Our State Fair is a GREAT State Fair

I persuaded my friend Cindy to come with me to the Great Minnesota Get-Together, a.k.a. the Minnesota State Fair, so that she could join me at the UMD booth.  Fortunately for me, she agreed to participate.  Actually, she drove. 

As we approached Dan Patch Drive (the entrance to Gate 5), the traffic became more and more congested.  As is true every year, cars lined the streets and populated the yards of homes along Snelling.  We despaired of finding a parking space as we continued along Snelling, but then we saw a sign for Energy Park Park and Ride.  Frankly, this turned out to be a godsend.  We parked and caught a bus within just a few minutes.  The bus stopped half a block away from Gate 5.

Aside from our obligation at the UMD booth, Cindy's goal was to eat unusual food on a stick.  My goal was to go to the Dairy building to see the butter sculptures of Princess Kay of the Milky Way  and her court.  Before we headed off to the Dairy Building, we stopped off at the DFL tent.  Cindy wanted her picture taken with Hillary...

 AND Bo...

I scored a Notorious RBG button,

and then we were off to the Dairy Building.

We squeezed through the crowds and muscled our way up to the refrigerated, rotating case featuring Linda Christensen's sculptures of this year's Princess Kay, Jeni Haler.

According to the Midwest Dairy Association website, one of Ms. Haler's first duties was to sit for six hours while Christensen carved her likeness.  Twelve  young ladies  competed for the title by demonstrating "their general knowledge of the dairy industry, communication skills and enthusiasm for dairy."

We had only a short period of time to explore, and our next task was to make sure Cindy got her unusual foods on a stick.  It didn't take us too long (and admittedly, I had a bratwurst first) before we found the perfect option:

Cindy is a very considerate mother, and she was determined to bring something back to her daughter.  We saw many people walking around with buckets of cookies, and that seemed to be just the ticket.  We asked a number of folks where we could find the vendor, and were pointed in the direction of the Grandstand.  As we approached the Cookie Building, we saw huge crowds surrounding the building.

We started to walk back to the Crossroads building when low and behold, we saw another tantalizing food on a stick:

Cream cheese stuffed green olives, fried and on a stick.  I can personally attest to their tastiness.

We started our shift at 6:00 p.m. where we met up with our other partner at the booth, Betty Green of External Affairs. 

Our tasks at the fair included giving away UMD Bulldog "tattoos" and buttons.

Our tattoo technique involved peeling off the plastic sheet, pressing the adhesive tattoo on the willing recipient, and then applying a damp sponge to the area.  Once 30 seconds had passed, we then peeled back the cardboard backing and VOILA! There was the tattoo!

 Naturally, we were also there to answer questions about our university and to promote our programs.  We spoke with a number of family groups, and found it quite enjoyable.

Beyond dispensing information, we also asked our visitors to share their memories on a white board:

We packed up around 8:45, and headed back on the bus to Energy Park.

It was a long day, but we were both glad we came.