Fair Day

Today I had a great day at the Minnesota State Fair.  Here is a photo of one of my finest moments.  It's a little dark but there I am, in a Smokey The Bear costume. I didn't put on the jeans (I already had jeans on) or the hairy feet but the top half of Smokey came almost to my knees.  I'm a little too short to play Smokey but I got to try on the costume and pose for a photo so now my life is complete.  Those guys in the DNR building were great to let me try it on.  My sister and I spent 5 hours volunteering at the MOU (Minnesota Ornithological Union) booth just outside the DNR building.  We had to go upstairs in the DNR building to sign in and that is where they keep the bear costumes.  We had fun volunteering.  The MOU booth has a spinning wheel where you can guess what bird the wheel lands on.  Kids love the spinning wheel.  They also had a wooden cut out of eagle wings (80 inches wide).  Smaller birds were marked on the wings.  People could stand and spread their arms against the board and measure if they were an eagle, turkey vulture, osprey, raven, hawk, etc.  After a while, that wooden set of wings got heavy.  Holding it down for little kids is easy but some of those guys were much taller than I am.  We had 5 men who measured the full bald eagle wingspan.  One of the eagles was a friend of mine's son who is only 16 years old.  Primary school kids were usually crows or broad winged hawks.  Older kids were ravens or great egrets.  Women were usually turkey vultures or osprey.  After a while I could guess pretty accurately which bird people would be.  We were located right against the building close to the fish pond.  I had a great day talking to people and measuring their arms. Some people wanted to be measured but didn't approach me.  I could see in their eyes they wanted to be measured.  With just a couple words of encouragement they would shed their bags and hold out their arms. Some people backed up to the board.  Others came at it from the front which put their faces really close to mine.  Golly, it was fun.  Offspring, sisters, brother-in-law, nephews, friends, and a cousin were there to keep us company.  I ate pretty healthy too - corn on the cob, a grilled cheese sandwich from the French Meadow Bakery, a bite of a strawberry scone, some kind of Egyptian dish from the Holy Land Deli with rice, noodles and lentils and finally an apple for dessert.  I had a great day at the fair.  I would definitely do it again next year.