Washington County Fair 2011

One Friday morning, as I was getting dressed, I heard a knock on my bedroom door.  "Mommy, can you wear tie-dye?  Please?"

With a little borrowing and trading, we all loaded into the car, properly attired, and headed for Greenwich, NY- to the Washington County Fair. Washington County happens to be very agricultural, and as a result, this fair is one of the best.  Anywhere.  Todd and I learned firsthand how sad a County fair can be when we were living in Wheaton, Il, and attended an itty-bitty one. A midway, a flea market and a couple of food stands.  Very disappointing!

The Washington County Fair also happens to be the site of one of the worst e. coli outbreaks in American History, which is why you see lots of these:


But don't worry, I believe it's now the cleanest, safest Fair in History as well. 






We didn't go to the Fair for the rides.  Too expensive!  Each kid got one, because we are misers.  They are 4 tickets each, and tickets are $1.00!  Are you kidding me!  We could have gone on a Ride-all-day-for-$20 Day, but it still would have run us $100 before food to do that.  We decided the kids were content to enjoy the rest of it and skipped the midway for the most part.

First, we attended the tractor pull, but that was mostly just so that we could say we did.  No one seemed to "get" it.  Besides, at 10am those bleachers were right in the hot sun. Moving on, we saw some pig races and wiener dog races.  of course there was also a "magic" show to watch, which was more song and dance.  We visited the barns and milked a phony cow. We also got some chocolate milk from the Creamery table and some cheese samples.  We are all about the free food.

I personally like the barn full of poultry and bunnies.  There were some unusual animals in there!  I couldn't help but take pictures. 

This bunny thinks he is a Siamese cat.

Some kind of rooster.  Very special.

Pheasant?  Quail?  can't remember.

I took this picture because The Little Princess said these were her favorite.  Different barn, of course.

We also visited the local sheriff's office, where the kids got little picture ID's made.  Complete with fingerprints. 










Our fair food choices were maple cotton candy, lemonade, cheese fries...it's one of those times when you just don't think about the fat content. 

Towards the end of our time we discovered the 4H youth scavenger hunt.  Some of the items on it we had already seen, but we had to finish it so that led us to find the draft animals barn, which we wouldn't have seen otherwise. 
At the petting zoo, The Giant and The Girl held baby chicks and killed them.  (They say they just went to sleep, but I am not sure.)  

Then for a finale, we got our free ice cream from Stewarts (full size cones!) and went to watch the acrobats. 

This woman was performing above nothing but concrete and it scared me.  Also, I strongly wish she had more clothes on.  I mean, is that really necessary?  Is it impossible to do a circus act with you bum covered?

By then, it was 5:30 and we had spent more than 6 hours at the fair.  People started pouring in the gates for the evening.  We were glad it was time to go.  That was enough fair for one year.