Fair Weekend

All summer I look forward to the week in August that the North Idaho Fair is held. When I was growing up, I would save up my babysitting money to spend at the fair. I remember I used to allow myself about $40 (a lot for a 12-year-old) to use on my splurge. My friend and I would eat junk, buy junk, win junk and ride rides until midnight. We'd go home with bags of treasures collected from the booths and stomachs from the food and rides.

Friday night, I continued the tradition of attending the fair. DD was working, so I took Munchkin and met up with my family. My $40 budget has shrunk considerably. It's easy to get by on much less when you don't eat as much junk and you can't stomach rides anymore. Munchkin really enjoyed the animal barns. He was excited to see the exotic animals in the reptile house and giggled at all the rabbits in the bunny barn. His one request to see was the horses. He was awed by the massive draft horses.

We enjoyed watching the Army's skydiving demonstration. There were so many more booths and events to see, that we didn't have time to do half of it. I ate my annual taco and elephant ear from the food court. I sampled a double cheese burger from the Mica Grange booth. I'll either have to spend more time at the fair next year to have a burger and a taco, or years and years of tacos might be replaced.

Munchkin really got into the rides this year. He didn't hesitate to jump on any ride with his cousin. I even took him on the Ferris wheel. He was just at the line for height. I thought he might be scared, but he had a good time yelling, "weee," and waving to Grandma.

I only went on a few rides. My favorite: the Fanny Flyer (formerly known as the Super Slide). I could spend all night (and I have) riding that one. The "rides" that really brings the feel of the fair to me are the fun house ones. I do have to wonder how many features of the Rock n'Roll house have to break before they replace it. I'm sure it's the same one that's always been around.

One of the most fun features of the fair is running into friends. It used to be the time I'd see all of my classmates who I hadn't seen all summer. Now we run into all sorts of people we haven't seen for a while. Even Munchkin ran into one of his friends.

I think the fair gets better (and bigger) each year. The best part is that it is so family friendly. Even the carnies this year were extra nice and helpful. Definitely not the mean grumpy ones from my childhood.

I'm glad Munchkin can share our memories and fair experiences. Now he'll start to develop his own favorite memories and activities. Before we know it, he'll be running off to met his friends at the fair.