Kristin, Dohoon and I went to the Saratoga County Fair the other day. Here’s some of what we saw.
Shortly arriving we watched a ‘wild west’ show which featured lots of trick shooting and knife throwing and crazed whipping! The above was taken during a routine where he set two whips on fire and cracked them so sparks flew everywhere and it looked like fireworks. Later we watched an extremely talented ‘comedy juggler’ that (briefly) juggled six items. Yesterday I tried three myself, with questionable success 😉
That’s a rabbit! Of course there were lots of animals on display, and we had a look at them all.
Kristin got a ‘roll ice cream’ which is made from a liquid state by freezing it on a flat plate and then rolling it up. The young guy who made it was very fast, and it was incredibly delicious! We saw places selling this in Japan and didn’t try it; I’m sure we will next time.
The legality of the real money coin pushers seems questionable, but this hardly stopped me from putting $2.50 in quarters into this one since I wanted to win that $50 hanging over the edge. I reject outrageous claims it’s probably superglued down! (I won nothing.)
A master chainsaw artisan was doing demonstrations and his creations truly were impressive. He had about ten chainsaws and other tools, and all of the statues began from an approximate four foot tall piece of wood. He paints them himself, and all of them are auctioned at the end of the fair.
This horse was getting new shoes, and it was a bit icky watching the guy hammer the nails in and trim the hooves. I learned horses get new shows about every six weeks, the process is painless for the horse, and the shoes can be reused after the hoof is trimmed and the pad replaced.
A dramatic painting of a dragon either breathing fire or vomiting blood down onto a house! This was done by a teenager, and as you can see was selected for the upcoming New York State fair! I like the minimalist choice of colour. Maybe I’ll rip this off for one of my future creations…
Fries made by cutting potatoes super thin and frying them. This is essentially potato chips cooked in front of you, and was delicious (and I’m sure extremely healthy). Fair food is outrageously pricey now, so it’s good it’s also tasty!
There was a traveling kangaroo petting zoo! It was $10 so only I went in but the owner refused my money when he learned I was Australian (I paid him anyway). Above I’m holding a 7-month old Joey who occasionally opened her eyes to look at me. She was above as heavy as a young cat, and incredibly cute. They also had five eastern greys, two wallabies and a red, and I patted and said hello to every single one! This was my highlight of the fair 🙂
And, of course, I loved the rides. I didn’t go on any, and regretted it afterwards. Next year I will!
I didn’t take any photos but Dohoon and I also competed at shooting air rifles. In fact we did it twice to remove the question of one gun being better than the other. The result: a tie (both of us hit the center of the target). But we also did some archery and it turns out he was extremely good, hitting close to the center with every arrow compared to my 50% rate of even hitting the target. The green pennant I wear in the kangaroo pic was given to use after the archery 🙂
I believe this is the only fair we’ll be able to go to this year, and after a year in which we went to none it was a lot of fun.