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26 August 2001
The California State Fair is a combination of many things. It
is an amusement park, rodeo, livestock show, art exhibit, and much food
that is bad for you but tastes great!
Our crew is Jordan, Jordan's date Jennifer, Austin, Rachel, Glenn,
Rachel's friend Jennifer, Daniella, and Hilary. |
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The first of the day was for looking at exhibits.
Fine art, clothing, quilts, woodworking, furniture, and much more was
judged, prized, and displayed. |
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There are nine separate sections of exhibitions.
Also included, but not photographed, were small animals and birds. |
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Something unusual about this quilting society is that they
have a sister society in Ivanovov, Russia near Moscow. They
exchange quilts and send material.
I have volunteered to courier items back and forth on a
space-available basis when next I travel to Moscow. |
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There are many, many demonstrations. This was a
cooking demonstration sponsored by the California Pear Association.
Just about everything in America has a special interest group that
provides public relations and government influence on behalf of their
constituents. |
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Anything odd, unusual, or fun is available for sale. |
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Even Russian and Ukrainian Matryoshka nesting dolls, lacquered
boxes, amber, and jewelry.. |
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We found these two at the China exhibit where many
artifacts of early dynasties were on display. |
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In the Egypt exhibit you could write your name by rubbing
on raised hieroglyphics symbols. Here Austin is working on his
name. |
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All kinds of music was everywhere. This happens to
be Mick Martin and his Blues Rockers. Long ago when I was a talent
agent I booked Mick's band. He now has a blues radio show every
Saturday afternoon, but still performs. Mick is the big guy
belting out another fine song. |
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Bobbing for apples is a traditional Halloween game, but
the California Apple Commission was letting children (and adult
children) try to grab an apple floating in a large bucket using only
their teeth. |
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The agriculture exhibit displays vintage farm equipment
including tractors.
For many fair attendees, this is as close as they will ever get to a
tractor. My uncles were ranch managers so I spent a lot of time on
farms and ranches as a child. This is where I learned how to ride
a horse, buck hay, plow fields, and other farming and ranching chores. |
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The Ukraine's beloved sunflower was in the agricultural
exhibit too. |
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You can't have agriculture without livestock.
Prizewinning cows were all over the place. |
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Goats were plentiful too.
Hilary is a veterinary medicine professor, but by this time of day
her daughters were tired and they decided to leave the fair.
Jordan, Austin, Jennifer, and I stayed until late in the evening. |
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A special birthing barn was created so city people could
watch the live births of goats, cows, sheep, and pigs.
You can view this display live over the Internet on the state fair
PigCam at http://vetlinc.ucdavis.edu/pigcam.html.
Click on the link and see what the little piggy is doing. |
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I discovered this family learning how to pan for
gold. They found about 1/16th of an ounce of gold nugget in the
demonstration. I have sent them a copy of this photo. |
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This is a sand castle. Yes, that whole mountain is
made out of sand that is carved by hand. There were many of these
sand castles throughout the fair. |
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Here is a master sand carver at work on one of the sand
castles. He uses mostly common kitchen utensils. |
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Water flows throughout the state fair. You can rent
the swan boats, but none of my boys would be caught dead in a swan boat. |
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There are many different shows including comedians,
dancers, and magic tricks. One of our favorite shows is a
hypnotist. He has all of the people on stage hypnotized. He
had them do several different and odd things. One was told he was
a famous rock star and he acted like the singer on stage. People
saw things that were not there, heard sounds that did not exist, and did
many things that were very funny. |
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Of course no fair is complete without the amusement
rides. The kids had great fun until we left, exhausted, after a
full day at the fair. |
