Oh pickledog, your intense flavor is still haunting me...

We went to The Minnesota State Fair today. We want to go back to eat more ridiculous food. I am especially itching to try "hot dish on a stick." Because that just sounds great, right? Of course it does. We didn't get to experience as much of the fair as we'd have liked. We had that baby along with us (who happened to want to eat all of our food) and it was hot and we couldn't maneuver well. If anyone wants to babysit our baby we'd like to go back.

The things we did get in were pretty great. I would like to introduce you to my friend, Pickle Dog:

Don't be deceived by the ol' gal's plain appearance. Pickledog is wonderful. I was scared to try her, but I have been working hard to try new things lately so... well, Pickledog was an exercise into the unknown. She is a pickle spear (or spicy pickle spear, if you prefer) rolled up in pastrami and cream cheese. Top notch! I assure you, it is wayyy better than it sounds. Even Oliver enjoyed it.

Then we had a deep fried Milky Way, because, well... you have to have a deep friend candy bar at the fair. It was okay, but next time I think I'd go for the deep fried Oreos instead. (Or the Reese's, but then Jared wouldn't share with me.)

After that we were quite thirsty and we had a malt and some water. Jared ate a Pronto Pup. Oliver had some tomatoey fake cheeto type things. We toured the Miracle of Birth barn to enjoy all of the cute baby animals. We were minutes too late to witness the epic calving, however. (Which, I was bummed about but Jared was glad for. Birthing = not his idea of fun.)

The MoB barn is really quite interesting. On one hand, it is cuuuttte. Baby animals abound. There is even a place where you can get your picture taken with your choice of cute baby animal. But then, on the other hand.. it is a little sadistic and a lot disgusting. There are any number of super pregnant and/or laboring animals in stalls being prodded and stared at by fair goers. Any number of animals are giving birth at the same time, bloody placenta and all hanging out of their rear ends and what not. A very very creepy thing.

Above everything else, we did plenty of people watching. The state fair is just about the only place where hicks and city folks rub elbows. We almost witnessed a fistfight between a bunch of bros and some FFAs. (I'm pretty sure I've mentioned this before on other posts, but FFA FREAKS THE SHIT OUT OF ME. Seriously. No lies. No exaggeration. Just scary.)

There was: Man with seriously impressive mullet and RC Cola fanny pack. Man with beard that would put ZZ Top to shame. (Several) Fattest woman I've ever seen. (At lest 3) Persons wearing pants or a shirt made up entirely of the USA flag. (Too many to count) People in outrageous cowboy hats.  (A disrespectful amount of) People wearing cropped and/or sleeveless (sometimes tie dyed) Tshirts.

The list could go on for days.

If you've never been to the state fair, you're really missing out. And we didn't even get to see the State's Largest ______ (fill in the blank with a fruit, vegetable, or farm animal)______, or the Butter Princesses. (What, you don't know what the butter princesses are?! They're likenesses of real life dairy farmers' daughters, carved into 90 pounds blocks of butter. What else would they be? Duh.)