Jillapalooza

IM IN UR OCEAN. EATIN UR CARDZ.

2011 MN State Fair, Trip 1

This year, Nick, Blog Reader Kristen, and I kicked off the fair festivities on day one! It was a beautiful day; the temp held steady at 80° and there wasn’t a cloud in the sky. We arrived around 2 PM and headed in to get some grub.

The first item on the agenda was to get Nick the traditional About a Foot Long Hot Dog. After that, Corn Dogs (not Pronto Pups cuz they suck) were enjoyed all around. Kristen and I hit up French Meadow Bakery and Cafe, where I got a cup of delicious Black Currant Iced Tea. We also splitsied a Butcher Boy Steak Sandwich with yummy toppings such as banana and bell peppers. Much other food was enjoyed.

On the way out, BRK was distracted by a jewelry stand in Heritage Square. While she was making a purchase, I spotted this really super cute owl necklace and made Nick buy it for me.

2010 MN State Fair, trip 1

This year Nick, Curtis, Blog Reader Kristen, and I started state fair season off with a bang on Friday 8/27. Yes, you read that correctly—Curtis was in attendance. I can blame it on thank Rush for playing at the Grand Stand. Unfortunately I forgot to get photographic evidence that he was there, but I highly doubt he’ll deny it since then he wouldn’t be able to say he saw Rush. Although, he can deny wearing the Rush concert t-shirt…

Instead of taking the bus, we drove to the fair and parked on the grounds which was a first for us all. It worked out well because, while the cklahrs were at the Rush concert, Nick and I got to take a little nappy nap in the explorer, while listening to said concert.

I ate many deliciously unhealthy food items throughout the day which probably let to me feeling nauseated later. Nothing that water and some more food couldn’t cure though. Items consumed by me were:

  • 2 corn dogs w/ mustard (not at the same time)
  • been and beef taco w/sour cream (Taco King)
  • black currant iced tea (French Meadow Bakery and Café)
  • Cherry Coke (in souvenir refillable mug)
  • Coke Zero (from Butcher Boys, $1 refill, mug savings of $2)
  • Tiny Tim mini donuts
  • cheese pizza (Vescio’s)
  • garlic bread w/marinara sauce (Italian Junction)
  • corn on the cob
  • Fresh French Fries

Kristen heard about some sort of Vanilla Lavender Cupcake at French Meadow Bakery and Café, that’s why we stopped there. I can’t say I liked the Lavender flavored frosting. It tasted like I was eating something that should be put on my body. However the black current iced tea was delicious. It wasn’t sweetened and didn’t need to be. All I know is that I want to drink more of it.

Overall, it was a great way to start the fair season! Hopefully Curtis will make it back to the fair before 2013.

2009 MN State Fair, trip 1

Blog Reader Kristen and I kicked off the State Fair festivities yesterday. We took the bus and got there around 5pm. It was the first day of the fair and the weather was perfect. Nick was upset that he wasn’t able to go with us, but he had a prior engagement of softball to attend.

We started out with one corn dog each (corn dogs, not pronto pups) at the Poncho Dog stand and they were delicious. After wondering around aimlessly for a bit (no Nick to make decisions and lead the way) we decided to go look at animals. BRK wanted to check out the biggest pig in the world or something of that nature. On the way to the barns we passed a booth that served sweet potato fries and decided to give them a try. I thought they were good, a little sweeter than I expected (tasted like some sort of brown sugar coating) and a little soggier than was really appetizing. It made them hard to dip in the sour cream and we had to stop at the next booth and set them on the ledge to eat so we could get a better grip on the slippery little things. Then we realized we were at a delicious looking smoothie stand, so we split a pina colada smoothie.

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2008 MN State Fair, days 2, 3 & 4

Wow, where did the summer go? I just realized I never finished blogging about this year’s fair experience!! I’m not sure where to begin since it’s been so long.

