Woke at 5am to a text message alerting to fraud on a credit card. I didn’t panic at first, I just thought maybe I’d dropped it outside my car. The card was closed and I wasn’t worried. I put Mildred out, and then got a text from my neighbor that my garage door was open. It was then my stomach dropped. I went outside to find the pedestrian door of the garage had been kicked in and my car ransacked. I also saw the side gate was standing open. It was lucky Mildred didn’t bolt. Stolen items included my work bag and a duffle Randy had golf stuff in. Nothing large was taken, but in my work bag was the credit card & my checkbook. I had taken them out of my bag so I wouldn’t lose them at the fair. I was on the phone with financial people and Randy figured out what we’d need to do to replace the door. I had plans to meet friends at the fair and I wasn’t gonna let this dampen my morning.

I picked up my lifelong friends Sara and Nancy and we had a great morning!

I grabbed my recipe card for day 5/6. This time it’s all on one side!

We took in as much of Creative Activities as the heat would allow. The building is still hot and humid.

Award winners and things of interest.

So many cookies.

I love the decorated cakes. This years theme was “Roadside Minnesota Attractions”. I thought the north shore cake took the cake! The judges thought so too. It captured all of the memories from my recent trip!

I didn’t find any lefse entered this year. I’ll keep looking another time. But the syrup wall always catches the eye!

The decorated cookie theme is Shoes I think. I like the one that had Charlie Brown shoes.

We saw a familiar name amongst the children’s creations.

Then there’s always the quilt squares on a stick! “Dusk or Dawn”

We walked through the Annex, but other than the fact the peeler guy is still alive and kicking, nothing else stood out as new or interesting.

My coffee and oatmeal had gone cold this morning in all the hubbub, so I was in need of sustenance! I’ve never eaten at The Peg. Many people I know love it. We had coupons so we sat down at a lovely spot in partial shade and had time to catch up a little and fuel up. My friend Bree happened upon us too! It is unusual for us to go this many fair days without running into each other!

This was Nancy’s first and only state fair day, so it was her lead. Ag/Hort is a favorite, as she’s a very good gardener. There was much I hadn’t yet seen, so we wandered through. There are different types of flower shows every two days and this was the State Fair Flower Show. There were themes of “Grandmas Marathon”, “Hot Air Balloons”, “Parades” and others.

This one caught my eye. Could I really just cut off a chunk of my Ragouchi Clematis and stick it in a beer bottle and win a blue ribbon?

I mentioned the gyroscopes on an earlier day, and I tried to capture a video through my camera lens. The newer iPhone three lens camera creates too much backlighting. But the flowers are beautiful!

The line for the crop art was far too long. It was winding out the door around the center aisles of the hexagonal building. This would not do. While Nancy and Sara tried unsuccessfully to get in through the back way, I got the entire line to shift so that instead of clogging all the paths around, the line was headed down one aisle and towards the outer door. I wanted to check out the Pysanky eggs in the bee wing, so while they looked at big pumpkins, I found the eggs. There were no novice entries. This could have been my year if I’d gotten my act together! I feel like I could maybe compete.

We left At/Hort and decided to head to the north end for dogs! I decided we should take the Sky Glider. It might be my only chance. It was a perfect day for it. Hot, but breezy up there!

Lovely views!

And not so lovely.

We found a few dogs at the pet pavilion. But there are fewer this year.

There are however nice hand washing stations all over. After petting dogs and touching things, soap and water feels great!

I got to take a stroll around Can Can Wonderland mini golf, while these two rocked away!

The nine hole course features, a haunted house, gate 5, the giant slide, DNR ranger tower, a cow (including cow pie), a ring the bell with sledgehammer game, Ferris wheel, space tower and French fries booth.

Seeing the Space Tower, Sara recounted the events from yesterday while they were waiting for the shortest parade to come by- and the Space Tower quit running! They had to bring out an elevator repair company and the news later reported that it’s closed for the duration of the fair while they wait for a special part. I did some research and the ride started malfunctioning Sunday and they got everybody down and off and closed the ride for maintenance. Monday was when the elevator company arrived and there were no passengers on board at this time. Despite the efforts to get it running better than ever for next year, this type of thing just reinforces my steadfast refusal of going on claustrophobic rides.

I stopped by the Friends of the BWCA tent and got my camping spork utensil. Can come in handy out here when you want a bite of somebody else’s food!

Sara knows where to find the best spots to relax a bit! The By the Yard furniture space is great! We tried on all sorts of different seats and rested our feet!

We wandered down Cooper street, stopping for a Gizmo and a Sweet Martha’s bucket for Nancy to take home. We might have eaten a few as we sat and watched a dog practicing for the stunt dog show later.

I got to see the huge moose and loon as we did a cursory tour of the Eco Building. I don’t feel the need to collect things this year, so I’m not impelled to play bingo to win a buff. My friends indulged me on the selfie!

The line for Amish donuts was far too long to wait in, so we continued our meander down Cosgrove, popping in to show them my favorite fine art pieces and cutting through the Education Building as a shady respite where I could fill my water bottle. I voted twice, negating my vote for the photo op. You can go cast your vote at the Dunwoody robot too. The Giant Slide was winning.

I like to look at the art created by Minnesota school kids too. All ages and abilities.

Sara had to get home to walk the dog, and I wanted to get Nancy home before crosstown traffic got too busy, so we exited the fair pre-parade, around 1:30. I got everyone deposited safely at their respective homes and I decided to head to the bank and sort out some of the issues arising from the morning break-in. After all that, I was too tired and crabby to head back to the fair. Tomorrow is another day!