The O.C. Fair

On Friday Liz and I took the kids to the Orange County Fair for the afternoon.

Once upon a time JE used to enjoy going on the Giant Slide but lately we haven't been able to pay him to ride it. The bunny, on the other hand, thought the Giant Slide was great and together we went on it three times. She also went on two kiddy Roller Coasters, once with me & once by herself, and she was screaming with laughter the whole time. When she saw the Chair Lift ride she was adamant that she wanted to ride it, too. Liz declined but I managed to talk JE into riding it with us so we rode it across the park and back again. Afterwards we still had a couple of tickets left so JE took the bunny through the mirror maze, again. He also went through the Fun House and was a bit disappointed that it didn't have two stories like the one from last year's LA Fair. I was, too. It didn't take him much more than 30 seconds to go from one end of the Fun House to the other, and that's being kind to the Fun House. It was so short that we were able to get the bunny on to the Flying Dumbo ride (again by herself) then walk to the Fun House, which JE went through twice (and got stuck behind a slow kid the second time through), and when we got back to the Dumbo ride it still hadn't stopped.

The kids also played a couple of midway games. They both went "fishing" and won a small, stuffed turtle each, while JE threw darts at balloons, popping two (with two darts) and won himself a stuffed dog. The bunny wanted to pop balloons too but we didn't think it wise to let her be throwing darts around. Lord knows where they'd end up.

The (supposed) last stop was the Petting Farm, where they sold small cones of feed for $2. I don't think the girl in charge of selling the food was happy to hear me telling JE what would happen if he went in there with a pellet-filled cone. You get mugged by goats is what happens. You offer them a small handful of pellets but they go for the cone instead, and one quick crunch is all it takes to spill the pellets all over the ground. Inside the enclosure was a gumball machine set up to dispense a handful of pellets for 25¢, so I got a handful and gave the kids some each. They tried to feed the baby wallaby and the baby goat and were somewhat successful, although the baby wallaby was a bit freaked out by the little boy who kept trying to pick him up (his parents didn't do too good a job of stopping him), and after eating a few pellets he ran off. The wallaby, that is, not the boy.

On the way out we passed the stage where a group of Chinese performers were just starting their show, so we sat down to watch. Initially I stood behind the bunny's stroller but Liz called me over to sit down at the table next to her. It was shortly after that I heard the people behind me yelling at people in front to sit down...perhaps they'd also been yelling at me. One woman (who appeared to be someone's nanny) was approached by a man and told she was blocking the view of people behind her. She nodded and handed off the baby she was holding to the woman who appeared to be the baby's mother, who was sitting in the baby's stroller, then remained standing. Of course the yells from behind us persisted, directed specifically at the nanny, and when it was mentioned that there was an empty seat next to her (I think that comment came from my wife) a young boy crawled out of the stroller and sat in the empty seat, while the nanny remained standing, for the entire show.

Finally we made it out of the Fair grounds back to the car and despite not having had a nap both kids stayed awake the entire drive home, but neither of them stayed awake long once they were home in bed ;)