Nick and I had trip #2 to the fair on Saturday 8/23. We enjoyed yummy foods such as foot longs, corn dogs, a pretzel with cheese, a chocolate peanut butter Rice Kristy Bar, pizza from Spaghetti Eddy’s, a caramel apple, a quesadilla from Quesadilla Junction, fried flour tacos from Del Sol, Tiny Tim mini donuts, a turkey to go sandwich, and a twist cone (me) and chocolate malt (Nick) from the Gopher Dairy Barn. Best. Twist. Cone. Ever. I also got one of those refillable State Fair cups, which over the course of the rest of the week saved us around $5 between the root beers, sprite and lemonade. Other activities on Saturday included looking at the Greyhounds :D, watching kids play Rock Band and people watching in general. Also I noticed a misprint on the Juanita’s Fajitas stand. Three sides said “Juanita’s Fajitas” while the fourth said “Juantia’s Fajitas” … woops.

(By the way, I kept notes about our food and activities. I’m smart and all, but I haven’t been storing all this info in my head for the last month.)

We attended the fair again on Wednesday 8/27, this time with Kristen. Curtis opted out of the fair this year, attending a fun dive instead. Fair foodstuffs included foot longs, corn dogs, Australian battered potatoes with ranch and sour cream, tater tots on a stick (at Axle’s … very delicious), a twist cone at the Dairy Building (I didn’t think it would be better than the Gopher cone, but it was), a caramel roll, corn on the cob, a gizmo, cheese curds, Sweet Martha’s cookies, and a taco from Taco King. I know it sounds like a lot, but we were splitting 3 ways this time and we did throw out a few partially eaten foods. Funny story about the corn, I ended up burning my lower gums on it because of the precise fashion in which I eat my corn. I didn’t realize it was burnt until the next morning. I thought I had something stuck in my teeth so I kept picking and flossing, but it kept hurting. I couldn’t pin point the pain either, it just kind of hurt everywhere. Then when I woke up on Thursday I had a bunch of little water bubbles on my gums. Woops. It was worth it though, probably the best State Fair corn experience.

Our fourth and final trip to the fair was on Monday 9/1, a.k.a. Labor Day, a.k.a. the last day. Travis came with us and we met up with Smitty and Deebz once there. I wasn’t very hungry and my internals were feeling kind of crappy from the fair food from the week before. I ate some mac & cheese on a stick, a pork chop on a stick, all the milk I could drink, which was the equivalent of Nick’s last cup, another twist cone, more kettle korn, mini donuts and a couple french fries that I sniped from Jordon. It was also hotter and muggier than sh1t, which probably added to the lack of appetite and all around feeling of grossness. We were only there for a few hours before we couldn’t take it anymore. It was no way to end the fair season, but what can you do?

Until next year!!

2008 Minnesota State Fair, day 1

It’s that time of year again folks… The Minnesota State Fair (a.k.a. Great Minnesota Get Together) has officially begun!! Yesterday marked the opening day and Nick and I were in attendance.

Our original plan was to go around noon with Curtis and Kristen. Unfortunately Nick landed himself in the emergency room on Tuesday night/Wednesday morning for a torn rotator cuff, probably about the time Curtis decided he would rather be up north windsurfing. Due to Nick’s injury we decided to go for a couple hours after work instead of all day.

It feels like just yesterday that I blogged about the state fair. It didn’t felt like an entire year had passed as we boarded the express bus. Too bad I didn’t read my blogs before I went because I would have remembered a very important fact: corn dogs came out the winner in the very scientific test that Kristen and I did (corn dogs vs. pronto pups).

Kristen and I compared Pronto Pups to Corn Dogs and agreed the Corn Dogs are the better of the two. There is more batter on the CD and it’s sweeter and has a nice grainy texture. I know I’ve said previously that they taste the same, but I’ve never actually compared them on purpose before.

We arrived at the fair around 5:00 pm. It was a nice evening. It was hot, but not uncomfortably hot. When the wind blew it felt really nice. Holding true to tradition, Nick’s first food stop was at the About a Foot Long Hot Dog booth where he bought a hot dog that was about a foot long, topped with fried onions, ketchup and mustard. He also got me a Diet Coke which he proceeded to complain about. For some reason I thought pronto pups won the taste test last year and I passed by the corn dog booth, all the while thinking that I was sure I had gotten a pronto pup in the general vicinity of the AAFLHD booth.

