Spring Fair and Korean Barbecue

The Spring Fair is like the State Fair's smaller, cheaper, less-crowded younger sibling. (Where parking is much less of a hassle!) We went last year and enjoyed it, so thought we'd go again.

We took along Kate's slushie cup (which is a couple of years old now), and they gave us a free refill. Nice!



A lot of the things that we particularly enjoyed last time were not there this year, but we still had a good time. Doug and Andy found a belt with the Greek alphabet on it, so Andy had to read it.




Andy is tall enough to ride the ferris wheel. (Which we knew, since he did it last year, but the ticket-taker wanted to check!)



Kate on the ferris wheel.



We had a coupon deal for six rides, so we were going to just do the ferris wheel and then have the kids pick out one more ride each, but we ended up getting to ride the ferris wheel free (since the ticket-taker guy was having trouble with his scanner, and we waited nicely for a few minutes), so we got a few more rides. Andy and Kate both went on the carousel, and then Andy dragged me over to this balloon ride. 






Ice cream tastes better if you close your eyes.



We ended up watching this Dock Dogs competition for a while. I didn't even know this was a thing! It was pretty fun to watch--the dogs were obviously having a great time. They jump off the dock into a pool, going for distance. They said the record is something like 25 feet.



We met Anne Marie Corey and her daughter Kaela at Palace Korean Grill for dinner. Kaela has gotten interested in Korean dramas and K-Pop, so we wanted to go get some food.



Naeng Myun!

It occurred to me after the fact that we could have gone to a different place that does the barbecue on the not all-you-can-eat model, which would have been cheaper. (It was yummy, though... and I was very full!) Next time, kimchi jjigae!

Fair Play

My cream pineapple sweater won a blue ribbon at the Puyallup fair!



And the little yellow sweater that I made for Kate got a red ribbon.

This is my third year entering.  (Some day I'd like to try a drawing or painting.  So far it's just been crochet.)



We went to the fair on Monday evening, after Kate got home from school.  I picked Monday because the rides were half price that day. Kate brought home a ticket from school, and I got two adult tickets at half price as a Groupon deal.  (Andy was free.)  We took along our own food.  We do the fair cheap!

We've usually gone in the Blue Gate, but this time we found a place to park for $5 that was about three blocks from the Green Gate, so we went in that way. (That's Green Gate One, for any Three Investigator fans.) It's kind of the back entrance. All the horse trailers are parked over there. So we had to walk all the way across the fair to get to the Art Hall to see how my sweaters did, and then the kids were all antsy and I didn't really get to look at anything else.  Next time I'll just go without the kids on opening day so I can check out all the other creations!



I spotted this dragon at the chainsaw carver.



Kate on the little dragon roller coaster.  I reminded her that she hadn't enjoyed it last time, but she insisted that she wanted to ride it.  She didn't enjoy it this time either. 



The canoe ride was well received by both kids. 




This was a fun house for smaller kids, and they let parents accompany the really little ones.



Big long slide!



Andy had such a great time he wanted to go again.  I took him through the second time, while Kate sat in Andy's stroller and groused about wanting a toy.




We didn't really want to spend any money on a toy for Kate, but we did spot this game that had cute dolphin-hammer prizes.  This being a special kids' game, you got a prize whether or not you managed to ring the bell, so we used some of our ride tickets on that. 



Kate had a little trouble with the heavy hammer, and got some help from Daddy.



Ding!



This car ride was also a big hit.  (They only had four cars going and the line was pretty long--Doug took Andy on something else while Kate and I held a spot.)




The last ride of the day was this Wally Gator thing that just went around in a circle and over some gentle bumps. 



Waiting for the ride to start.



Andy seemed quite fascinated by all the rides.  He likes watching roller coaster videos, but I don't think he'd ever been on any kind of ride before.



Kate with her dolphin-hammer thingy.  (It's pink!) It squeaks when you whack things with it. She has named it Kissy.

Kate wanted to get a slushie at a particular place that was back on the other side of the fair, so Doug took her to do that while Andy and I went to get the car.  (At this point we were expecting it to be a school night, so we wanted to get home at a reasonable time.)

