The powers that be are predicting record crowds as we return to the fair, at what they’re calling “pre-pandemic” levels. The hours have shortened to accommodate lower staffing levels, and hopefully put a kabosh on late night shenanigans. Time will tell on both counts. As we drove through sparse traffic, Jack commented that he was grateful it was not 0 Dark 30 and while not well rested, he was grateful for the extra time. I parked in our new “usual” spot on Simpson Street, appreciative of the welcome and sense of still belonging here.

We met up with our friend Andrea, another Simpson Street dweller and walked over to take our place in line. I captured my countdown clock with 15 minutes to go. It was the only countdown that mattered, because as we made it across Snelling about 3 minutes later, we saw the single file line spread out as people rushed through the gates at 6:52! The ticket takers are stationed just beyond the security checkpoints this year, so it’s possible the gates were opened early to allow for security screenings prior to the 7am start, but I think they were just ready and got the party started! I wonder if there will ever be State Fair pre-check, like the TSA. I’d sign up for that.

Once on the grounds, we grabbed our Historical Walking Tour punch brochures and started moving! There are five “new” stops this year, but not more, just different locations.

We followed our usual track. I suggested we take a different route this year, but was out voted. Tradition and routine are important and good!

The next “new” stop was at the Baldwin Park. The Alphabet Forest was all quiet and ready to welcome the kids in an hour. I only signed up for a few volunteer shifts so far because I’m not sure what my stamina will be like. I was diagnosed with adult onset asthma this past winter and the road to that diagnosis and subsequent treatment plan was bumpy. It took a toll on me, physically. I’m slowly recovering, but I have to be kind to myself, listen to my body and pace myself.

There’s a vendor up here, the Glitter Glamper (formerly in the West End) that has a super cute set up! Hopefully this is a good spot for business.

So many fun places to stick your face!

There’s a RC-Truck track set up that I’ll try to see in action another time. It seems pricey, but it’s the Fair!

We were discussing breakfast options and timing as we approached this booth open for business at 7:15! My plan was, as usual, pie, but the smells were like a siren call and hard to resist. I resisted.

The morning was cloudy, hazy and a bit humid. Not exactly as forecast, but it was not raining and not 90°. The Giant Wheel is not as stunning with a drab backdrop.

There’s a walking tour stop at the Little Hands Farm and I was dismayed to find, the Kemps truck with inflatable cows, ice cream treat daily giveaways and most importantly the cow photo-bomb booth was not there! I’ll keep looking, but it seems to have been replaced by machinery.

We began in the yellow bench zone and progressed to the green zone always watchful for familiar benches. First find was the Postiglione bench, honoring the family that owns 1919 Root Beer and who had been our neighbors for 30 years. Sadly the matriarch Judy passed away last year and six months later Bill followed her home. I then chanced upon my good friend Joan’s moms memorial bench and found our old friend Ned’s memorial bench, appropriately, in front of Giggles.

To complete the walking tour this year, you have to get all the way up to the pet plaza! Not much going on up here yet, so we punched out cards and kept moving, hunger spurring us forward.

Jack was willing to pose for me, so stopped at the TPT booth for a quick nod to childhood ❤️

The next tour stop is a bit camouflaged, but we found it near the iconic Hamline Church Dining Hall. They were very busy, the line was out the door, but I wanted to say hi to Elaine Christensen if I could! I’m sure she was working hard, but she popped out for a hug and a selfie!

Next stop was the Grandstand. Jack had only one food goal today and it was fulfilled at 7:45am! Corn! “It’s got the juice” He posted his own CornTok video!

I stopped to say hi to Deb at Jaunita’s and wished them all a good fair!

Andrea found ~a~bench that fit! 💙

We had to search for the Grandstand punch tour stop too, but on the way we found the new location of the Joyful World artist installations. Many from last year are present with space for new ones.

This seemed to be a great spot for the green grass archival footage. We’ll return in 12 days and see how it’s doing!

As we rounded the grandstand ramp, I remembered today is STEM Day.

