Living Like Alaskans

Last Saturday we went to the Alaska State Fair.

And boy what a fair it was.

It was a rainy day, but still so much fun. We saw giant vegetables, animals, hilarious items and bought some good food.

We had heard about the legendary giant vegetables, but I don't think that we were really prepared for what we were privileged to behold.

This is some of the most beautiful rhubarb I have ever seen and I so wanted to take it home with me and make some delicious pie. I refrained, however. :(

Here are a couple pictures of some other large vegetables. The only ones I know are the turnips and cauliflower.

And now for the main event.... the giant vegetables.

Here is the winning cabbage.

...and a close-up on how much it weighs.

And here is the winning pumpkin.

I refer to this guy as the "Great Pumpkin" from Charlie Brown. It was definitely great!

They even had fungus awards.

The sign below this one said:

This mushroom is found all over south central Alaska on dead birch trees, especially in our backyard. It is possibly parasitic, growing in clusters on wood of hardwoods, summer and fall. Very edible (crossed out). Very good looking.

I thought it was pretty awesome that "very edible" was crossed out with a pen.

We also saw some sweet animals.

This bunny was pretty much a fur ball with ears.

And though they don't necessarily look it in the picture.... these bunnies were very, very large. They were probably fed giant cabbages or something like that.

I thought that these white ducks were gorgeous... and judging by the blue ribbon, the judges must have agreed with me.

When I saw this sign I couldn't help but do a bit of reminiscing.

We didn't get to look at a lot of the big animals, like the cows, goats, hogs, and such because they were auctioning them off, but I did meet Ollie the Alpaca.

In another venue at the fair there were lots of pictures and this one was my favorite. I might have to recreate it and put it up in my home somewhere.

Besides the veggies, animals and art, we walked past all of the shops. At one point when it wasn't raining too hard this lady was up hula hooping away.

Throughout our journey we saw a lot of really unique things. I would love to own a grill like this someday.

Anyone for bacon or pickle flavored floss?

Or what about these for an ice tray? (I laughed really hard when I saw these.)

There was one store that had all sorts of cool things made out of metal and glass. This little penguin was my favorite.

There were lots of random picture stands throughout the fairgrounds. We, of course, could not resist to poke our heads through a couple of these.

And now we come to the fair food. We had some really interesting options to choose from. Some that I did not opt for were the chocolate covered bacon, the donut burger, and the turkey leg.

Our friends, the Blombergs (they are in the Air Force with Brig), chose the brick of fries with cheese on top.

And we chose to share a frozen chocolate "dipt" banana ...

...and some of the most amazingly delicious crab cakes ever. I was in heaven. Just pretend that you can hear angels singing as you look at this next picture.

And so our first experience with the Alaska state fair was a success. If anyone wants they can come with us next year.