OC Faire 2009

We had a marvelous day at the Fair today. We took the motorcycle there which is a double-score: 'cycles park for free, PLUS the parking area for them is about 20 feet from the main entrance. Enjoyed the garden exhibits as always, and saw some cute li'l piglets that were only two days old.

One of the exhibits this year is "Al's Brain," a wonderful display about the human brain with some fun optical illusions, interesting facts about famous "brainiacs" (did you know that Marie Curie was both the first woman to win a Nobel prize, and the first person to win one in two different categories?), and ending with a short 3-D movie about the brain, starring Weird Al Yankovic. We really enjoyed that a lot.


This year there were several sand sculptures rather than just the one at the main entrance. Some were still in process; I've included a close-up shot of my favorite one: a horse flying a prop plane. It was really well done, with "swirly" marks on the propeller as though it were really spinning. I asked a worker on one of the ones in process what they were making, and she said they weren't allowed to tell. We passed by it later in the day & I was able to figure out what it was even though they had only done one very small portion of the sculpture. I asked the same person, "If I guess right, will you tell me?" She thought about it for a minute then came closer. I told her my guess and she grinned & gave me a thumbs up, so that *technically* she didn't tell.


We decided not to pack a lunch after all, although we did bring some bottled waters. I think I managed to find the only nutritious meal in the entire fairgrounds: a grilled chicken sandwich with barbecue sauce, lettuce, and two thick slices of tomato on it. (Mind you, we also had junk food; more on that below.) Afterward we went to the home crafts exhibit (always a favorite of mine) and admired the knitting & quilts. I also enjoyed looking at a collection of spaghetti poodle "mother and puppies" sets. One of them (posted) reminded me of the one that Mom used to have, which I think Lizard might now own.

At about that point, we needed to sit & rest our poor feet so we watched the tail end of the cheesecake judging. I'm really glad we did, because after the winners were announced & slices taken away for display, the rest of the cheesecakes were sliced up & distributed to the people watching. Ralph & I tried three different ones: the second place winner which was a sambuco cheesecake that was quite tasty; the best of show winner which was a chocolate-raspberry one; and one that didn't win any prizes but tasted wonderful nonetheless. I think the main reason that one didn't get a prize was that it wasn't as pretty as the others. Ralph liked that one the best of the three. I've posted a picture of the chocolate-raspberry best of show winner.



As always, I enjoyed the decorated cake entries as well. I've posted pictures of my two favorites: the "Think Big" cake decorated to look like a slice of cake (love the look on the fondant girl!) and one of the winners in the youth division. Hard to believe that the wood spirit cake was done by someone in the 13-15 year old range. You'd never see that one on Cake Wrecks, that's for sure.



We also watched a group of square dancers (The "Boys 'n' Berries" which meet in Buena Park near Knott's Berry Farm; for those among the Teeming Millions who may not know this, Knott's used to be an actual working berry farm, and the founder William Knott developed the boysenberry) which was a lot of fun. When they called for volunteers to come up & learn a dance Ralph and I practically ran onto the stage. I really enjoyed myself there; it's been a long time since I've been in a dance group, and square dancing isn't all that different from the Elizabethan dancing I used to do. Ralph & I picked up fliers & are seriously considering joining up when the beginner classes start in September.
All in all, we were at the Fair for about 7 hours, a very long but enjoyable day indeed. I'm really glad that we went today before the weather gets brutally hot. I don't think I've ever had more fun at the fair.