Fair day was a blast. It really takes almost a whole day to do the fair proper. And it will probably take a full day of biking to work off the Buckets o’ French Fries and other greasy assorted edibles that were consumed at every turn. My favorite thing at the fair was Lillian. Lillian is a 91 year old lady who has a little table in the agricultural building and sits there from noon to 5:30pm and makes crop art from seeds. She makes things like, We Are the World posters, where you have to wonder what seed is pink enough to make Cyndi Laupers hair stand out. No problem for Lillian though – she’s a master in her field – one seed and one drop of Elmer’s glue at a time. Over the years Lillian has amassed quite a collection of celebrity crop art. Bill Cosbys up on her wall. So is David Letterman. She was hard at work on some gigantic bird when I was watching. She was in a zone so I didn’t bother her.

The other highlight was definitely flying over Machinery Hill in the micro gondola and getting to see aerial shots of all the latest shiny new farm equipment and then flying over a crazy new addition to the fair called “Big Boy Sandbox”, where anyone with a valid drivers license can not only operate a BobCat but can race other contestants to see who can build like the biggest pile of dirt in the shortest amount of time. Ahhh…Minnesota.