MINNESOTA STATE FAIR 2011

If you have never been to the Minnesota State Fair, you are missing out on the 2nd largest state fair in the U.S. I haven’t missed a year since I started going when I was young. It became a family tradition as my mother took me and my siblings and I took my children. Even though many things at the fair are the same each year, it is still always changing. To see everything you must allow a whole day. I have a route I use each year and manage to see practically everything of interest to me in about 12 hours of nonstop walking, looking and oh of course eating which is the highlight of attending the state fair. It is amazing to see all the new foods they come up with each year from deep fried bacon to spaghetti on a stick. The Minnesota State Fair is known for all its food items on a stick. I have my favorites-- Pork Chop on a stick and Granny's Fudge Puppies (round Belgian Waffles dipped in rich Swiss Chocolate on a stick)--and of course those not on a stick--Lobster Bites, Bull Bites, Nitro Ice Cream, Fresh Cut French Fries, Sweet Martha’s Chocolate Chip Cookies, Chocolate Nutella Crepes, Tom Thumb Mini donuts, and absolutely to die for London Broil Steak Sandwiches. And then I always need to buy a bag of my favorite Minnesota grown Beacon apples to bring home. First, I always go through the Arts and Crafts buildings to look at all the wonderful needlepoint, knitted, crocheted, sewn and handmade items. Next, I head to the Food Building to eat, of course. Eating is an all day thing though because you need to spread it out so you can try as much as you can. The International Bazaar has vendor booths from different countries and my favorite is a Norwegian booth where they sell Rosemaled items. This is the one place I usually make a purchase; in fact I look forward to seeing what new items she has to sell each year. Then it is on to the Dairy Building to see the butter head sculptures of the Dairy Princesses. They are absolutely amazing and if you happen to be there at the right time you can watch the sculptor at work. I am not big on rides but I always make sure to take a walk though the Midway to see if there are any new rides. The animal buildings are not my favorites but I have been known to walk through them. I prefer the Hippodrome because it has vendors which I find far more interesting than the horses. Reader sunglasses (for reading romance books at the pool or lake) were my big find at the fair and they were in the Hippodrome. Heritage Village offers a vintage theme along with a couple of railroad cars filled with memorabilia dating back to the forties. The Grandstand Building has two floors filled with vendors ranging from kitchen wares to Minnesota Wild tickets. The Grandstand itself has top name artists performing every night. I think I went to a show for about 20 years up until the last couple of years when they just didn’t have anyone I was interested in seeing. Recently, they are catering more to the younger crowd and those who like Country music which I am not into. Through the years I have seen Michael Bolton, Chicago, Hewy Lewis and the News, and Johnny Lang just to name a few. Of course my favorite things are anything Scandinavian like the Rosemaling, Hardanger, and Norwegian sweaters in the Arts and Crafts building entered to win Blue Ribbons, the Rosemaling booth in the International Village, Lefse in the Food Building, Ole and Lena’s food booth, Rosemaled Scandinavian Clog booth and the Nordic Surf band. In fact, there has been a strong Scandinavian influence since way back in 1925 when the Minnesota State Fair was the site of the Norse-American Centennial celebration and was attended by President Calvin Coolidge who recognized the contributions of the Scandinavian-Americans and Leif Erickson’s discovery of America. For the past few years we have contemplated having our Nordic Treats food booth at the fair to sell Scandinavian foods, but I think we need something new and trendy and it definitely should be on a stick—like Lutefisk on a stick, maybe? Who knows, maybe someday. . .