State Fair of Texas

Last weekend we spent some time with our girls and the older daughter's fiance at the state fair of Texas in Dallas. It only took me five decades to get there, and I'm a fifth generation Texan. Actually, none of us had ever been to the state fair and so we were all excited to go.

The kids decided to go on one ride. I voted for this one below that I fondly remembered from the annual Southeast Texas fair I attended while growing up. I believe it was called the Himalaya back in the 80s. It was always great fun, though the person on the outside always got a bit squished as it picked up speed.

 

 

My choice got the down vote in lieu of the vertigo-inducing ride above. The husband and I took a hard pass on that. But hey, they seemed to enjoy a spin on Zero Gravity. 

On the fairgrounds you can get a gander at the historic Cotton Bowl where the Red River rivalry between the Longhorns and Sooners is played every year. There's also a children's aquarium, gardens that feature dinosaurs and a lagoon with little boats you can rent, just to name a few of their permanent attractions. 

Undoubtedly the best part of the fair, in my opinion, is all of the interesting eats. Fried butter, anyone?! We decided to forego that for more palatable options. We checked out the interactive map of new foods and gave the following a try: deep fried birria bombs, cheesy crab tater bites, bourbon banana caramel sopapillas and dill pickle pizza. Of course, we also had to sample one of Fletcher's famous state fair hot dogs. That's a whole lotta fried food, my friend. But never fear, we worked off quite a few of those calories by walking over four miles at the fair.

The girls enjoyed visiting the animal barns where we got to see cows, goats, sheep, pigs and chickens. We checked out the hall of new vehicles as well as one devoted to shopping. After about four hours on our feet, the crowds were getting worse and the bright sun had worn us down. All in all, we agreed it was an entertaining way to spend our Saturday. I was happy to be able to check off this activity from my bucket list. God bless Texas, y'all!

PS - We were oh so happy to have departed the fair before a shooting (see below) happened in the food court where we were earlier in the day. The suspect has been arrested, thankfully. I haven't heard anything about a motive yet, but you can be sure it was something totally boneheaded. Leave it to some 22-year-old hothead to ruin an evening of family fun for others. Hopefully they figure out how he got through metal detectors at the entrance where we all passed through to enter the fair so this doesn't happen again.