The County Fair is typically a big summer event. In the past several years though we have been disappointed with the quality of the fair as well as the cost. This year was no exception and added to previous years of disappointment. Twenty-four dollars just to get the family inside and then $3-4 per ride for the kids. But the kids enjoyed it and you can’t put a price on their happiness. We first toured the animals where they got to see pigs, goats, sheep, all kinds of birds (some that I had never seen before) and rabbits.
Next we saw all the vegetables and produce. People had decorated up their vegetables to look like different things like a submarine made out of a squash, or a porcupine out of a potato. There were some pretty creative ideas on display. We then checked out the flower diaplays with some pretty wild and beautoful flowers like this sunflower.
We also wandered through the photography exhibits and artwork but by this time the kids had had enough and were restless for the carnival rides. We bought 40 tickets for $20 and let the kids choose what rides they wanted to go on. There was a helicopter ride where they could control the elevation of the copter, a race car ride that went around in circles, a canoe ride through a waterway and several other little kiddie rides that they were tall enough to go on. Finally my oldest son wanted to go on the big ferris wheel. It was an incredible view at the top looking down on the entire Fair.
All in all it was a fun day and the kids really had a great time which is the most important part. See my Flickr site for additional photos.
Went to the Tigard Festival of Balloons yesterday. Tigard is about a 2 hour drive from us so in order to get there for the early morning (5:45) launch we had to hit the road no later than 4AM. Having gone to bed late the night before it was quite a chore but we did it and arrived just in time to see the first balloon lift off. There were plenty more balloons laid out on the tarmac with their baskets on their sides. The crew would first roll out the balloon on teh ground and then attach the basket. Then a powerful fan would blow air into the balloon to start inflating it. As more air was pushed into the balloon it would slowly and magically rise into the air and the basket would be pulled to an upright position. This got everyone excited, especially photographers who crowded around the balloon snapping photos like paparazzi. Next the fuel and burner system was checked and a test flame sent up into the balloon. As the air was heated you could see the basket start to pull up from the ground. After a few comments (and probably prayers) the pilot motioned that he was ready for lift-off and everyone stepped back a bit. The pilot then shot a stream of fire that seemed to go halfway up into the balloon. It only took a couple of jets on the throttle to get lift-off. It was just an amazing and peaceful sight to see all these balloons gently soaring into the sky one after another. What a cool experience it would be to go up in a hot air balloon, soaring quietly over the country-side at the mercy of the wind, looking down like a stranger on a foreign land. I overheard one pilot talking about having to adjust altitude to catch different streams of wind in order to change direction of the balloon. What a great analogy of our own lives. We have ups and downs and we seem to labor and stress over the downs. But sometimes you have to go down in order to catch that next stream of wind and change your direction.
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