Rochester Fair

Fall is coming on strong, and that means it's time for fairs. I said I'd go to 4 this year, and it looks like this will be definitely happening. This was my first time going to the Rochester Fair, and it was pretty much as described- a pretty bland fair that you go to just to get some food and stare at weirdos. Well, let's be honest though, that's really the only reason I go to any fair, and the true mark of a good fair is more variety of food and sheer spectacle of the whole thing- the Deerfield Fair is the best simply because it's the biggest. So the Rochester Fair was OK. I was highly disappointed with the number of Juggalos I saw though (only like 3, and only 1 with facepaint). Maybe we went too late and their parents already picked them up, I don't know.

Rich and I parked at Dan's house and walked in after helping Dan convince his poor 4 year old son that the fair wasn't actually happening- the lights and ferris wheel he saw were merely just the fair officials testing equipment (don't worry, they went later). We immediately ran into Reinert and his family, and Rich immediately tore into some french fries. I got some "freshly squeezed lemonade" from the closest stand I saw that was prepared by a certain crackhead and tasted like lemon water with sand in it. Lesson: Don't get food from the closest place- go to the one with a crowd and lots of flashing lights.

We then found Jesse and Sarah and wandered around, taking in the sights I usually skip, like the "Rochester Fair Museum," the tent surrounding it featuring kids' art, quilts, prize winning vegetables and all the other glorious things nobody seems to care about (for good reason). We even paid 1 dollar to see the world's smallest horse (a young pony that was the saddest horse I've ever seen), a giant tortoise (which was, to be fair, a large tortoise, but it just sat there, miserable), and something else that was so sad and unexciting I don't even remember it. Poor animals. 

We even played this stupid game (way too much) which I've never played. Sarah won a bunch of quarters, but I think she fed them all right back in. Suckers!

Rich shot some stuff and lost.

I rocked some skeeball and actually made good on my half-assed promise/guess that I was "wicked good at skeeball" and won this sweet Yo Gabba Gabba guy, who lived in my sweatshirt for the rest of the fair, and some kid asked me if he could buy it on the way out. Of course I said no- I earned him. 

I love the worker guy behind me. YEA THAT'S RIGHT BUDDY, I WON. 210 BITCHES.

It was so gross going through the game halls though, with unexcited and miserable people just zombie-screaming at us to play, looking like all they wanted was some meth. For some reason, the prize this year was giant bananas or Winnie the Poohs with dreadlocks... No idea how that happened, and I forgot to get a picture. Oh well, I'll get one at the next fair I go to, as I'm sure they'll be there too.

Jesse made friends with this donkey, and fed him some banana italian ice.

I really liked this cow- it had a sweet pattern I've never seen on a cow before. And he looked EVIL.

Not much in the food department though- Rich and I got some 6 dollar strawberry lemonades that were damn good, I got a piece of "fair pizza," that was just the level of crap I was looking for and a piece of fried dough that was ok. Rich got a sausage and onion sandwich that was subpar, kettle corn that was fantastic, and these, which were incredibly disappointing:

This is apparently what deep fried kool-aid looks like. I'll save you the curiosity buy- don't get them. We imagined fried dough wrapped around pockets of delicious kool-aid but had no idea how that would work. It's pretty much just dough drenched in kool-aid that's fried. And it tastes like burned, sort of fruity bread. Gross. 

The fair was pretty much what I expected, and I got just enough sights and food to look forward to the much better Deerfield Fair and Sandwich Fair in October. But even if all three suck, I'll go next year- it's just something you do in the fall. 

currently listening to: Thursday- No Devolucion