Minnesota State Fair

The State Fair has sadly been over for a few days now, but I left my final recap of my favorite event of the year until now. This final visit on the final day was bittersweet, as it always is when it sinks in that this fantasy world of food you just engorged yourself in will be gone for an entire year. The day was a blast with my cousin Andrew and my brother Ryan -- we ate (duh), played games at the arcade, and best of all, meandered aimlessly around the fairgrounds for an evening. And in case you're wondering,...

As you all know, the fair wrapped up on Monday. But that doesn't mean I shouldn't recap my last visits there -- it's been a busy week, and I'm just catching up. This fair day started in the late afternoon, again, on another hot day in the sun. The sweat rolling down my back and humidity made for an awful combination. When word rolled in that rain was in the forecast later in the evening, it sounded like welcome relief. This final Saturday was definitely one of the busiest days at the fair this year. Because it was so busy when we arrived, we walked around...

This fair rendezvous took place with my mom, sister, and wife. This experience was not all about eating -- each time I go to the fair with my mom, we go into all the buildings, shops, and check out everything that's going on. And, we have to go early. So our day started by getting up in the morning for our fair experience and ended just when it started to really get hot. Upon our arrival, most of us started off the day by getting some of our favorite go-to foods -- footlong hot dogs and corn dogs.

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The Minnesota State Fair is one of the largest events the state hosts each and every year. This year started off the same with healthy attendance numbers, but the fair experienced a big dip as the temperature and humidity reached unseasonable territory. The worst attendance days were early in the week, but yesterday was a huge turnout for the event, with 117,480 attending compared to the just over 101,000 last year. This day alone helped the numbers in attendance...

This planned trip to the fair was a date with three of my closest friends, Dan, Ryan, and Derek -- of course, we planned this Wednesday day trip before we knew it was going to be one of the hottest days of August made worse by the immense humidity. I'm guessing because of the weather, the big crowds usually present midday were not in attendance. This was probably the lowest midday fair turnout I've seen in years. Humidity can destroy the will of a person in this state. Well, at least we could sweat the pounds off we were adding on by eating. As most of you know, my main objective...

This second fair day was a late night, brief visit. Cadi and I made it to the fair consecutive days, Friday and Saturday, but this second visit we got to meet up with my sister and brother-in-law to eat dinner and have some drinks. It's always fun to go to the fair later in the day as the crowds are smaller, and the sun and humidity are less brutal. Of course, some people don't want to shell out the $12 to only stay at the fair for a few hours, but for some like me, the brief visits are sometimes the best -- you are significantly less worn out, and you still leave full of fair food...

My wife Cadi and I are huge fans of the Minnesota State Fair -- each year we make sure to visit the fairgrounds as much as possible. Even though the fair only opened on Thursday, both of us were a bit anxious to be sitting at home that evening as the first day of the fair wrapped up -- waiting until the following day seemed like torture, the dinner we had at home paled in comparison to delicious food at the fair. We are both fans of eating everything the fair has to offer. With that in mind, I'm going to visit the fair as much as possible in 2013 and try new foods each visit. Well, and some of...

The most important thing a visitor to the Minnesota State Fair can do, is eat, and eat a lot. Of course, there are the staples like corn dogs, cheese curds, and corn on the cob -- but the fair also offers a lot more, unique food options. With each year, the fair brings a lot of new foods for visitors to try -- this year, the fair is bringing forth 40 new foods, some more pedestrian than others, and some so crazy it takes a bold person to eat. Last year, I was one of those crazy people, trying the absolutely dreadful chocolate covered jalapeños. It was a horrible experience I will not soon forget. But I also tasted...