County Fair

My friend Kirsten and I went to the Multnomah County Fair at Oaks Park over the weekend because I totally needed to get my fix for Elephant Ears, and barn animals. We ended up parking outside of Oaks Park because traffic was insane. I didn't realize Multnomah County had a fair, so I was curious if it was going to be super hokey which I was kind of hoping for.

Our first good indication was this sign that read "Weiner Dog Contest Vender Parking and Rabbit Exhibitors." We headed over to the rabbits who were in the process of being judged. I had never seen so many varities of rabbit in one location. I don't think you can tell by the picture, but this guy was huge. He looked like he easily weighed 20 pounds or so. There was a very nice lady that noticed us taking pictures and offered to pose her bunny for us on a special bunny posing lecturn type thing. He looked alot like Groucho Marx. We hoped she did well in her category because you could tell she really liked her wabbits.

Next we headed over to actual fair itself. It was awesome. There was crap for sale all over the place, and the fair was packed. I am a huge people watcher, so I was happy to see all the people who I normally wouldn't run into in Portland. There was nary a hipster in site, except for a few uber-dorks like myself that love this type of thing. Here are a couple of my favorites. I was so happy to see a mullet, and these three women reminded me of the three muses, fair style.

There were a ton of great exhibits, including a petting zoo that smelled awful, a pen full of the cutest piglets and their gigantic mom, and Humphrey's Farmyard Fun where I got to make a Dirt Baby for free. It's basically a chia pet made with a nylon, compost mix, and grass seeds. You put the "tail" in a jar of water and eventually the baby will grow hair.

We went over to the main pavillion where they had all the items out for judging. There were flowers, jams and jellies, produce, and my favorite, the cowboy boot decorating contest. Here are some of the entries. I was impressed by the variety, and what people considered "decorating." One of my favorite entries for the flower arranging category was
a gorgeous arrangement with a football theme. I would show the picture but I had my camera on the wrong setting and it came out blurry. It had to be the most hideous thing I've ever seen, with a
football field as the focal point, and the flowers arranged as the goalposts.

We skipped the rides because they were kind of pricey, but we did manage to scam an Elephant Ear because their system was kind of wack and totally unorganized. Kirsten used the $5.00 we saved to buy a purple inflatable alien. She was very proud of it. We watched the balloon guy do his thing, and listened to a horrible singer mangle classic country tunes. After I while I was getting on overload, so we headed out and checked out the Oaks Park graveyard where they store old ride components that were put out to pasture.

Overall it was exactly what I had hoped for, and the nice thing was not having to drive for an hour and fight traffic to get my fair fix. This is Kirsten and her alien. You can check out her photos using the lensbaby lense at her website http://livefrombeechstreet.blogspot.com.