Great Minnesota Get-Together

When I was a little girl, there were a couple of times Mom & Dad loaded us kids into the car and we headed down to the Big Cities for a day at the Minnesota State Fair. Since the parental units weren't very familiar with the city streets (not having lived down here for years) we'd always get stuck in the "fair traffic" on Snelling. Somewhat of a damper to our spirits when the big fair tower was in sight but we couldn't get there any other way than stop-and-go.

Now that the hubby and I live approximately 4 miles from the Great Minnesota Get-Together fairgrounds, we've made it our duty to go every year we've been together. While I certainly enjoyed perusing every single square foot of the DNR buildings & Machinery Hill way back in the day 'cause Dad HAD to, and maybe going on a couple rides, I much prefer stopping at the beer booths for crisp, cool Summits, partaking in random food intake and watching all the weirdos come out of the woodwork.

The only footsteps we place on the midway are the ones leading us into and out of the grounds, since we've found a free parking area which is easy for us to access, and is only about a 10-minute walk to get in the gates (behind the parking for the horse trailers). From that entrance, we can easily get to the main booth that sells Summit, so we grab one of those and then proceed to make our wandering way amidst the crowds of French-fry-eaters, food-on-a-stick-enjoyers and all the other random, lovely sightseeing opportunities.

This year while we were waiting for a friend to join up with us, we made our second stop the Scotch Eggs booth (near the green pepper on the side of the horse barn). Though they're not as good as those at the Renaissance Festival, they were mighty tasty - especially with the horse radish sauce!

After joining up with said friend, we proceeded to the back of the grandstand in search of OAR ticket-seekers. There he gave away 2 OAR tickets and interviewed the lucky winner about Brett Favre for his latest endeavor, Brettrodome, while I videotaped (and the hubby went for more beer). When all that was said and done, we realized we had to get back on schedule.

We always have to stop at the Leinies Lodge to give a high-five to the Laurienzos, who work hard all 10 days of the fair to ensure Leinenkuegel lovers have enough brew to quench their fair thirst. That's kitty-corner from the Axel's booth - we love their bull bites - and then we were on our way back towards the Coliseum. We watched the High School Rodeo for a bit, used the lavs and headed back to the Scotch Eggs so our buddy could partake.

Since we've gone numerous times, it must not be "that big of a deal," since this year all we had were Scotch Eggs, cheese curds, beer and cream puffs. Also, other than the Coliseum we didn't go into any of the buildings. Actually, it was kind of nice - we were in and out of there in a little over 2 hours. Until next year...