Fair for Him, Great for Me

I'm friends with the North Carolina State Fair on Facebook. I love the fair that much, and I am that much of a dork.

Last year, I was pregnant and going to physical therapy when the fair was in town. Something about my lower back and my SI joint. Funny how debilitating it was a year ago and now I can't even fully remember what was wrong. However, I do remember how I couldn't get out of bed the day after the fair.

All in the name of those little mini donuts.

Kevin and I took Christopher to the fair on Tuesday. It was the last warm day of the week, and I really wanted to take Christopher to the fair. Kevin surprised me and managed to get off work early to join us. I'm really glad he did because honestly? The fair wasn't that great to a nine month old.

I packed up the jogging stroller and my Babyhawk and a diaper bag full of emergency items. We headed in Gate 8 past the folks singing revival music and the Village of Yesteryear.

The first order of business was food.

A turkey leg, fried pork chop on a stick, a biscuit, some banana pudding, and a bottle of water held us over for awhile.

Christopher just sat in his stroller with an expression that said, "Are you done eating yet? Can we get moving?"

So we did. We wandered through the fairgrounds looking at the rides that Christopher is too little to ride. We wandered through the buildings where the chickens scared him and the cows smelled badly. We wandered around looking in vain for the ostrich burger we had saved room for, only to find that they weren't there this year.

Another big void? Chef Rameaux, may he rest his Cajun soul in peace. He died this past September, and the absence of his booth at the fair stung just as much as it does when I drive down Person Street past his empty shop. He once scolded me for not wanting to buy crawfish from him that had come from China.

"Girrrrrrrrrrl! Don't choo know those crawfish don't care where they grew up???"

I digress. Mightily.

As excited as I was to take our son to the North Carolina State Fair for the first time, I can honestly say, meh. It was. Just was. There really isn't that much to do with a nine month old at the fair except be tempted to feed him a bunch of stuff that he shouldn't eat.

Still though, we have the pictures and the memories. So many things, I think, we do for ourselves as parents. Things that mean something to us, we want to share with our children. So while Christopher passed out in the Babyhawk, I happily posed by the salt water taffy to give him his first fair experience the total package.

An original Triangle Mamas post. Marty doesn't blog anymore. Ever. Maybe occasionally. Okay, sometimes, but who knows where anymore?