On Sunday I spent the afternoon with Ivy at the fair. I had not been in a few years, so I wanted to check out everything.
We met up in the Fabric and Threads area to check out Ivy’s award winning sweater. It’s Anne’s Sweater from Green Gables knits, and this is the third sweater Ivy has made with the yarn. This is the first sweater that worked out. It’s a good reminder to keep going when you like the yarn but hate the project. I didn’t enter anything in the fair this year, but I feel like I also earned a second place ribbon because I seamed Ivy’s sweater. It took her over a year to sew the underarm seams and pocket seams, so I finished it for her in exchange for her leftover bits of worsted weight yarn.
After looking over all of the crafts (especially the macrame rat, because why did someone make that?), we headed out of the blissful air conditioning and headed to see some animals.
It was the last day of the fair, so most of the animal barns were cleared out. We did see the largest bull, boar, and ram. I’m not sharing pictures of those, as I doubt you would enjoy seeing testicles the size of melons.
After a walk around the Varied Industries Building to enjoy a little bit of air conditioning we headed up the hill to the Iowa Craft Beer tent. I had 2 cocoa stouts and Ivy had an Iowa wine (do you enjoy cough syrup? If yes, Iowa wine is for you) and a blackberry lemonade cider. By that point I had walked 10,000 steps and was happy to sit down.
We made friends by showing them our cool matching temporary tattoos we picked up in the Varied Industries Building. We both went to undergrad at the University of Northern Iowa and got our MBAs at the University of Iowa.
The Craft Beer Tent has the best view from the fairgrounds. Our little city looks so pretty from the fair.
While we were enjoying our beer it started raining. After the rain cleared off we headed back to the food vendor area to grab something to eat. After a nice slice of pizza we headed over to check out the DNR area. We did a little fishing.
After our fun photo shoot we headed in to the grandstand for the main event: Hootie and the Blowfish with Barenaked Ladies opening. I was completely blown away by how great the Barenaked Ladies were. I will be going to see them whenever they are in town (or in Kansas City, Omaha, or Minneapolis).
I was excited to see Hootie, as I spent much of my college days listening to their music. Their performance was lackluster. There was a lot of mumbling, like maybe they didn’t remember the words. We ended up leaving early to beat the traffic.
It was a wonderful trip to the fair. Do you go to your State Fair?
mildlygranola 
What a fabulous day!! My husband is jealous of your music. We have Blue Oyster Cult preforming at the big fair here. We probably won’t go this year but we still have time to change our mind. The two fairs are in September.
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Your husband has great taste in music.
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What a great day with your friend Ivy! No more State Fair for me, after 27 of them start to finish!
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That would burn me out on the fair too!
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That sounds like a wonderful day at the fair with your friend! We are going to ours next week – hopefully it will be a good time too 🙂
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I just read that the Alaska State Fair is known for its giant produce. I hope you see something huge.
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Oh yes! We have the giant produce as a must see 🙂 It is usually pretty ginormous, especially the pumpkins. It’s a fair, its all pretty wacky!
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Looks like a fab day. We have village fêtes, farmers markets and carnivals. Sadly not as grand as your state fair ☺
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Those sound delightful! A farmers market is usually more my speed.
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That looks so fun! I confess, I’ve never been to a state fair, and honestly, I don’t even know what Missouri does at their state fair! 😀
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You could be winning all sorts of ribbons with your knitting.
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That sounds like a great day! The hot dog dress looks great too!
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Thank you! If I go next year I’m going to make another fair dress.
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Lol what a great tradition that would be!
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Great STATE fair photos. Love the tattoos in particular! We go to the county fair and it may start next week. Gotta check that now. Last year the earth was so drenched here we did not go as we heard it was just a muddy muddy mess. Hope to make up for it this year
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Have a great time!
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Please tell me you have a pic of the macrame rat. I can’t wrap my brain around it.
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