Sonoma County Fair

Kathy texted me yesterday and asked me if I wanted to go to the fair and eat junk food for lunch and I thought, why not? We drive by the fairgrounds all the time and have never been there. Today was perfect because it was only about 80F and perfectly tolerable in the shade. And being Monday, it wasn't very crowded. Our objective was to peruse the wonderfully tacky places serving cotton candy, barbecue, corn dogs, funnel cakes, fried mars bars, kettle corn and much more. A lady sat down at our picnic table with the biggest plate of garlic fries I have ever seen. She wound up sharing it with a bunch of total strangers sitting at the table and I have to admit that they were delicious. She still had some left after we had all eaten our fill. 

We visited the hall of flowers with displays of flowers and plants usually grouped around some sort of water feature and decorated with circus animals, for Circus was the theme this year. The craft hall was filled with not so great art, a big photo exhibit and a room full of quilts

We visited the midway with its games yielding stuffed toy prizes and rides that made me feel a bit ill just looking at them. Kathy has been going to this fair since her children were little, and we talked about ways in which it has changed and mostly the fact that it hasn't changed at all. It's a wonderful combination of totally traditional livestock exhibits and modern controversies about whether a child who had raised a goat and, under the auspices of the 4H,  entered it for judging and ultimate auction. But she became so attached to the goat that she wanted to keep it and not auction it for slaughter. Discussion has raged about whether she should have been allowed to keep the goat as a pet which made me wonder why she had entered. it at all since auctioning the animals for slaughter is all part of the deal.

I tried to capture the wonderfully cheesy and very traditional face of the fairground with some extras, the food booths, a flower display, a quilt that caught my eye and the general air of the wholesomeness and simple fun of a time gone by....