red Ravine At The MN State Fair — Minding Our P’s & Q’s, September 2010, photo © 2010 by Liz Schultz. All rights reserved.
We spent hours at the Minnesota State Fair yesterday. Fall made her official debut with a cloudy, blustery 68 degrees. I bundled up in my Lily and Hope North American Bear Center sweatshirt and made the rounds with Liz and two friends we go to the Fair with every year (it’s a Fall ritual!). We also met our friend Teri for the few minutes she could steal away from her duties at the Fair. We had a fabulous time.
This year’s annual Minnesota State Fair post (along with a list of 71 foods-on-a-stick) focuses on writers, and our day at the Fair did not disappoint. Author Peter Smith did a book signing at the MPR booth for his new book, A Porch Sofa Almanac. You can hear an interview with him sharing his favorite Minnesota State Fair memory at MPR. We also attended a book signing by this year’s Minnesota State Fair Foundation Author-In-Residence, Debra Frasier. We met the author at the J.V. Bailey House and bought her new book, A Fabulous Fair Alphabet.
After chatting with Debra about the Alphabet Forest, we decided to stop by her little log cabin at Baldwin Park, across from the 4-H building. Kids and adults alike love it here. You can spell out your name in Fair alphabet letters and your banner will be posted on her website the next day. I spelled red Ravine (the last “e” in Ravine is from the Cheese Curds stand) and Liz took the photograph for me. The Alphabet Forest is one of the most peaceful stops at the Fair! There are benches and lots of activities for kids.
We came home last night with a bucket of warm Sweet Martha’s cookies, a new pair of cornflower blue Brasko shoes for Liz (bought from a man from Kansas with a Swedish accent), and both of the author’s books. They were all out of Camel on-a-stick but other food highlights included Peaches & Cream, and Deep-Fried Bacon Cheddar Mashed Potatoes on-a-stick with the best honey mustard I’ve ever tasted. Yes, I think we have to buy those again on Monday. We’ll be there for a ride on Ye Old Mill and the last concert at the Grandstand, Dukes of September Rhythm Review (featuring Boz Scaggs, Donald Fagen, and Michael McDonald). See you there!
-posted on red Ravine, Saturday, September 4th, 2010
-related to these posts with tons of history about the MN State Fair: MN State Fair On-A-Stick, MN State Fair On-A-Stick (Happy B’Day MN!), On-The-Go List Of Must-Haves (MN State Fair), Nightshot – Carousel, MN State Fair On-A-Stick II – Video & Stats, food on-a-stick haiku, Peach Glazed Pig Cheeks On-A-Stick, the fine art of Princess Kay of the Milky Way (and the Butter Queens), Minnesota State Fair poster artists, the history of Fairborne and Fairchild, and the tradition of Tom Thumb Donuts.
Ah, Boz Scaggs was one of my favorites when I was about 13. One of my best friends’ older sisters had all his albums, and I took a liking. Cool that you get to see him.
And COOL red Ravine letters!!! I love each letter of the alphabet you used, but especially the “R” in Ravine. Sounds like you had a fabulous time at the fabulous Minnesota State Fair. Woot!!
Have fun today at the Twins game. You’re a girl on the go.
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ybonesy, I’ll have to check and see what some of the history of those letters are. Each one was inspired by one of the original signs at the MN State Fair. We had a lot of fun making red Ravine. Liz helped me pick the letters out. And, yes, I used to love Steely Dan, Boz, and Michael McDonald in the Doobies. It will be fun to see them. Aging rockers, well, in this case, kind of soul jazz. You’ve got to love them. Packing up for the Twins Game. They are playing the Texas Rangers. Off we go again!
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That sign is amazing beyond words! Love it! D
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It was great fun to see you at the Fair. You can’t imagine the thrill of seeing friends and their faces in the sea of strangers day after day.
I, too, love the “red Ravine” you made with letters.
One of my employees told me about a murder mystery that was written about 15 or 20 years ago; the setting is the Minnesota State Fair. I think the crime happens on Day 1, and it is solved on Day 12. I’ve got the book on hold at the library, and will check in about it if I think it’s worth reading.
I *can’t wait* to ride Ye Old Mill again…with the ghost of Fitz. In the poem he talks about one of the pictures inside the Mill. I’m going to read the poem again before Labor Day so we can all be ready.
