I love going to the Fair. I could spend forever walking around in the buildings looking at all the handmade crafts, photography and foods. Plus for some strange reason I love going thru the animal barns. Most of the people seem to be out at the carnival, shows and commercial exhibits. Not me though!!
We have MN State Fair coming up in a few weeks.
It's kind of a farewell to summer event as school starts as the fair ends on Labor Day.
We MUST see the art center, technology building and watch them carve the Dairy Princesses out of butter

The princess and the artsit sit in a glass walled, rotating , refrigerated room. Bundled in parkas while the artist carves out a bust from a giant block of butter. Bonus: each princess gets to keep the butter sculpture after the fair
Then we eat whatever new "food on a stick" creation is featured for the year. Anything from deep fried candy bars to alligator. oooo and cheese curds (fried of course), bucket of fries, bucket of choc chip cookies... mm "eat your way thru the fair" - a grand MN tradition!
Washed down with a cup of "all you can drink" milk/chocolate milk from the Moo Booth == thank you MN Dairy Association.

We buy two cups, run back into line for our refills multiple times until our bellies our sloshing full.
Some years we tackle the long climb up the stairs for the Giant Slide (riding on a burlap sack down down down).
Or we take the Sky Ride across the fairgrounds. The new ones look like ski lifts (dangling feet above people's heads) .. The old ones are round cages, the fair employees grab the cage, pop open the door and beckon you to quickly run and sit inside-- they lock the door and off you go - bobbing along to the other end of the fair.
They have a rotating space needle kinda thing too.. let's you have a bird eye view of the grounds.. but the line is always waaaaaaaay too long.
We walk thru the barns, the pet center (where they have vet surgery to watch), the DNR building with the huge tank of fish and dioramas of MN animals.
The Miracle of Birth building to see the piglets suckling, eggs hatching, and maybe catch some animal in the throes of birth. ewwww but fascinating too.
One year they had a bathroom sponsored by Cottenelle, cleanest bathroom in the whole park.. Air conditioned, someone handing you paper towels at the sinks. Replacing TP constantly, sanitizing toilets after each use.. Heavenly -- wish they all could be that way
They have an arcade-- blah whatever.. but they have the old penney machines and some other oldie but goodie ones from our childhood..
Lots of concerts, story/puppetry, parade... They have a "guy friendly" area.. skateboard demos, chain saw/axe competitions
The boys loved Tractor Hill when they were little, climb on tractors and other big farming machines. And HOme Depot has workshops to make birdhouses and stuff.
Anyway, something for everyone and we love it!