The State Fair - A Minnesota Institution

The Minnesotans are proud of their state fair in the same way that you might be proud of an eccentric relative who has no taste but is kind of fun to be around. Its so unhip that's it has gone right round again and become quite cool. As Michele and Dave were flying out that evening we thought it would be good to give them a slice of a real Minnesota institution before they left.

Everybody in Minnesota seems to go over the course of the 2 weeks the fair is on and recently there has been an arms race in terms of what you can get on a stick. See below for some examples

and here is Toby with Bacon on a stick. Apparently one of the new things this year which we didn't see was 'Chocolate covered Bacon on a stick'.One of the highlights (for milk lovers like me) is that you can get a cup of milk with as many free refills as your stomach can take for a dollar, and that can be either white or brown milk. You may have thought that milk was milk, but no, at the state fair its either white (normal) or brown (chocolate). It is of course easy to overdo the rather delicious brown milk as Toby found out, but he made a quick recovery. One of the other food institutions is the bucket of fresh cookies, as sported by Dave below, very delicious.
The only other picture I have from the fair is this one of one of the fairground rides where the heaviest rider is always supposed to sit on the outside of the ride - this person clearly had not done this before.