We did a quick tour of the booths, picked up bags and some swag! (Fidget spinners, tangles, stress cones and ear buds)

Next stop was the West End. A few photo ops at the entrance plaza were needed. It’s not easy to get pictures without extra people walking through!

It was time for Andrea to get her Nordic Waffle breakfast. Always a delicious start to her day.

We needed the animal barn punches and luckily this year, they’re right across from each other and we didn’t have to trek all the way to the swine barn. We didn’t enter a single animal building. I’m hesitant to test my new asthmatic lungs on day one.

On our walk we were taking a few short detours looking for our family benches. Mom & Dad are in the blue zone, and I had no luck finding them at this point. Mike & Kathleen had done some pre-fair walking and had inside information. I texted for a clue, but wasn’t quite ready to give up. We did find the Island Noodles new home near the Midway. They were replaced in the Bazaar by the new Union Hmong Kitchen. I wonder if they’ll do better with more traffic.

A trip through the DNR was a must. The building is open this year. We just stopped to say a quick hello to the fish, but made a plan to return later for the “Fish Talk” at 11:45.

There’s an interactive outdoor exhibit if you have kids (or adults) that like rocks. You can dig, brush and scoop rocks. They created an elevated accessible part too!

We had entered the bench red zone now without finding ~the bench~ and I was obsessing. I caved and accepted the offered clue. “Near a state fair landmark”. I knew where it had to be since we’d already passed all the blue zone landmarks it wasn’t near.

We checked and Carol & Don are still sitting on their bench! Today would have been 57 years of love at the fair. My heart rests easier knowing they never spent an anniversary apart.

SPOILER ALERT : skip down a bit if you want to find the bench on your own. We thought it was in a great spot!

We were closing in on 9:00 am, when the Ag/Hort opened and the crop art winners would be unveiled. My friend Gayle entered two this year. We had to see if she got on the wall and won any ribbons. But first, I needed PIE! Sara has a beautiful, big new booth this year next to the Garden Annex in the food building. The pie was outstanding as ever! She has a new “Minty Magic” crème deMenthe tart this year that I’ll have to try for dessert one day.

She told me that she selected one of our pictures together to be on the “wall of fame” outside her booth, but the resolution was too poor for enlarging. Maybe next year 💙

We got to the Crop Art exhibit just after 9:00 and snuck in the back way and met Gayle and her competition friend in the front of the pack. They’d both made it up on the wall, displayed next to each other and won ribbons! I realized later I took most of the photos with her camera so this is the only one I took. I’ll go back to peruse the artworks more carefully another day.

One funny one did pop out during my cursory glance down the wall! 😂 Ope!

We had two last punches to attain, so we quickly made our way across Ag/Hort, thinking I might stop for a glance at the vegetables, but the line was already 50 people deep. That was my first clue it might be a busy day! The Minnesota Landscape and Florist displays have a “haunted” theme this year. I’ll do more in depth viewing another day. This is center ghostly tree display.

We got the penultimate punch outside the building and made our way up to the Bailey House for our final punch and prize acquisition. As always I look for the family bricks. I found them all but Mike & Kathleen’s. I kept getting in people way as I looked, so I’ll return to the scene later. Mom & Dad had one of the original bricks and it’s fading. It says “Honoring Many State Fair Memories Donald G and Carol Jo Kelsey”

We needed a rest and waited for more people to join us. I did a quick walk around the Leinie Lodge to look for Grammies Bench, but I didn’t find it. I did find a Que Viet giant egg roll on the route though! So crispy, crunchy and cooked!

Shannon joined Andrea and Michael joined us and our small groups parted ways. It was only 10:00 am and I’d logged almost 5 miles and 10K steps. I was feeling tired, but had much more to do and see. Michael helped us find Grammy Kelsey’s bench. It’s on a great spot, on the parade route! We didn’t get a picture because it was occupied for quite some time. We moved on down to meet cousins at Carol & Don’s bench, but Michael told us it wasn’t in its original position….~facing~ the slide. With help, we returned it to its ideal spot. This is the view now from the bench.

