The Evergreen State Fair

For the past few years, we've attended the Puyallup State Fair to get our fix of fair food and other fair activities.  We decided to check out the Evergreen State Fair instead this year since it's a little closer to home.  To start out, the parking fee was $10/car and there was a $12/adult admission price.  We immediately checked out the food and it was nice that it seemed to be more traditional fair food than "let's see what we can batter and fry this year to make some money."  We got all kinds of foods to share with our fair-going companions, ZK and SC.

This particular fair is home to something I've never heard of:  the "purple cow."  It's a float made with lemon/lime soda, blackberry ice cream, and blackberry syrup.  It was tasty, but I liked the ice cream part more than the soda it was floating on.  We also obtained classics like a corn dog, corn on a stick, curly fries, and funnel cakes.  The funnel cakes were interesting because they were made by pouring the batter into oil filled cast iron skillets to fry.  Jeff swears this is the traditional method of cooking these, but I've only ever seen them made in large fryers in the past.  Jeff's favorite part was the small donuts he bought since they're very similar to the ones he loves from Pike Place Market.

We also walked through all the animal areas seeing pigs, goats, sheep, cows, bunnies, guinea pigs, and even dogs and cats.  This was probably my favorite part outside of eating because I love animals.  The piglets were enjoying a meal with their mom.  The sheep "talked" to you as you walked by.  Jeff made friends with some goats that wanted all the pets.  I found a guinea pig or two with crazy curly hair like me and it made me giggle.  The cows were all having a rest and the bunnies and cats didn't seem very interested in visitors.  The dogs, however, were happy to receive any and all attention.  Honestly, this part of the fair feels like home to me since I'm from Southern Illinois and spent many years in 4-H.

Finally, we played some games and our friends checked out the rides.  The games were not cheap (as expected) and I found it slightly odd that the vendors working them could accept cash instead of requiring the same tickets that the rides used.  At $1 per ticket or $30/person/day arm band, the rides were too spendy for me (which is fine since I don't like rides anyway).  I'm happy to keep my spending to just food since it makes me happy.

All in all, Jeff and I think we'll be attending this fair in the future instead of the Puyallup Fair.  The food was good, animals were fun to see, and it's closer to our house.  It may not be any cheaper, but a good time had closer to home is worth it to us.