Fourth at the Fair

We spent our Fourth of July in Del Mar at the San Diego County Fair.  Dennis and the boys joined us from scout camp, and it was so fun to all be together again.

It is a great fair, and is SO much better than our Date Festival - more vendors, more food, more everything... especially more people!  We were crammed in there shoulder to shoulder.  it was Nuts!

First we went to see the farm animals.  The buildings where the animals were were very clean and nice.

Caleb got an eyeful as he came up behind a cow doing her #2 business.  Oh my!

The twins even ran into their Lego Robotics teacher, Ms. Liberty.

Our favorite building was the woodworking/gem building, where the boys were fascinated by watching woodworkers doing their thing: turning toy tops on a lathe, making children's chairs, and cutting wood into shapes with a scroll saw. They gave the boys the pieces that they had cut out for a souvenir. They were also fascinated by the amazing wood furniture and boats that people had made, as well as the glowing rocks under the black light.

We had a frugal lunch under the archways of one of the beautiful buildings there.  The architecture at the fair is lovely and there is a lot of greenery.

We were really strapped for cash, unexpectedly, on this trip, because of the scam and consequent stopping of our debit card that I wrote about in an earlier post.  We had no card, and since it was a holiday, no access to cash, so we had to do the fair on the cheap - meaning NO rides (OK by me) and NO fair food (bummer!).   

Luke is growing a mustard-stache.

One of my favorite parts of the fair are the vendor booths.  So much to see and spend $ on.  Of course, my sister Natalee, kept turning her head for things like sewing machines, and the boys were fascinated by the toys and magic.  It was the cup cakes, and gleaming jewelry that caught my eye.  I found a booth where the guy makes his own fused glass and then uses the pieces to make beautiful pendants.  I am fascinated by glass, and his stuff was beautiful!

I also really enjoyed thew fine arts/ photography building.  the entries were really top quality and displayed SO much nicer than at our fair.  I would NEVER win an award for my paintings at this competition, so I should be grateful that our county fair is so much smaller.  It was all very inspiring though.

Now, this is where the fun Fourth at the Fair gets ugly.

The clouds rolled in, and it started to get chilly.  It was 7pm, and the fireworks were to go at 9pm.  Everyone started whining that they were cold, and they had all left their sweaters in the car.  Nathan had a cold, and had also left his medicine in the car.  So, what does a mom do?  She goes back to the car to get what her kids need, right?  Well, of course, and that is just what I did.  Only the car was far away in a remote lot, and we had been shuttled in.  Caleb and Derek wanted to come along, so we elbowed our way through the thickening crowds (they were coming to see the fireworks) and finally found our way out of the fair to the shuttle stop.  The Shuttle was a big red double-decker bus, retired from its former life in London.  The boys got a big kick out of riding upstairs.  I was just happy that we got there just in time, and didn't have to wait long to ride back to our car.  Back at the car, we grabbed what we needed - the sweaters, Nate's medicine, the glow necklaces - and hurried back to the shuttle stop to wait for the next shuttle.  And wait.  And wait.  And wait.  We waited for over an hour!  Finally the same double-decker bus comes.  She is the only shuttle!  Unbelievable.  We all crowd on and she takes us, very, very slowly, through ridiculous traffic back to the fair.  By now it is dark, and just as we are standing in line for security, the fireworks start.  We hustle to where Dennis said there were watching the fireworks, but they have the way to get there all blocked off, and are herding people away, back behind the livestock buildings.  We hurry along, with everyone else, assuming they are leading is to where we can see the fireworks.  But they only lead us to a dead end because they had it all blocked off there too.  I could see the field where my family was sitting, but had no way of getting to them.  We were behind a building, and the only fireworks we could see were the ones very highest in the sky.  I love fireworks, and was very disappointed, but I was more disappointed for poor Caleb and Derek who were shorter than me, and saw even less of the fireworks.  It really made me mad that they herded us off to a place where we couldn't see anything like that!

The stupid thing about it all was by that time, it wasn't even cold anymore, and nobody needed the sweaters that I had just spent 2 hours to go get.  And it wasn't until we got back to the car that Nathan asked for his medicine.  I was just trying to be a good mom and that's what I get.  Oh well.

We took the same double-decker bus back to our car (the only ride my kids got to go on at the fair!).  On the bus ride home, Dennis did his best to rescue me from my foul mood by surprising me with a box of cinnamon rolls that he somehow found the funds for!  Yay!  I love the cinnamon rolls at the fair, and it worked to pretty much turn things around for me.