Proud to be an American

I forgot that I had taken these pictures when I posted last night. Here is the setting sun as we headed out for Dallas, and our GPS to show us the way...


And before I really begin, first, a shout-out to my parents.


Mom, please don't be one of those grandma's who has a horrible haircut and wears t-shirts like this...

By the time we got to the fair, the parking lots were all full, so we parked at a church who was selling spots for $10 (actually cheaper than the fair). We were the first ones in this section of the "parking lot," all the way in the corner by the trees.

It was a good mile away from the fairgrounds, but we knew we were getting close when we started seeing these signs.


Once we bought our tickets, we were on our way! Lee wore Texas Longhorn's orange, like a million other people that day.


Now, I would like to say that Big Tex was there to welcome us, but that would be a lie. We actually didn't find him until about half way through the day. I know what you're thinking... Shouldn't it be easier to find a 52-ft talking statue? Yes, yes it should. But the fair is also HUGE, so that explains it.


Some of the booths had "Texas" written all over them. Boots, spurs, saddles, hides, and beef byproducts covered the tables. Chelsea and Sienna would have been in heaven with these 1.5-ft beef bones!


And of course, no Texas fair would have been complete without fried... everything! We saw tons of fried foods. Among them,

• fried oreos
• fried peanut butter and jelly
• fried catfish
• fried pepperoni pizza
• fried cheesecake
• fried onions
• fried chicken
• fried pineapple
• fried pumpkin pie
• fried cookie dough
• fried ice cream
• fried beer
• fried moon pies
• fried frozen margaritas (someone please explain this to me...?)
• fried cheese sticks
• fried dough
• fried cheese curd
• fried guacamole
• and my personal favorite...
  

Yes, fried butter, ladies and gentlemen.

Also, I was SO expecting to see fried pickles everywhere, and I was obviously very excited since I love pickles times a billion. But strangely, we didn't see ANY until we were literally walking out of Fair Park. One little stand, and by that time I was too stuffed and tired to even care. :(

Lee took these pictures of the Cotton Bowl, and he wouldn't let me delete the one of the side entrance. I [mistakenly] thought the one of the main entrance was most important, thus rendering the other one unnecessary. However, he was quick to inform me that the other one is a new tunnel they just put in and he wanted it because it shows the "new metal letters." I'm not quite sure why this was my problem since Lee will

1. never print them out
2. never put them on Facebook
3. never blog about them

but I guess it's not my place to judge. So here it is, for you, Lee. Both pictures you took. (Sometimes he's just so gosh-darn cute that you have to just let him be...)


We went to several shows throughout the day, to give us a break from the heat and walking. The first was an acrobatic show featuring these little, strong Chinese dudes (and some girls too).


We also saw Billy Roy, the one-man band. Now, you'd think that this would be kind of lame, but he was actually really good...for a one-man band. At one point in the show, he played 12 instruments at once (see second picture)! Yes, that is a helmet with a tambourine on it.


We also saw a dog show with dobermans that could jump really high and do some tricks. (Lee just made fun of me for writing that sentence, but honestly, that's what they did. I can't dress it up any more than that.) Later on, we saw the Marine Drum and Bugle Corps. They were spectacular, and we were in the shade for this show, so I liked it even more. :)


Animals speckled the fair here and there. I thought it would be more farm/cattle-oriented, since it's...you know...Texas, but I guess not.


Meet Boris. The MASSIVE boar/hog/thing.

In case you can't read that, it says:

"Claim to fame: Champion Big Boar
Weight: 1196 pounds
Family: Registered Hampshire - Lots of brothers and sisters (but he got the biggest end of the trough)
Age: 6 years old
Acrobatic tricks:

• Smile and wave (with his ears) at passing fair goers
• Wag his tail with excitement
• Lie down
• Sleep for long periods of time
• Eat 20 pounds of feed per day
• Oink whenever he feels like it"
  

Speaking of food... (Get it?!) We have seen turkey legs just about everywhere down here (even at our high school football games), but this was our first time trying one. Two words: LARGE and DELICIOUS. I take that back, three words...LARGE, DELICIOUS, and salty.


This is how much we still had left after BOTH of us ate it. Lee picked at the rest of it this morning before we officially considered it eaten.


Besides food and shopping, we also rode 2 rides. One of them was "the swings" but reeeeaaalllllly...high... IT WAS AWESOME! :) It is usually my favorite fair ride anyway, and the fact that we were 50 feet in the air was even better. The second one was this (not sure if the link will work)... Kind of like the Max Air at Cedar Point. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fU-VfFy5b-I&NR=1

At the end of the night, we went to a show called "Illumination Sensation." There were fountains, fireworks, strobe lights, and images on giant screens. We were sitting on the wrong side, though, so we couldn't see any of the fountains. Since we were tired and couldn't see anyway, we decided to leave a little early. But as we were walking, I asked Lee to stop for a minute because we were in a spot where we could finally see the whole show. It's a good thing we did, too, because as the last song came on - "Proud to be an American" - 4 jacked college guys jumped up and started yelling "YES!" and pumping their fists in their air. They started singing at the top of their lungs and dancing together. Then they randomly took turns doing push-up's in time to the music while the others cheered them on by pointing at them them and slapping the ground, all the while still shouting "YES!" and singing. One guy probably did 200 push-up's by the time the song was over and the firework finale was shot off. I don't know if they were drunk or just REALLY proud to be an American, but it was hilarious. We couldn't have hoped for a better ending to the night. LOL.

As we were lying on the grass waiting for the show to start, it dawned on me that we live in a beautiful place. I sat up, looked at Lee, and said, "Do you realize that we are sitting here in shorts and t-shirts, lying in the grass at 8:00 at night, and it's October?!" I am love-love-loving the weather now, and I'm sure I will well into November/December. I hope all of you New Yorker's are jealous and decide to move down here. Your little bout of warm weather will be short lived, and we miss all ya'll! ;)

When we got back to our hotel, a shower and sleep never felt so good. We did so much walking it was crazy. Just to give you an idea...it took us half an hour - I kid you not - to walk from the Illumination Sensation show to our car! And that was walking at Lee-speed. :)

Even though today is almost over too, I'm too blogged out to blog any more so today's goings-on will have to wait for another day. (The internet at our hotel is super slow and it took me about 2 hours just to upload the pictures.)

Love and miss you all...until next time...

~Hooks

P.S. Fun fact: Fairs are expensive. We spent $20 in water alone.
P.P.S. Ben, sorry I missed your calls! There was no way I could hear my phone in there, but give me a call sometime "tomorrow" (Monday for me). I don't have school until Tuesday.