It's A Great State Fair -- Just like the musical

The Illinois State Fair
August 16th, 2008


The carnival used to be down in Happy Hollow. They still call this 'Happy Hollow' but 'tis not in a hollow as can be plainly seen. But we don't do rides.

But a lot of folks do.


We do the Dairy Building,

Where we found the butter cow. This year the cow expanded to a pastoral scene with tree, log calf, and skunks. The lady who make these travels around the land creating these for over forty years.

We also 'found' a delicious cream horn. It was wonderfully flaky French pastry stuffed with rich, buttery, ice cold whipped cream. It was outstanding!


These are called the '25 barns'. They are lettered from A to Q, are all brick with concrete floors except in the two strips of stall area in each.

When I was sixteen I got a job at the fair for the summer. I was on a crew of laborers who worked twelve hour days preparing these and other buildings by sweeping the floors day after day using floor compound until we brought up a shine on the concrete. Some of the buildings had over 3 acres under roof. An acre is 46,560 square feet. That is a lot of sweeping.



Here sits Sally on a huge bale of hay. I'm glad I never bucked bales this size.


Here's 'Turkey in the Straw' in picture rather than song.


This horse was perpendicular to the aisle. The little girl grabbed a lead and swung it gently round and round just brushing his flank and he kept moving over. When she stopped he started to step back into the aisle and she just leaned against his flank until folks passed. He didn't have a clue he could knock her out of his way. And she had no trepidation at all.


This is an Ayrshire cow. I always liked their markings. It's as if the dye bleed on the cloth a bit. You can see the 'shadow' around all their markings.


These were pretty heifers. I like the soft blending of their colors.


LINE UP -- I bet the farmer recognizes each one.


This little girl is ready to enter the show ring. Another child who is growing up around stock and is completely comfortable controlling an animal many times her size. Good for self-confidence.


This is a picture of two things. 'Happy Hollow' today which holds a handful of hokey shows like a 'gator rassler' and a petting zoo, and a small menagerie. And the exhibition hall on the hill. the original hall burned many years ago and was rebuilt. This is one of those three acre buildings with a mezzanine. I think the architecture of the buildings on the fairgrounds is really remarkable.

We rode the sky trams from one corner up to the grandstand and back. This is the crowd at the high dive show. It was a big draw. As we rode over I could not for the life of me see the folks talking, singing or diving. Must have needed to get the 'special glasses' to make them visible.

This is the Fire Museum now. In my day it was the public safety center. The fire and first aid station were here and the windows under the canopy were manned by state police who would take complaints and give directions. The action there was always impressive to me with the police coming and going.

'Tex' found him some shade to stand in. It just seemed like a good image to me. Notice the sign in front of him, "No golf carts beyond this point". Also notice the golf cart just past it to the right.

These signs are all over the fairgrounds but so are the golf carts. I don't understand.

This is down the street in front of the Coliseum on the left and the row of '25 barns' on the right.

The Coliseum is used for horse shows.

As you can see the grand stand is practically empty. The sprint cars were done racing and they were setting up for the stage show. They have top name acts through-out the fair.

This is looking back to the East, carnival on the left and Food-O-Rama on the right. We do food rather than the rides.

These are $3 farm trains. You can pay your $3 and ride them around the grounds all day.

This is looking South to the Main Gate. It is just by the brick building in the distant right top corner. The Ethnic Village is to the left and the Exhibition Hall is the brick building on the right.

A two tractor parade at Farmarama Lane. Look at the gray tractor closely. He is driving one handed and talking on a cell phone. Wonder what that sounds like on the other end?

Sonshines Birthday

The Birthday Boy, my sonshine, was ready to do the rebook of our Fathers' Day fishing charter. We all had so much fun before Kyle's wedding that we wanted to do it again. It took us until now.

Father's Day was stormy and we couldn't go out. This was the first weekend that we all were available. Since Brad and Don weren't going we were able to include Geoff and Alex.

So we left Waukegan harbor about noon on Drew's birthday. It wasn't too hot and it was gorgeous weather.
Steve, Kyle's father-law, was ready for the trip. We had a few pops and talked while waiting for the fish to wake up.
Geoff wore Julieanna's favorite hat and was looking forward to his first fishing charter. No one got sick or injured or died; so, we didn't need Geoff's professional services.
Kyle was part of the young muscle group. Someone had to carry the cooler with the pops. Apparently Sally purchase some new kind of ice made from heavy water. That was one HEAVY cooler. I was glad I took the cooler with the sandwiches (and WHEELS). Kyle always complained as a kid that the only reason we had children was the slave labor. Right! All you parents know better, don't you?

