Fried

So after an unimaginable amount of procrastination, I have finally gotten it together enough to start a blog. My husband (let's call him R), 2 1/2 year-old daughter (let's call her J) and I ventured to the L.A. County Fair this weekend and it seemed a suitable topic for my first blog.

After getting on the road and having to turn around to get J's stroller, we finally arrived in Pomona at the L.A. County Fair. Considering we were taking the freeway in Southern California, I was amazed it only took us 40 minutes to get there from the LAX-ish area. Not wanting to spend an extra $10 to park near the entrance, we hoofed it from a parking lot that could have been in another county. By the time we made it to the front, I was ready to pitch myself into a vat of Icees. We breezed right in with our pre-bought tickets and a swarm of photographers descended on us to snap that lovely "you spent way to much on a bad picture at the fair" photo. We took one anyway, hoping that J would for once look at the camera during a family photo. More on that later.

I am always in awe of the amount of things they are able and willing to fry at the fair. Frog's legs, Snickers bars, White Castle burgers, even Coca Cola (what?). I of course, being too fried myself from the 80 something degree heat that was radiating up from the asphalt, had no desire to try one of the fried delicacies. We were on a mission and we were not going to stop and eat or drink until we completed it... the pony rides.

Having walked in circles and being sent in 6 different directions, we finally made it to the pony rides and petting zoo. I would like to say that I was sympathetic to the animals going round and round in the blazing heat, but this time I was thrilled. I couldn't wait to get J on a horse. If they would've let me, I would have jumped on one too. I love animals and seeing J experience them trumped all bad feelings I might have normally had. Besides, they are not mistreated, in fact, they are just walking round and round in circles like we were earlier to find them. J didn't want to get off the horse, but the temptation of the petting zoo made that a little easier. Before we could cavort with the pigs, goats, donkeys, deer, llamas, wallabies, sheep and chickens, R went over to a Star Wars-esque, home-decorated car complete with Yoda and R2D2. I found myself shaking a Jedi's hand and trying to make a storm trooper seem cute instead of scary to J (I think she bought it).

After my little Dr. Doolittle was done feeding the animals in the petting zoo, playing a pink guitar in the Barbie house setup, watching a sad and misguided magic show by Ronald McDonald, it was finally time to eat. I thought I would gorge myself on all things fried, but I ended up with a roast beef sandwich and half of J's fries. J had her first hot dog and R had a Philly Cheesesteak. We even bought some fruit so we wouldn't feel like we were destroying J's eating habits for life. I would say that is pretty tame for a fair. I think the one thing we did overindulge on was drinks. No matter how much we drank, we could not quench the insane thirst we had. Iced tea, Coke, orange soda, lemonade, water (yes, we drank water) and an Icee (cherry of course). We cooled off a bit in the enclosed shopping area where people battled to buy chamois, shower heads and portable coolers.

J flew in a little kiddie plane, rode the jumbo slide with me and went up on the ferris wheel with R. We checked out the animal barn area and J started saying"cock-a-doodle-doo" over and over again to a group of roosters in one pen area. Suddenly one of the roosters looked at J, walked a few steps towards her and let out a loud, "cock-a-doodle-doo!" J freaked out and ran behind me. A few onlookers were saying to each other "Did you see that? That little girl made the rooster crow, etc." I was oddly proud of her and wanted her to continue talking to the rooster. She would not have it. She had turned her sights on group of kids riding plastic John Deere tractors on a track instead. Yee haw.

We got soaked at a misting/cooling station and explored the Hawaii exhibit (one can dream, can't they?) and decided that we had finally reached the point of exhaustion. We purchased a bag of popcorn, watched people play the carnival games and headed over to the photo booth to see our picture from the beginning of the day. The guy pulled up the photo, looked at us and without hesitation and offered us $2 off the $12 price. J wasn't looking at the camera.