South Carolina State Fair

I have a confession to make. I've never been to the fair. It's just not really my cup of tea. I think I was born old, and I've never really been into the whole "stand in line for 30 minutes to enjoy a 60 second ride that makes me want to puke." And I'm no fan of crowds of people pushing and shoving either. So cut to the fact that I've gone 32 years of my life with no fair experience. But a friend of mine had encouraged me to at least go see the animals on display at this year's state fair, and so the two of us along with her little boy set out on my very first fair adventure at the South Carolina State Fair.

We went early in the day in order to avoid the crowds, and that turned out to be a genius move. The weather was beautiful, and I didn't get shoved even once. First, we visited these gals:

LOVE. Now I need a cow. And please do notice the orange and purple flags flying proudly in the bottom photo. Oh yes... those are Clemson cows. My alma mater has fantastic agriculture and animal science programs so it was fun to see our colors flying high.

We then wandered around a few more buildings to see the chickens, ducks, geese, rabbits and pigs.

Clockwise from top left: Pilgrim Geese, Buff Laced Crested Polish, a sleepy Pig, and a  Jersey Wooly Rabbit

And then we came upon this poor girl...

Keep in mind that we were visiting her a couple of days after her due date. Bless her heart... on display for the world to see... very preggers... and faced with the certainty that she would be giving birth to an audience. I felt so bad for her. 

Once we finished up the animal viewing, we went over to check out the rose show. There were tons and tons of beautiful flowers, and we wandered about for quite a while. I love to garden, but I'm not patient enough to grow roses. I planted a rose last spring... a supposedly low-maintenance variety called Julia Child (I swear that's the name... it's the reason I bought it because I adore her)... and I have battled the forces of nature conspiring against it ever since. So I was in awe of all the beautiful roses at the show: 

So for my first fair experience, it went pretty well! I enjoyed spending time with people I love, I got to see lots of wonderful animals and livestock, and had my first taste of classic fair food! I'm a vegetarian, so I wasn't walking around with a giant turkey leg or anything. Nor did I partake of what they were touting as this year's newest food creation: the Elvis Presley Burger (apparently a burger with peanut butter and bananas... gross). But I did try fried Oreos for the first time, and although I was seriously skeptical at first, I quickly overcame my opposition because they were YUM. But don't worry... I drew the line at fried butter.