Minnesota State Fair

Over Labour Day weekend, we went home to Minnesota to visit our family and go to the State Fair!  I remember years ago when I first moved to the Twin Cities thinking how bizarre it was how everyone raved about the state fair.  Well, that was before I actually went….. and let me tell you it is amazing!

We started out seeing the baby animals.

But we quickly moved on to the real reason we love to go to the fair….. the FOOD!

Our first stop was french fries and cheese curds covered in gravy…..Let me tell you, it was crazy amazing!  I kind of wanted a second cup full……

The kids got frozen custard.

This vanilla custard with fresh raspberries was heavenly.

Then onto the warm, melt-in-your-mouth mini donuts….

And here is our most favourite food of the entire fair.  It keeps us coming back year after year…. the fried cheese curds. It is kind of like a mozzarella stick, but a million times yummier!

My dear husband had to get one of his favourites…. deep fried Twinkies.

And we couldn’t pass up the 1919 root beer!  Honestly some of the best root beer on the planet!

Something new to me…. hot dish on a stick! Meat and potatoes deep fried on a stick with a mushroom dipping sauce. It was quite tasty.

We of course had to get a bucket of warm Sweet Martha’s cookies…..

We took our tub of cookies and walked over to the milk stand.  You pay one dollar for a cup of milk (white or chocolate) then you can get as many free refills as you want.

The milk comes out of these pipes.  It is icy cold and a little frothy on the top.  Nothing like a cold cup of milk with a warm cookie.

This was also something new to me…. Australian battered potatoes.  The sauce on top is ranch and cheese.  These were crazy yummy too!

Now, just to let you know we did go to the fair with lots of friends and family so we had lots of mouths to share with 🙂  But I still think I had enough fried food to last me several months.

Once we couldn’t handle any more food, we headed over to the kiddie rides….

And pretended to be farmers…

Then we went to the big rides!  My daughter Cora and her friend Maren decided to go on the scariest ride at the entire fair.  It is a giant sling shot that shoots you over 200 feet in the air!

Here is the before picture…

Here they are climbing into the metal cage and getting strapped in.

And here they are flying high!

This thing is absolutely insane!  Not only does it shoot you up at 100 miles per hour, but you also twist and spin in that little cage!  I still can’t believe they went on it.

 Here is the after picture…

They both absolutely loved it and wanted to go again.

But the best part of being at the fair was being able to spend time with the cousins…

Isaac and Gabe battling

Best Buds

Isaac hitching a ride with Uncle Chris

Uncle Chris and Emma

Emma cosy in Uncle Chris’s arms

 And last, but not least, you can’t miss seeing the dairy princesses carved out of butter!

 Or the outdoor music….

The New Standards

All in all, it was a perfect state fair day!