Fun at the Fair, part 1: The Big E

Yesterday was day 1 of the Fair Weekend: The Big E in Agawam, MA. Clint and I joined my parents there in the morning. We had to stop first for 2nd breakfast (first breakfast was scones in the car)
2nd breakfast was had in the Rhode Island building (you can't see in this photo, but the building says "Rhode Island" right above the main entrance. We dined on clam fritters- my favorite fair food.





Clint and I washed our fritters down with some Del's frozen lemonade.

We went through all the state buildings (RI, MA, ME, NH, CT, VT- I think I got that order right...?), stopping in MA to say hi to Smokey the Bear, snack on chocolate milk, raspberries and maple goodies.





The CT building had a nice United Technologies exhibit (where my dad works), and also a stand with some really nice-looking tomato-mozzarella salad that many others seemed to enjoy.









The NH building had some really pretty stained glass windows, as well as a granite map of NH in front. Clint and I tried to stand on our towns... and we do really live in Northern NH.










We paused in VT for beer, cider donuts (which were saved for this morning's breakfast) and yarn oggling- check out these adorable felted alpaca baby booties!!






We then met up with some of my parents' friends from the beach, and had lunch at the Storrowton Tavern. We dined on classic New England fair (baked scrod for Mom, meatloaf with mashed potatoes and butternut squash for Dad, a turkey club wrap for Clint, and chicken pot pie for me) and got to sit at proper tables- a nice change from normal fair meals.


After lunch, we saw animals:
Chicks! And a giant English Angora bunny! Also llamas, alpacas, ducks, and horses. We went to the cow/sheep building, where some 4-H kids played a 4-H joke and folded a $1 bill in half, sticking cow poo in the middle, and dropped it on the floor. It didn't quite fool us.

I went to the wool knook, and.....

BOUGHT YARN. I was wrong, mom was right, they do have nice yarn there- a very small selection, but the prices weren't bad. The red mohair was only $3/skein!


We did some other stuff (looking at vendors' stuff, going to the Grange building- Mom and I are going to enter stuff in their craft competition next year), and then it was time for the parade, so we gathered near the state buildings to watch.

Randomly, John Kerry was there. He led the parade.

Some floats in the parade threw Mardi Gras beads, and among the 4 of us, we did pretty well!

After that, more vendors, and we stopped for a drink. Clint made this Souveneir Cup Day and got a cherry soda.

For dinner, Mom and I had lobster rolls from the ME building, Clint had salmon on a stick from ME, we shared a blueberry crisp from ME, and dad had a chili dog from...somewhere, and a beer from VT. We also got Kettle Korn from NH, but that was mostly for the drive home and to enjoy this week.

We also carried on our tradition of maple sugar candy taste-testing, and bought maple pumpkins and little bite of maple candy from MA, maple ladies from VT, and maple NH and man-in-the-mountains (and a leaf for Clint) from NH. We haven't tried those yet, but I look forward to it.

More vendors (um... and Clint and I caved bought a couple Super Chammies... I'll let you know how they work), and finally, we left around 9:30, passing a calliope on the way out (they are calliopes, right? I think I have the name right).

All in all, we ate good food, didn't buy anything really crazy (I also got free toothpaste at a Sensodyne booth!), and we ended up exhausted and with hurting feet. Very fun!