Yesterday Heidi and I headed off to the Washington State Fair. This was my first trip to the fair and I had a pretty decent time. Back when I lived in Brisbane, one of my favourite times of the year was the first few weeks of August. Yes it was cold, yes it was windy but it was also my birthday. My Birthday also coincided with the Ekka. The Ekka is the more common name for the Royal Queensland Show. Australians like to shorten everything. The name Barry becomes “Bazza”, Afternoon becomes “Arvo”, Breakfast becomes “Breakie”. Since the Show was held at the Exhibition grounds it just becomes “Ekka” naturally. But because the Ekka was around my birthday, I always loved it as a kid as I always had money to spend. I wasn’t really a ride person, my big thing was showbags. But it was also the animals, the shows, the exhibits, so it always felt great for me to go.
In the USA they don’t call it a “show” they all it “The Fair”. The biggest fairs are always the “State Fair” and it was only last year that the Puyallup Show became the Washington State Fair. Puyallup is about 45 minutes south of Downtown Seattle, so for me and Heidi it is about 25 minutes or so (even though we both were betting different times how long it would take to get there) from our place in Renton. Unlike back home at the Ekka where every year I took the train to the show and got off right in the middle of things, that wasn’t going to happen for us. The easiest way to get there was to drive. It meant dealing with parking crowds but, you do what you have to do.
The drive down was nice and easy and because we had planned to be there when the buildings and everything opened, we got there in good time and got to park in a decent spot. All around the actual official car park, people were selling their front lawn space for parking. $12 was the official parking cost from the show, but all around there was $10 options, $12 options for some places, even a $5 every now and then. However later on as we left, some of these $10 places became $20 as people got desperate.
What was suprising to me was as we entered the grounds, just how small it was. It felt a lot smaller than the Ekka but maybe it was meant to. I had always pictured state fairs to be huge. I guess I had always seen the stories of the big Fairs in the Midwest and in Texas. Huge State Fairs with every deep fried thing under the sun. That wasn’t what was in front of me, and I am actually kind of glad of that. Getting in was pretty decent as if you bought online ahead of time it was only $10 per person. We had picked up a deal for 2 Gate Admissions and 6 rides (so 3 each) for $30. Rides generally go for a good $4-5 each so we had decent value there, with 3 rides for the price of 1. The line to wait to pick up our ride passes though was pretty large.
You are thinking right now to yourself, “Why is he waiting in line for rides if he doesn’t like rides?” Well the thing is, Heidi does and you know, Happy Wife (well Girlfriend in this case), Happy Life. But truly it was more that there was one ride Heidi wanted to introduce me to. The Puyallup Fair ground has one of the oldest Wooden Roller-coasters still operating. This old thing had just gone through some major refurbishment so it is looking pretty decent, but looks can be deceiving. The cars themselves are originals and just as we were getting on, they had to do a quick bit of a touch up.
I am not one for roller coasters but this was ok. There was no loops (thank god) and there wasn’t much of a lap bar to hold you in. I was launched off my seat close to a dozen times and Heidi loved the whole thing. I was just trying not to get shot off the ride! I was happier to get off at the end of it of course. But we still had two more ride vouchers each and decided that we each got our choice. There was a couple of rides I wanted to give a try out, like the Matterhorn, which was always a child favourite. I let Heidi take her first pick with two stipulations. First no Gravitron, I like my breakfast inside my my stomach thank you very much. Second it was to be nothing with loops as the Fair also has another Rollercoaster that is of course much more modern and has several loops in it. Heidi however decided to go with one of the tall chair swings. I was reluctant but hey, can’t dissapoint the lady right?
I was a bit scared, but i sucked it up, focused on the chair in front, didn’t look down and it was over fairly quickly. After that ride it was my choice, I wanted something I had not done in a while, DODGEMS!!! Or as they call them over here in the USA, Bumper Cars. It was wierd that they had a lap bar as well as the usual straps (not that the lap bar locked into anything).
Rides over it was time for a snack (since we had been at the fair almost an hour and a half by this stage and had not yet consumed any crappy, fatty food. First snack today was going to be what is known as the official food item of the Washington State Fair, The “Fisher Fair Scone”. I think of it as the “Strawberry Sundae” of the Washington State Fair. At the Ekka they have the famous Strawberry Sundae Ice Cream which is everywhere throughout the Grounds. Same with the Scone. To be honest this was the first scone I had actually eaten (and I had not made) that actually resembled a proper scone. It was tasty and filled with Whipped Butter and Rasberry Jam. I would have preferred Strawberry Jam and Whipped cream but hey, what can you do!
What was scary was actually being sold not to far away from the Fisher Fair Scone stand, Deep Fried Butter. Yes you read that right, Butter, battered then deep fried. Dear god in heaven, the stories they say are real, but this was actually the only wierd deep fried thing that I saw through the grounds. Sure thee was heaps of deep fried stuff like Corn Dogs, Elephant Ears (it is a kind of big flat pastry) and Fries, but nothing weird apart from the butter.
The decent thing was that there was a pretty good variety of food. From Salads and the usual fair staples of burgers, fries, hot dogs etc. But there was Teriyaki, Noodles, Burritos and even Gyros. The prices though were pretty high with our Corn dog at lunch costing $11. But it was a foot long so that wasn’t all that bad and it easily fed both me and Heidi.
After the snack we headed off to the Animals. Heidi was dying to get her hands on some baby farm animals and of course get in among the cats. Like The Ekka the animals play a big part of the fair, just on a smaller scale. There was all the usual staples, like Cows, Ducks, Pigs, Horses and of course Dogs & Cats. We went through the ducks and geese and I had a great conversation with one goose (he told me that he thought I looked pretty tall and that my Girlfriend was very beautiful). Then it was off to the cats, for Heidi to be in her element. I never really went into the Cat pavilion back home as it never really interested me. But boy was it different. I never expected that all the cages were themed for when the cats are not on show. Lordy there are some weird people in life. I can’t judge as I had a different hobby as well, but I can so imagine Heidi being one of these cat people. She is the self titled crazy cat lazy.
We found the International Animal exhibit and I was looking and hoping for one thing, A Kangaroo. After the Animals we did lots of wandering through the usual shopping pieces that you find at shows, all the random crap you don’t need. I found a couple of Emus but that was about it, then right at the end, Heidi says “hey look a wallaby”. It wasn’t a Wallaby, it was a “Big Red” but only a fairly young one. I was all over it!
We headed off after the animals to scope out all the crappy shopping that is always on at a show. All the things you don’t want and then some. But hey who am I to complain, I might score some freebies (we did). Then it was time for lunch (which was the before mentioned giant Corn dog… which mind you was pretty tasty). We went in hunt of the Cookery & Fine Arts section. I wanted to see some old school baking (it didn’t feel as good as back home with the CWA ladies all fighting for best scone or sponge cake) and there was some tasty looking items. The photography on show was pretty good as well.
After all was said and done I had a great time. We walked back to the truck sad to be leaving, but Heidi had to get to work and I had to get myself prepped for my coming trip. I am off to Dallas and some time with Southwest Airlines. I miss the Ekka, but “The Fair” can fill that gap for the moment!
