Carnaval means Fair

When we first started talking about hosting an exchange student, like true Minnesotans we started talking about the Minnesota State Fair. What would the student eat?  Would they hate all of the American-ness?  Would they want to leave and fly back to France as soon as they realized how crazy Minnesotans really are?  

Today was that day.  Andrew, my brother, and his wife, Megan even flew out from Los Angeles for the the occasion (okay, and because they love the fair and have been hankering to come back since they were here four years ago).

Going into our day, as we do in our family, we planned out all of the food that we were going to eat. And part of our grand plan was to have Abel rate each food we tried on a scale of 1-5.  We started the day with Sweet Martha's Cookies in a cone, which was an amazing way to start the day.  Naturally, that scored a 5 (he's no idiot).  

From there, we headed to Scotch Eggs.  If you don't know what that is, it is a hard boiled egg wrapped in sausage and fried.  It received a strong 4 from Abel (and an inexplicably angry 4 from Andrew).  

Megan's coworker who was recently here suggested that we try the Australian fried potatoes.  This is a stand that I have walked by for about 12 years straight and never, ever stopped.  And today we did. Fried potato cakes with nacho cheese, ranch, and bacon received a 4.5 from Abel.

We also did other things at the fair besides eat.  Okay, we mostly ate.  But we did walk through the pig barn, cow barn, goat barn, and sheep barn.  And then we watched the llamas and alpacas getting ready for their parade.  During this, it became perfectly clear that the alpaca is Abel's spirit animal, with his long eyelashes, long neck, and skinny legs.  He was...less than amused.

Finally, after 7 different versions of this pose, this one was finally approved by Ansel Adams himself.

We also stopped to ride the sky ride and play some horrible carnival games to win stuffed animals that we don't need.  

Although our feet are super sore after walking and standing around all day, we did obviously take some time to sit on some benches: patriotic benches, mad-face benches, and corn-eating benches.

The highlight of the day, however, were the cheese curds.  I always think that they aren't going to be as good as I hype them up to be.  That I think that they are going to disappoint.  But they never do, and today was no exception.  

And although next year, we may not have a State-Fair virgin to take with us, we'll be there.  Same time. Same Place.  The Great Minnesota Get Together.