Blasts from the Past

State fairs and amusement parks always fill me with a sense of nostalgia. As a kid, my family went to both every year. Between the two, my favorite is the fair. Both have rides, great people watching, and yummy deep-fried fare (admittedly my favorite part), but only the fair has freakishly large or small, horse races, and the latest and greatest gadgets.

I was not able to make it to the Idaho State Fair this year, but the Utah State Fair was an acceptable substitute. There are no horse races, but there was plenty of people watching, freakish animals, deep fried food, and . . . ELVIS! Okay, Elvis was not that great. Horrible, actually. It was billed as the American Idol of Elvis contests to determine who would go on to the national Elvis contest. It ended up being only three men, two of which only had a sequinned jumpsuit in common with Elvis. The only one that was any good lost to the one that threw out a bunch of scarves. He was robbed!



Luckily, the rest of the fair did not let me down. There was a steer that was over six feet tall,

a three-month old calf,


a surprisingly serene pig with more piglets than I can count,
lots of fried food (twisted taters, funnel cake, and a scone for me), and, of course, the latest and greatest rides.


Earlier in the summer, I went with my family to Lagoon. It hasn't changed much. There are a lot of new rides, but the Collosus is still the best ride. There was some sibling drama early on. This picture says it all.
But after a couple hours at Lagoon-A-Beach all was well again.