A cousin pointed out how well put together Jack was this morning. Buttons are hard. Maybe he didn’t get quite enough sleep last night!

They scored water bottles inside the blue flame building and since I’d left mine back in the car earlier, I needed a refillable sort. They have a very ineffectual straw, but they hold water! The former super chilled water fountain that used to reside here has now been replaced with a multi use water dispenser. It’s good, but not as cold as it once was!

After catching up with cousins for a bit, we too parted ways and went in search of food for Michael. His favorite spot if the bratwurst stand on the corner. As former restaurant employees and hyper vigilant food safety people, it was heartening to see the health inspector present overseeing the procedures and using her thermometer as Mike waited for his first fair food!

Good food and good deal!

I predicted and feared that fair food prices would not be for the faint of heart, or for those on fixed income. I’ve found that while some prices have increased, they’re not much different from last year. Many people will complain about the prices, as they shell out all the money to consume all the things.

Jack wanted to check out the Union Hmong Kitchen but the line was long and we weren’t sure the menu items were what we wanted. We instead got a gyro tray from HolyLand that was delicious, albeit small for $12. We ate so fast, I didn’t take a picture!

It was time to get back to the DNR for the “fish talk”. As we waited by the fish pond, Rena Sarginopoulous was hanging out with a film crew to do a segment for later. Michael has a goal to get signatures on his Kare11 Weather calendar, but forgot to bring the sharpie today. Hopefully we’ll see her again!

The Fish talk started just as the Honduran band got louder making it impossible to hear the presenter, for whom English was a second language, using a subpar sound system! Instead of straining to listen, We went into the DNR building to see what’s new. Jack loved the “fish pond cam”. Who needs to stand outside where the shadows make it hard to see the fish!

He got his fishing license questions answered while Michael and I searched through stacks of duplicate state maps which were there for people to make paper hats out of, or just take one for posterity. Mike found a Duluth one and I looked in vain for one from Gatzke.

I tried to pick up the new chapstick at the Star Tribune, but they were giving away the excess 2019 COVID year cookie chapstick. I want to get the Blueberry Pancake! Mike stopped to listen to Kfan radio for a few then we decided to try and get a table at the Ball Park to rest and people watch for a bit. I stopped by 1919 to pay my respects to the remaining Postiglione’s and we had a little root beer toast to Bill & Judy. Meanwhile Jack scored a great curbside table on the new patio at the Ball Park. We moved a few times as shadier tables opened up behind us, but as we sat, we enjoyed the newest feature of the Ball Park sun umbrellas. ❤️⛱💙

We didn’t move much for two hours! Mike had his first & second beer. While we sat, we overheard two people discussing how they lost grandpa. He’d left his phone in the backpack he left with them, so he had no way of communicating. Michael struck on a marketing idea that we need tosell at the gate… “Grandpa Tracker”. A little GPS you can pin to his shirt so you can find him anywhere. I know they have already invented a device like that for kids…. But for the fair we could rebrand it!

As far as parade seats go, our sight line wasn’t the greatest. We heard the marching bands though and noticed there were no animals (horses etc) in the parade today. Jack was visibly fading at the table from too many steps and too much sun and a very kind lady shared her fan with him! It enabled us to stay to the end of the parade.

With the fan and the misters it gave us the renewed energy to get back to the cars. There were quite a few people on the grounds, but I don’t think it’s a record setter. It’s more likely the day is busy due to my “fair weather human distribution theory”. On beautiful days, many people come but nobody leaves, therefore increasing human density, making it feel like a bigger crowd than is actually reflected in gate attendance numbers.

On the way we found our water guy and his “water daughter”. A big 20oz cold water bottle for a buck. Had to buy one!

I got a stamp, fully intending to return in a couple hours with Mike ~and Kathleen, but my heart ❤️ said yes, however my feet 🦶 said NO!

My Apple Watch stopped cold at this point when I tipped over in my chair and closed my eyes…for an hour or two. Today was a physical test. I didn’t fail, but I’m exhausted and so I need to really pace myself to make it through the 11 days ahead!