We were only there for a couple of hours, but we had a good time.  I realized--it's not so much the crowds, it's the noise. Makes it hard to carry on any kind of conversation.  "Do you want to go on this ride?"  "WHAT?"  "WHAT?"  And then I walked out the gate into the quiet cool evening and just kind of went "Ahhhhhh!"



I knew that Monday was Chuseok but I didn't really think of it till Andy and I were walking back up the hill toward the lot where we parked, and we saw the moon all huge and round on the horizon. Not particularly bright, right then, as it was still getting dark and it was also pretty hazy on the horizon, but still impressive.  A fall harvest moon and family fun!  A good day.

So long at the fair

We thought we might not go to the fair this year. We felt like Kate had sufficiently filled her exciting ride quotient at Kings Island. And weighing the amount of fun versus the amount of hassle, we weren't sure if it was really worth it. We're not from around here--it's not like we have a long-standing deeply-cherished family tradition that we'd be breaking by not going to the fair. But, well, Scott kept asking about it... and then we ended up entering stuff, so then of course we had to go.

The evening before the fair, our neighbor Genesis and her brother came by and told us that their mother was making tamales the next day, and we could come and learn if we wanted to (as we had previously expressed an interest). Alas, we had to tell them that we were going to the fair and would not be around for tamale-making. Bad timing.

We went with Scott and his daughter Kira. In past years we've taken the park-and-ride bus from the TCC parking lot. Sometimes it's fine, but we have had trouble finding a parking spot. Plus we always seem to come back right when traffic is heaviest, and it takes an eternity to get home. I wanted to try somewhere closer to the fairgrounds and suggested parking at the South Hill Mall in Puyallup. This was voted down for reasons that I'm still not completely clear on, and we decided to try the Tacoma Dome station instead. This turned out to not be a great idea either, but it worked out okay, and we got there before noon (free on opening day).

We stopped by the Art Hall first, to get that in before Kate got too antsy. This is the part that's hard about going to the fair with kids--I'd be perfectly happy to spend hours looking at the quilts and fiber arts and paintings and photos, but the things that I want to look at are not the things that Kate wants to look at.

There was this absolutely amazing painting there--a purple iris with big water drops on it, and a yellow swallowtail butterfly flying in from the side. Quite obviously done from photos but oh my goodness it was just phenomenal. I could have stood there and stared at it all day. (And certainly would have taken a picture, if not for the "No Photos Please" signs around that section.) I'm thinking about painting something for next year. Maybe.

Since we'd gotten there right before noon, the next thing we had to do was get some food. Unfortunately it was also lunchtime for everyone else. I brought my own food, but still had to wait for other people to stand in line to get stuff.



Doug and Andy in line for ice cream.



Andy, tired out from all the excitement.



Ice cream interlude.

We got along just fine without the stroller last year, but now whenever we go somewhere with the stroller, Kate wants to ride in it. So we brought the stroller for Kate and the backpack baby carrier for Andy.



Scott takes a picture.



Kate checks out a grasshopper. (Very exciting!)



Baby piggies!



Scott lifting Kate up to see the piglets.



Andy riding in style.



(and drooling.)



Kate went on this little canoe ride twice--once in a red boat and once in a yellow boat.




I took Andy over to a shady spot to feed and change him, and when I rejoined the others, Kate was enjoying this pony ride, on a palomino named Honey.




They had all the kids stop in front of this backdrop and pose with the hat for a flash-lit, printed-on-the-spot photo. We are amused by the fact that Kate is wearing two hats.



Scott and Kate on the carousel.



Kate and I went on the sky ride together.




The view from above.

By this time some of us were pretty cranky, so we figured it was a good time to head back. Scott and Kira stayed longer.



Kate, waiting for the bus home.



The ride back was pretty awful, but a nice guy gave me his seat when I needed to sit down and feed Andy. Another guy on the bus mentioned that, at that time of day, we could have taken the Sounder commuter train back to the Tacoma Dome. Perhaps we'll try that next time.