Alex wanted to go last time; but, they have a six person limit and it was Kyle's wedding party. We made sure to take him. He had a Dramamine before the trip and it made him really tired. He didn't get sick and he did have fun.
Captain Tim on the left, of Seamates II, and the rest of the team watching the wake. We did a lot of that. It clouded over a bit and the waves kicked up a bit. We got a lot of exercise riding the waves.
We did see some unusual craft. This one was really haulin'. he came out of the West toward Great Lakes, turned to the North and passed well aft between us and the shore. He disappeared in the North in about ten minutes total.
The Adoxographi out of Evanston was out for a sailing lesson, I believe. It is a play on words. Adoxography is a term coined in the late 19th century, and means "fine writing on a trivial or base subject." It was a form of rhetorical exercise. Anyway, I think they were out for a lesson because they were under Main only and he was sitting on the cabin roof explaining trim and handling. A good looking boat.

Benita and Tricia and Alex enjoying pretty Logan. Kyle and Sarah's baby. I got the back of her head because you couldn't handle her cuteness.
Geoff and Julieanna's baby Cora is a cutie too. She was under the weather. Sore throat, cough and feeling punk. Pretty good natured for a sick baby.
Ashley and Drew with party beads and you can't see the glo-bracelets. Preparing for dinner at Uno's. Can you tell they had a softball summer? Sun damage.

A full day enjoying kids, friends and grand kids. Geoff caught a nice big brown trout. It was his first. I reeled in a Coho that we dragged to death. It was on a while before anyone noticed. Tim was re-setting lines and noticed the down rigger was flexing a bit. As he was reeling in the line he realized he had a fish on so he handed it off and I was there on the rail so I got it. I lucked out because he wasn't fighting it much. But the eating is still good.

A Sugar Bear Birthday

This has nothing to do with a Sugar Bear birthday; but I took a picture the other night and really like the way it turned out. Now let's look at a birthday for a special girl. Her lovely lass and husband, Geoff, holding Cora brought the birthday girl to Bakers Square (her choice) for dinner on August 1st.
The birthday girl her self, my sugar bear, Julieanna. Looking good for her age. Motherhood definitely agrees with her.

Alex (our favorite grandson, his mother, Tricia, Ashley our young lady and Drew the senior member of the siblings club just a couple days 'til his day. Glad they could attend the birthday party.
Mother of the birthday girl holding another blessing, Logan Elizabeth. Kyle, our youngest and 'little brother' of the birthday girl and his bride, Sarah attended.
Uncle Drew corrupts Logan. Not really she just liked to grab his glass. But no tea for her.

Grandpa holds Cora and she is quite content. She butters me up cause I promise her chocolate someday. I did give her fresh lemon segments and she really likes chewing on those.

Uncle Drew teasing Logan? No, surely not.
Sally's folks Delores and Harvey made it to the big bash. They are amused by Cora chewing the lemon wedges.
Kyle checks his photos and Sarah enjoys having two hands free for a few minutes.
It is always a lot of fun to see the babies together and the kids too. They are really wonderful young folks and are a pleasure to know.

A Day with Cora

Here's our little charge d'jour. She was happy as a clam, however happy a clam is, all day.
She was very sweet and entertaining. Here she is being soooo sweeeeet.


Here Cora is so glad to see Grandma on the floor.
I think she is laughing at the thought of Grandma getting up. Or just because she is having so much fun making the two of us act like the fools we are over her.
She enjoyed reading her new book lying there.



Then she did her tricks. How big is Cora?



And she is making up for her cousin Logan, They have both ends of the range of human hearing covered. Cora sings bass, Logan sings soprano.

An Alex Day, July 13th

Since Ashley was scheduled for a three day Fast Pitch Softball tournament and Dad coaches and Mom keeps score multiple time a week, we thought Alex might want to do something different for a change of pace. He did.

So we took him to Lake Geneva and Delavan, Wisconsin. He has liked horses for a long time now. So we thought the Dancing Horses Theater and Animal Gardens would be fun.

We had lunch at "Popeye's on Lake Geneva". They have bluegill on the menu. It was a good lunch and then off to the show.

Here Alex and Grandma wait for the start of the show.

The pictures are dark and poor because I used my cell phone camera. I assumed that photography would not be allowed, as in most theaters. But once we were in they said take all the photos you want. Just no videos.

These costumes were glowing plastic with a Spanish flavor. They were riding Andalusian.


This was a riderless Lipizzaner. It trotted under the turning ring as if a carousel horse. It would jump and kick to pose as if in a dream. There was a curtain of tiny bubbles falling from the ring as it spun.


These are six Arabians that were riderless just like a circus act. They were well trained too. This was their bow on our side.



And their bow on the stage right. The first horse was picking up the lady's purse.


Then the riders came out on curtain call in the last costumes they wore. The left is a Lipizzaner, the the Indian, the circus act, and the Spanish costume.


Then we went through the Animal Gardens and saw the trained parrots. One couple were oddly like Sally and I. The male was named Gregory (but she called him Greg) and he was 60 years old. His mate was not Sally. She was Rosie, and 71 years old.

There were exotic animals and baby animals. They had a calf named ...

Lucky No. 7. See the natural "7" on his forehead?

We took a hay ride around the pastures and then went to Lake Geneva for shopping.
Ask Sally about the unfortunate events