Nick and I both got pronto pups. His with ketchup and mustard, mine with just mustard. It’s really the only time I eat mustard. While I was eating it I kept thinking the layer of batter seemed a little thinner than I remembered. Since pronto pups come on a stick and are somewhat portable, we walked to the Tiny Tim donut stand to visit with Jordon. It was a nice chat, but I was feeling rather impatient because I felt my time would be better spent if I were eating something. Nick wanted pizza, but they only had pepperoni so we decided to get steak sandwiches from Butcher Boys.

Nick got his sandwich with raw onions and loaded it with BBQ sauce. I decided to change it up from last year and get grilled onions, banana peppers and melted cheese. It wasn’t the same with the melted cheddar, and the cheddar didn’t mesh with the banana peppers very well. I ate the top layer of sandwich which included the cheese and fixings, then I put some BBQ sauce on it to make it edible. It seemed like our meat came from the bottom of the barrel because there were little crispy burnt pieces in every bite. Nick was digging it, but since I prefer my meat mooing to crispy I didn’t think it was that great. I’m glad it wasn’t my first experience with Butcher Boys because I might not have gotten another one. Next time I’m getting onions, mushrooms and BBQ and hoping the steak is from a new batch.

After we finished our sandwiches we thought a nice malt from the Dairy Building would top things off nicely. My keen sense of direction pointed us correctly in the right direction. For a moment I became disoriented as the Haunted House traded it’s gray siding for a fresh coat of red and right next to it the International Bazaar was remodeled. Once we realized we were in the right spot it was full speed ahead to the Dairy Goodness Bar for malts. Nick ordered trusty chocolate and I got my favorite, raspberry. We consumed our malts as we strolled into the Bazaar.

Nick noticed a bunch of people eating what appeared to be lo mein noodles. We looked around and spotted Island Noodles and Nick decided to give it a try. I had a few bites, they were tasty. I looked around for the pretzel booth so I could get a pretzel-the-size-of-my-head but didn’t see any pretzels anywhere. I had hoped they relocated, but after checking the food finder on the state fair website, I’m pretty sure they aren’t at the fair any longer. :(

After the disappointment of not having a pretzel Nick and I meandered around aimlessly for awhile before realizing it was time to see his coworker’s band perform at the Famous Dave’s building. We moseyed in that direction until we stumbled upon FD’s, hung out on the street listening for a bit, then began meandering again.

The Grand Stand concert had begun. Nick wanted to listen to Hinder perform so we found a bench outside the GS to relax. Hinder wasn’t on yet and I was craving some Henry’s Kettle Korn, so after a short dispute on the general direction (I won) we booked to the location formerly known as Machinery Hill to get a bag, then promptly headed back to the GS. When we got back Hinder was on stage and we found a picnic table near Butcher Boys to sit at. As we sat listening to them the wind started to pick up and it became quite chilly. In the distance it looked like a storm was brewing. We started to think about leaving and decided to visit Jordon one more time.

On the way back to Tiny Tim’s Nick got a hankering for some Fresh French Fries so we detoured to it. We ordered the 16 oz bucket and the cashier tried to up-sell us the 20 oz because it was a better deal. You gotta love America. We stuck with our original decision. I needed some hydration so I got a Coke. Nick ate his fries with ketchup, I stuck to plain. Then we ran into one of Nick’s DTF softball teammates who was about to go on the newest Adventure Park ride: 2Xtreme. It’s similar to the Skyscraper but seats 8 people instead of 2. It looked freakin’ awesome. Nick agreed and it was at that moment that I realized how much his bum shoulder was raining on my parade.

Speaking of rain, a light sprinkle had begun. It was almost completely dark, but the sky looked like it was getting nasty. We decided to say goodbye to Jordon and take off. It started raining harder, but not hard enough for Nick to stop for another AAFLHD on the way out. We hopped on the bus and it took off shortly after. We got home roughly 5 hours after we had left.

Foodstuffs that still need consuming before the end of fair season: corn on a stick (a.k.a cob), corn dog, deep fried snickers on a stick with all the milk I can drink for whatever inflated price it is this year, giant pretzel-not-quite-the-size-of-my-head with cheese, Sweet Martha’s cookies, Australian battered potatoes, Tiny Tim mini donut (1), burrito from El Sol, Rice Kristie bar (?), some Italian thing located in the Bazaar that was referred to me, Dippin’ Dots root beer float and a Turkey to Go sandwich… to go.

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