Orange County Fair - Costa Mesa, CA

And back to our regular scheduled blog:

Yes, yes, I know. I have officially spent 6 summers here in Southern California (granted, not all consequently) and up until yesterday, I had never been to the Orange County Fair. This is almost absurd to me for the following reasons:

• The Orange County Fair is in Costa Mesa. I have lived in Costa Mesa all 6 summers.
  
• The Fair runs for approximately 4 weeks. 4 weeks is plenty of time to make it to a fair for at least one day.
  
• I love fairs…and festivals…and carnivals. Basically anywhere where they are guaranteed to be selling funnel cakes and corn dogs I will most certainly enjoy.

I have tried unsuccessfully to figure out why it has taken me so long to make it to what is surely one of the bigger fairs I have ever seen. I can’t figure it out. I certainly had enough time. I certainly could afford it. It’s a mystery as Ed would say.

Convincing Kevin to accompany me to the fair was another matter all together. Kevin doesn’t like fairs. He finds them too hot, too crowded, and way too expensive. He has valid points but I tend to think of the good (funnel cakes and corn dogs) outweighing the bad. I buttered him up for weeks with vague notions of maybe, if the weather is nice and we have a little money, to perhaps, if it wasn’t too much hassle, to kind of go to the fair. He always said maybe in the exact same vague manner and as the weeks went on, my time was running out. Finally, on the second to last day of the fair, I put on my best sad puppy eyes and whiney voice and said, “Please can we go to the fair? Pleeeeeease? Pretty pretty pleeeeeeease? Pleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeze??”

No, I’m not proud, but I got to go to the fair.

Because the fairgrounds are about 3 miles away from our house, we decided to take our bikes there. We save about $8 in parking fees and the headache of actually finding a spot to park.


Sand sculpture

We walked in and immediately set out to find something to eat. Kevin opted for a pulled pork sandwich and I held out for a falafel sandwich at the Greek place. During the course of the day, we had that and a corn dog (!), a vanilla ice cream cone, and a smorgasbord of fried artichoke hearts, zucchini, and mushrooms (Kevin’s choice). I honestly was amazed at the fried food options there. From a person coming from Wisconsin, that’s saying a lot. They even had fried Snickers bars and fried Coke. Fried Coke? What is that anyhow? My favorite food listed there that I wouldn’t dare eat is the fried Krispy Kreme chicken sandwich. That’s right, a piece of fried chicken in between two Krispy Kreme donuts. I don’t even have anything witty to say about it, I think it speaks for itself.


Fried Veggies

After our first round of food, we went to look at the livestock. We saw the world’s finest collection of odd looking chickens, I pet the bad side of a cow, and I got attacked by a bee when looking at the steers. For Kevin’s sake I will tell you that the bee landed on my shoulder and I freaked out. I started running in circles and screaming, “GET IT OFF! GET IT OFF!” while Kevin stood there and yelled towards me, “Stay still! I’ll get it, I’ll get it!” But I kept running and freaking out until I finally swatted it away with the only item I had in my hand which was my camera. By then I had more people looking at me than at the steers and Kevin just stood there rolling his eyes. For the rest of the afternoon Kevin mocked me and my fear of bees. While I felt silly, I didn’t feel as silly as this goat:


Overheard: Daddy! That goat doesn't have a head!

Oh, and here’s the one of many odd looking chickens:



And a pig who needs a little TP:



Feeling like I shouldn’t just face one fear in a single day, after the livestock we went on the Sky Tram thing. You know, that little rickety bench seat that takes you from one end of the grounds to the other via the world’s smallest cable 30 feet up in the air. Beth and I used to ride the same thing at Summerfest when we got too tired. With my (now) fear of heights, this ride was torture. I held on for dear life while Kevin did his best to distract me with funny fried food signs. Afterwards I was shaking and had myself three cigarettes and the world’s most expensive cup of beer to calm down. Then I had another beer, but in the bigger more expensive size.


Not the Sky Tram thing, but another ride I would not go on.

Later, we headed over to the Midway to play some games. Kevin saw the below guy with a Homer and sparks of jealousy washed over him. While we couldn’t find any game that was giving away Homer, we did find a game that was giving away Bart and sat down to play. It was the perfect game too. You played against other fairgoers and the object was to fill up a beer pitcher with a tap of water that kept moving. After $12 we walked away with Bart.



We were beginning to get low on money, so we spent the next couple of hours walking around, looking at the games and the rides, watching the acrobats, laughing at the kids on the pony rides, and general people watching.



After the sun went down, the fair became unbearably crowded so we decided to head home. I will say that biking was an excellent idea for getting to the fair but later on when we were tired from walking around all day, it was a bit tough. We made it though.



All in all, the fair was awesome. I’d love to go again next year….if I can only convince Kevin. I’ll have to work on him starting in April I think.