Tuesday, we took Sara and Coby out of school early and went as a family to the State Fair of Texas. With the exception of when Sara was a little baby, this was the first time the kids had been to the state fair, and they had a blast. We took the kids out of school at 10:30, after they had been counted present for the day, and headed to fair park. By 11:45 we had had a little lunch and had arrived at the park, and we ended up staying until 8:30 that night. It was a full day, and we kept going the whole time.
When we first arrived at the park, the Nerveless Nocks, from Florida, were putting on their stunt show near the entrance to the park. They had the "Globe of Thunder," one of the big balls that they rode motorcycles in, three tall sway poles, and the "Wheel of Destiny." It started sprinkling during the show, keeping us cool, and overall the weather was perfect for a day at the fair.
Throughout the day we also watched the BMX show, the pig races, and went to the car show and petting zoo where the kids could feed the animals. The shows were fun, but the real selling point of the fair is all of the food. The fair isn't called the "Fried Food Capitol of Texas" for nothing. Of course we enjoyed the pulled taffy, foot-long corny dogs, turkey legs, nachos, Frito pie, and funnel cakes, but we weren't real adventurous when it came to all the new fried foods that were available. We didn't venture out to the deep fried bacon, jelly beans, or pop tarts. The bravest thing we tried was a fried truffle, and it wasn't really that good. It was about the size of a donut hole, and all it really entailed was a soggy breading around a ball of melted chocolate. Other than that, the food was as good as I remembered.
We also spent a while in the midway. All of the kids won a prize by popping a balloon with a dart, and Coby also won another dart game where you have to throw a dart in a circle on the wall. Sara was the brave ride rider with me, and we went on a couple of the bigger carnival rides. All the kids found a little balloon ride that Lauren was big enough to go on, and we had to catch it one last time as we left park.
Of course, with my new camera, I knew there were two shots that I had to get, Big Tex and the Texas Star. I loved using my K200D for the day, and I think we were able to get some great pictures of the family and the fair.