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I’ve never been to a state fair. This makes me kinda want to go! Went to a county fair a few years ago, and I really liked seeing the crafts and the animals. I was disappointed to not find any deep fried candy bars. Maybe next time.
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diddy, thank you! Glad to see you on red Ravine. Always appreciate when you stop by. We had a lot of fun picking out these letters and meeting Debra Frasier. Her daughter, too, was really great. She was the one taking photographs of the kids when they came up to make their names with the Fair alphabet. She had great energy!
You, too, J. I only used to go to the MN State Fair about every other year. But since moving in with Liz who loves the Fair, and meeting Teri and Kay, friends who live and breathe the Fair every year, I’m hooked on going. I noticed this year I was starting to know more where things were, what I wanted to do.
At least for me, I can’t do it all every year. I have to pick and choose. Kay is passing the tradition on to her grandkids. She was saying that this year they were old enough to have their own agenda of things they wanted to do, beyond seeing the animals and petting them. She just loved that they had things they wanted to see and do.
I’ve only ever tasted the deep-fried candy bars once. They are SUPER sweet. I always have to have a Pronto Pup. I like the Corn Dogs, too. One of each!
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Teri, it was GREAT to see you, too. I love the red sweatshirts the employees get to wear! You looked so official. I was glad you could get away for a few minutes to visit with us. I had not heard of the murder mystery that takes place at the MN State Fair. I’d like to read that, too. Let us know what the title is. I love a good mystery.
I am really looking forward to riding on Ye Old Mill with you and Liz. After reading “A Night at the Fair” by F. Scott Fitzgerald, I want to try to experience it from his perspective, all those years ago. I’m going to read it again, too, before tomorrow. For today, I get a day of rest. We went to a Twins game yesterday and saw Jim Thome hit two homeruns, breaking records and moving into the record books. Liz got some great photographs. I think she took shots of Thome each time he was swinging one of those homeruns. I mean, she didn’t know at the time they would be homeruns. But that’s what ended up happening. It was a great day.
We figured out we had been around close to 200.000 people if you combine Friday and Saturday. There were over 40,000 at the Twins Game. And attendance at the Fair on Friday was around 150,000. So this introvert is peopled out! I can’t imagine doing that for days and days in a row like you do when you work there. Kay says you can block the people out after a while. And I was able to do that after I had been there a while. For extroverts, people who get their energy from being around other people, I bet it’s heaven on earth!
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Hi, QM,
Love the sign…next year you could make one for your “Casket Co. Studio” and then use it for publicity…whaddaya think?
I had a great weekend with Mike & his friend, Beth. I told them I knew you & Liz were at the fair. We spent half a day in Yellowstone, and there was a cold, hard wind blowing! It even blew the lens cap out of Beth’s hand as she was taking a picture of a “bubbling, steaming caldron,” and I said “don’t you dare try to retrieve it.” The ground looks hard but might be a thin crust around the thermal activity. One of the college kids that was working in the park, fell into a small pool and was scalded to death last year!
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oliverowl, I hope I get a chance to go to Yellowstone with you and Liz someday. It’s one place I’ve never been. I visited Glacier Park several times when I lived in Montana. But never Yellowstone. Can you believe that?
Sounds like you had a great time with Mike and Beth. That’s kind of scary that the wind was blowing so hard, it whipped her lens cap away. I had no idea someone had died from falling into one of the thermal caldrons last year. That sounds like a painful death. I’m kind of surprised they let you get that close to the edge.
I remember visiting and soaking in hot thermal pools when I did a canoe trip on the Nahanni River in Canada one year. I think the geography must be similar to Yellowstone in some places around that area. They did let us walk barefoot over some of the pooled areas but we had to be careful not to damage anything. They said the ecosystems are fragile in areas like that.
I’d love for Liz and I to be able to take a long driving trip West someday. I’m not sure if it’s going to happen before we retire or not. She wants to get an RV around that time. She might have me convinced!
BTW, I like your idea of spelling out Casket Arts or something related to our opening next year. I don’t know if the Alphabet Forest will be at the Fair next year, but I like the idea. We are thinking of doing a show this November for an opening coming up. Liz is at a meeting for it as I type. If it pans out, we’ll put something on red Ravine.
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