Texas State Fair

The kids and I visited the Texas State Fair back in 2007 on our road trip from California to Georgia and back, when Luke was seven and Elizabeth was nine. We went on an uncrowded Thursday afternoon, had a ton of fun and made some great memories.

Yesterday I had a rare Saturday off, so back to the Fair we went.

It was a different experience this time. It was a lot more crowded, for one thing, and Luke and Elizabeth are a lot older and more worldly now, so most of the wide-eyed wonder was gone. Also, either the Fair has gotten a lot more expensive in the past eight years or it just seemed that way on our current budget.

Still, fun was had. The view from the Biggest Ferris Wheel In The Western Hemisphere is as wonderful as ever.

Obligatory ferris wheel selfie:

We were intrigued by the white things that look like giant swans on the lake in the distance, and a gray thing in the same area that looked like an elephant, so we walked over for a closer look. The giant swans turned out to be swan-shaped paddle boats, which for some reason I didn’t get any pics of other than this one…

…and the elephant turned out to be a sculpture of a mammoth just outside of the Dallas Museum of Natural History.

A nice shot of the ferris wheel from the white bridge on the swan-boat lake:

Of course the rides were the main focus of our day.

Interestingly, Luke and I had different limits when it came to which rides were too intense. For example, Luke would not go on the Viking Boat swing…

…while I wanted nothing to do with the Starship 3000.

Nothing is too intense for Elizabeth. She was the only one of us who was brave/crazy enough to go on this monstrosity. That’s her, second from the top in this pic:

She actually waved in mid-ride when she saw the camera.

We saw some really bizarre funhouses, but one of them had a mannequin in a rabbit suit that was just straight up creepy. It was riding a unicycle and…I can’t really explain it, it just gave me the wiggins.

Shudder.

I was hoping to see some freakishly large animals, but to my disappointment I only found some adorably small ones.

I did enjoy the pumpkin carvings.

And I LOVED the miniature train setup.

The display was labeled “Grapevine” at one end and “Fort Worth” at the other, a tribute to the real-life Grapevine Vintage Railroad.

Then there was this guy:

You can’t really see his face in the pics, but he was basically a dude dressed as a tree, on stilts. Very cool.

On the way home we stopped at Cheddar’s for dinner. I know I haven’t really talked about my recent work adventures here on the blog, but Cheddar’s is where I worked for four months between working in Softlines and my current job. They have some yummy food.

When we got home, the kids showered and got all gussied up for their school dance.

I don’t know where they get their energy. Me, I barely managed to stay awake until it was time to pick them up and bring them home.

All in all, a day (and a small fortune) well spent.