Fair 2010

We lived near Puyallup when I was growing up, so we went to the Puyallup Fair every year. We loved the rides and the animals. I remember walking up and down the barns, peeking in at bunnies and roosters. The Puyallup Fair had this great big roller coaster. I remember screaming from the top of it many times. My mother loved the fair scones. We would bring home bags of them with raspberry jam on them. In Port Townsend, Arnie and his family spent a week every year at the Jefferson County Fair. His parents cooked and sold corn.


I think our fair memories have encouraged us to get our kids to the Grays Harbor Fair every year. We have even helped them enter projects a couple of times. So we headed off to the fair today with the best weather we've had in weeks. The sun was so bright, I had to move around the Ferris wheel to get a shot without the glare! Yes!


Robby and Katie each had a free ticket from the library summer reading program so we went in a rather small window of time that we had today.most? The kids didn't seem to mind our short visit to the fair, though. We packed a lot in. The kids wanted to start with the rides. I think they would have been happy to ride the Ferris wheel the whole day. Isn't it funny that they love that one the most? Katie said she screamed really loud every time they heat the top, just for me. They were bummed that they were the last on and the first off. However, from up on the Ferris wheel, they picked out the games they wanted to play, so the rides were cut short in favor of the games.


They started with the strong man game - you know, where you hit the lever with the hammer and send the little deely-bob toward the bell? We walked away with two enormous blow-up hammers from that one. Then they raced each other with the water shooters. Katie won that one and got a stuffed animal. Then they tried the basketball shots next, but neither won anything on that one. I heard my mom's voice coming from me. "They are always harder than they look." They threw darts at balloons next and both one a stuffed animal. Robby also tried a ball toss, but to no avail. In the car on the way home, he said, "You know, Mom, you are right. Those games are harder than they look."


Three stuffed animals and two giant hammers later, we headed for the food lane. After walking up and down, the kids decided on hamburgers and A & W root beer floats. I needed to try something new. There were fried pickles and Slavic rolls. I really thought about that fried pickle. Seems like something I need to try, but I do see them at various venues. A Slavic roll, though, I didn't even know what that was. Would I ever see that again? I decided on the Slavic roll. First, of course, I had to find out what it was.


A friendly woman with a heavy accent (a good sign I thought) called it a Slavic pastry, gesturing at dough wrapped around a large wooden rolling pin turning slowly above a grill. Turns out, this roll is a very pretty tubular pastry, crispy on the outside and soft on the inside. There were several sweet things to spread inside the roll. I chose chunky peanut butter and Bavarian cream. The outside of the roll was covered in cinnamon sugar. An unusual appearance, but a familiar taste.

For dessert we had a fruit kabob from the Shishkaberries stand. We had to order the Dingleberry Kabob. Please tell me that we are not the only family who tells dingleberry jokes. We are so inappropriate. This Dingleberry Kabob was indeed delicious fresh strawberries dipped in milk chocolate.

One fair event that will likely get animal rights activists all over me is the elephant ride. The kids rode a camel at the zoo this summer, so they were excited to see the elephant at the fair. Here they are, riding a pachyderm at the fair! Afterward Katie kept calling it a dinosaur, laughing, then saying, "I mean elephant."

All in all, a great day at the Grays Harbor Fair. Our little community.