The ISF//Nothing Compares

Attracting more than one million people from around the world each year, it's the single largest event in the entire state of Iowa as well as one of the oldest. To miss out on such an affair while visiting 'home' would simply have been a travesty.

I'm talking about the Iowa State Fair (ISF), of course!

The Iowa State Fair is the country's most famous fair, and often the national media rank the fair as one of the top events in the country.

Food on a stick? Check.
Every food imaginable, FRIED? Check.
A never ending sea of food vendors? Check.
Cows sculpted of butter? Check.
(My life obviously revolves around food.) 
Some of the biggest livestock you'll ever see? Check.
Carney rides and games? Check.
A line up of Grand Stand performances that will knock your socks off? Check.
I mean, come on, how does that not sound like the best time ever? While I adore the Iowa State Fair my mom doesn't necessarily share my enthusiasm. However, Grandma Kathy was a champ and tolerated the fair so I could share the experience with Marcus.

Before I go any further, I have to confess that I took approximately 3,918,427 fair photos. That probably comes as no shock. However, this post is pretty photo heavy. Consider that your warning.

I purposely didn't eat much the day of the fair. I wanted the FULL experience of eating my way through the fair grounds. And, that is exactly what I did.

The turkey leg. 99.9% of the reason I couldn't wait to bust through the fair gates.

I'm not even ashamed at my selection of goods: A turkey leg the size of my head, some fried Oreos (yep, they were insanely good), a Boulevard Wheat, and Dutch letters. But, don't worry. I was too full to eat the Dutch letters AT the fair. I was wise and waited until later in the evening - after we'd left - to eat one (or two) of those. There wasn't a single inch of space left in my belly, but had there been I would have thrown some cheese curds in for good measure. Next time…

Our second stop, and a MUST SEE at the fair was the butter cow. It's literally a cow. Made of butter. Along with some other sculptures. Again, made entirely of butter.

There was a Field of Dreams theme going on this year, hence all the Field of Dream references: "Is this Heaven? No, it's Iowa" (bottom left), the two baseball players (bottom middle), and "If you build it they will come," (right).
The sculptures have to remain in these glass cases, which are refrigerated, or they would obviously melt. And, those cases which keep the figures nice and intact also create a pretty neat glare when photos are taken. 

Let's be real for a hot minute. Marcus could not have cared less about the butter cow. He'd been in a car for two hours, napped, and eaten. Just look at that pouty face. Kid was ready to bust loose.

I obliged in the little man's wiggly self and did what any good mother would do.
I took him to the midway.

From there we payed way too much money to ride all the little rides that fair dreams are made of.

 He looks so serious when he's having fun. But, I promise he had fun.

Then it was time to stop hemorrhaging from the wallet and leave the carnival.
A family friend was working a little area designed specifically for kids, so we had to check it out.

This hands on exhibit was so beyond awesome. While it may have been a little over Marcus' head this year, I'm sure the next time we visit the fair he will find it as cool as I did (and I thought it was freaking awesome).

The "farm" had all these little stations that kids went through. It sort of broke down and simplified how a farm operates. I thought it was the neatest. I should have been a farm girl. 

 From planting seeds, to gathering produce, to collecting eggs, and milking cows…

 There was even a tractor ride to transport the goods.

And at the end of the production line was "money" that each participant could use to purchase one item from the General Store. There were apples, and cartons of milk, string cheese, and the like. My kid picked the Bomb Pop. Smart move little man. Smart move.

Our last stop at the fair was in the birthing building. Probably my favorite of all the stops (ok, I'm kidding, the food was my favorite, obviously). This particular building educated fair-goers on how baby animals are born, and if lucky enough you might have even witnessed such an event (it's probably for the best we didn't see any live births during our visit, how would I explain THAT to a 2-year old?).
What we did see were a bunch of babies. It's a toss up if I loved it more than Marcus.

We saw baby chicks, baby ostriches, baby lambs, baby ducks and more. But the piglets and calves were hands down the showstoppers for us (those little pink piggies and those big brown eyes are exactly why I can't eat pork chops or hamburgers…).

Our very last Midwestern adventure before retuning back to Los Angeles was the great Iowa State Fair, nothing compares! We could not have ended on a higher note.