luckily it didn't break the skin (or do lasting psychological damage). I was much more careful after that.

After the animals and the food, we moved on to the rides. I wasn't really sure what Luis would think of it all - or if he'd be interested. In the end, Caleb was interested and so Luis eagerly followed suit. We rode a thing that spun around (which I did not like), a little train and the big slide (that you ride down on burlap sacks - a fond memory of mine from the Fair of my childhood). Luis was eager to ride them all, and enjoyed them. Although, once we had trekked all the way to the top, I was feeling a little nervous about how tall it was!! The one ride Luis could ride by himself was the bumper cars. Turns out that the simple direction of "push this pedal with your foot" was enough to keep him in motion. The steering part didn't go so well. He liked the driving part, but not the bumping part. He was in tears by the end.

As I suspected might happen, we kept the boys out about 30 minutes too long. When we started the trek from the back of the fair (where the rides were) to the front of the ride (where the train home was), Luis kept saying, "But I want to DOOOOOOOOOOO something else Mommy, I want to do something ellllllllllse." I promised him we'd go back, which did absolutely nothing to placate him. Bethany had it worse: Caleb screamed bloody murder the whole way and put up a physical protest as well. He wouldn't walk in the forward direction at all, and when she carried him, he kicked and howled.

On the way out, a very kind vendor gave each of the crying boys a balloon. Caleb was envious of Luis's purple balloon, and ticked that Luis wouldn't trade with him. When Caleb's balloon popped at the feet of Big Tex, he didn't shed a tear, just shrugged it off. When Luis's balloon popped 10 minutes later while we were waiting for the train, Caleb SOBBED.

The train ride back to the car was uneventful - mostly because Luis slept the whole way.

Sleepy Luis