State Fair visit, 2006
G. Grod and I did our very first visit to the fair on our own as a family. Going with Drake and Guppy isn’t that much more challenging than going with Drake by himself, as we did last year. As usual, we eschewed traditional fair activities for my favorite one: eating. I tried several new foods, and sought out some old favorites. My wish list was, not surprisingly, too ambitious, but we did eat a variety of different things.
We began with breakfast at the Blue Moon Diner, near the Loop entrance. We had a strawberry waffle, sausage egg strata, and pull-apart cinnamon rolls. The latter were supposed to be gooey, but were instead overbaked, so crunchy but still tasty. This was a quite decent breakfast, and the diner showed The Andy Griffith Show and Three Stooges videos on a big screen in its eat-in area. This was good if you are looking for fair food with substance.
Next was Tom Thumb mini donuts followed by roast corn on the cob. Drake wasn’t that excited by the corn this time, but he loved the donuts. Drake likes to pat Guppy’s head, and G. Grod and I were amused to find patches of donut sugar on Guppy’s head. We next headed to the Food Building for fried cheese curds. G. Grod was wrangling Drake and collecting the curds when Drake twisted the wrong way, and the curds went flying. Drake found this hilarious, and the cheese curd people kindly gave us a replacement. I tried the Spiral Chips at Sonny’s, but they were only OK, and in typical fair fashion, they were expensive ($5) with a portion much too big for just two adults. Outside the Food Building we got a cup of my favorite root beer, 1919, which was sweet, herbal, and just bubbly enough. Drake had a hard time sharing it with me, but I persevered. G. Grod got a Red Bull push up, and then he and I shared a frozen mocha on a stick, my new favorite item.
Heading north, we stopped at Giggles and tried the porcupine meatballs of elk meat mixed with wild rice, in portobello mushroom gravy over mashed potatoes. These were good, but unseasonally heavy for the summer weather. Like breakfast at Blue Moon, the choices at Giggles were excellent quality for fair food, and good quality in general. They’re more like real food than fair food, so better for those who are staying for an entire day, or not looking to try a lot of different foods.
Drake surprised us by saying yes to a hot dog on a stick, so we got him a beef and wild rice corn dog in the food building, but he only wanted to lick the ketchup off, as if it were a condiment lollipop. The three of us then shared a cone of Sweet Martha’s cookies and a cup of milk before heading to the parking lot. At the car, we were boxed in by marching bands. Drake listened and danced in delight for quite some time, then wanted to go dance WITH the band, and was reluctant to go home. Even after a long, hot morning and lots of food, he continued his nap strike, which has been going on for about 2 weeks. It was a beautiful day, both boys enjoyed the trip, and we had some wonderful food, though, so the trip was certainly a success.