NY Trip: The Fair

It had been at least 7 years since Ray and I had been to a county fair, and we both really enjoy them. Schagticoke Fair is generally held on Labor Day weekend, and Labor Day itself was forecast to be beautiful. Warm (but not hot), breezy and dry. So all 10 of us agreed to go (even though not everyone is a big a fan of fairs as we are). I thought Maia would really enjoy seeing the animals... and she did.

She saw horses, oxen, mules, goats and miniature horses.

She saw cows

 She saw an albino peacock, ducks, geese...

turkeys, chickens and roosters... (this guy's name was Colonel Sanders)

...guinea pigs

...and bunnies!

She loved this sandbox full of field corn, and was extremely hesitant to leave.

We got to try some local agricultural products: cheese, ice cream and fresh chocolate milk.

Grandpa and Nana with Flavor the cow.

The 4 of us

But better than riding that cow statue was riding a Real Pony!

This pony's name is Zoe, a detail which Maia remembered for weeks.

She thought it was pretty cool, and did a great job holding on.

Maia and Aaron

Also important was the fair food. For Ray: fried dough. For Aaron: onion blossom. For me: fried green beans. For Grandpa: Sausage n' pepper sandwich and kettle corn. For Maia: corn dog. However, despite the fact that corn dogs are one of Maia's favorite foods... she would not sit down to eat one because she was too excited about THE MIDWAY!!!

Ray and I had opted not to spend the extra admission money on an all-you-can-ride ticket for Maia, not sure if there would be anything she could even ride. Turns out the minimum height requirement was 32" so there were a few things she could go on by herself, and a few more she could go on with an adult. Tara bought two of the unlimited rides tickets, but Aaron decided he wasn't all that interested in riding after all, so he gave his to Maia. Which left any of the "ride with an adult" jobs to Rachael.

One of the first things Maia went on was this Ladybug Ride.

She LOVED it. She may have gone on this ride 7 or 8 times, and as she was having such a good time, we sort of ended up hanging out within the general vicinity of this ride for much of the afternoon. Also great (and right up her alley, since Maia currently favors jumping as a form of locomotion) was this bouncy castle. Also nice was the fact that there was only one other kid in there for a while, so no squishing and jumping on top of each other.

Even more special was this rollercoaster. Maia really wanted to go on the bigger one, but it wasn't approved for kids. Rachael had to go on this with her, and later, I bought some tickets and went on it with her, too. It was surprisingly fast and had a fair amount of g-force.

And what did Maia think? She laughed, and screamed, and laughed some more!

(you can't even see Maia's head here... just her little feet sticking out next to Rachael)

But as soon as it stopped... she wanted "More? Again?"

More Lady Bugs!!

After we'd been at the fair for several hours, Maia was clearly exhausted and tremendously overstimulated, but was really doing remarkably well. She had, I think, one crying meltdown, and a few minor whiney moments when I wouldn't let her go back on the lady bugs until after she had sat on my lap, relaxed and eaten something. Oh, it was too exciting to be bothered with food. So I had to bribe her with another lady bug ride, and start eating her corn dog without her before she would take a bite. She couldn't take her eyes off all the big, bright, noisy, colorful, exciting rides and tents around her.

After her lunch, she perked up and (although still exhausted) seemed to feel much better. That said, after about 5 minutes in the bouncy castle, her legs were looking a little rubbery.

So we tried a few other rides. This one was a little canoe that floated on a watery pathway. Maia did enjoy it. This is just the face of exhaustion.

Next we went on the carousel. By this time, Tara, Dave, Aaron and Rachael had left to get Aaron back for a football training session. I bought a few tickets so other adults could go with Maia on the remaining rides available to her. Her first carousel ride.

She wanted me to get on the horse next to her, but after spending a bunch of time looking at her and the camera, I was getting a little dizzy!

After the carousel, I went on the red rollercoaster with her, and then - to wrap up the day and the tickets - handed over the rest of them to Raymond to take her on the giant green slide. It was a loooooong climb up, and a quick slide down!