A Visit to the New York State Fair

My family visits the New York State Fair every year.  I think we have only missed one year in the last 20 years, so it is a huge family tradition.  It is one last big summer event before we start back up with school.  This year was no exception, and we had a great time.  It is always fun to see traditional exhibits like the sand sculpture and butter sculpture.  The local art museum had a booth for kids to create their own sculpture out of candy.  Here is my daughter’s incredible candy creation.

It wasn’t as elaborate as the butter or sand sculpture, but it was tastier. 

We didn’t spend much time on the rides this year because they are so expensive and we are cheap frugal.  They have one price ride all day deals, but then we feel like we have to get our money’s worth and ride all day instead of seeing the other things at the fair.  So this year the kids only went on about 6 rides each.  That was enough to have fun, but not so much that it took up the entire day.

Since we didn’t spend a lot of time on the Midway we spend tons of time in the animal barns.  We saw the cows, pigs, sheep, goats, llamas, chickens, rabbits and more I’m probably forgetting.  Unfortunately the horse barn was closed all day, so we didn’t see as many horses as we would have liked. Of course the best animals are the babies.

We saw a few shows, although it seems like they are always all scheduled at the same time.  We watched the blacksmith demonstration, the horse show, a trick basketball show and the NY State Police rappelling show.  The rappelling is my kids’ favorite show, they want to watch it every year, even though it doesn’t change much.  They never get tired of watching the State Troopers jump off the 60 foot tower.

We also ate lots of fattening and yummy foods.  I wish the kids would be a little more adventurous, since despite all the exotic foods available both my daughters ended up eating spaghetti for one meal.  But the rest of us had falafel, chicken riggies, BBQ chicken, BBQ pork, pulled pork and fried dough.  All in all we had a great day and I’m sure we will be headed back next year.