I'm sure there's a song somewhere about the State Fair

Yesterday we sort of struck out on our own. The point of being in the flat land of concrete roads is to see my mom's side of the family, so when my uncle decided that his family wasn't going to the Fair, my mom was in a pickle.

Milwaukee, August 5: My aunt, a cousin and my grandmother did come with us, so it wasn't a total loss as far as family time. We didn't spend all that much time (the fair is a lot bigger when you're a kid), but we did walk the center market, meandered through some animal barns, saw some Wisconsin products, watched a circus and did about 1/2 the Expo center, while completely ignoring midway. The last is obvious, right?
The center market should be renamed Fried City. Deep fried cheese curds reigned supreme. It's quite sad to see huge people in electric wheelchairs, eating from a huge pile of fried cheese. I can only hope it's a once a year fair indulgence. We all enjoyed the Birthing Barn with a newborn calf and hatching chicks. The girls felt the need to share details of balut with the incubator kid. The Wisconsin products building was interesting. The kids participated in a veggiecar race (you figure it out) and we all got free fridge thermometers. That's 1/2 the fun at a fair, right? All the free stuff. The Expo building should have been renamed "As Seen on TV" building. We spent a large chunk of time at the Polish stall. Ian picked up an Intro to Polish book and spent about 5 minutes getting his mouth to form My name is Ian. The Polish word "sie" is pronounced closer to "sh-ow" with a swallowed n at the end. Even with my grandmother there, he tried to make some sounds match the spelling. All the kids went wall climbing. Jonathon made a good attempt.
Lunch was, of course, brats/hot dogs/burgers. But most important, dessert was cream puffs. That's the one reason -I- wanted to go to the Fair, and they were so worth it. Huge and fluffy with -real- whipped cream, none of that Cool Whip or Dream Whip junk.
Then we were off to the circus. Which, of all things, was free! The kids enjoyed it, but everyone's favorite was the cats. Trained cats walking along tightropes, weaving between poles, and doing other cat type tricks. Immediately following the circus was Kids Circus. Nicholas and Jonathon volunteered to go up and they were costumed dogs among the kid horses and elephants. It was so cute! I'll put those pictures up when I can.
We met up with my uncle at my aunt's house, and the 22 of us had dinner at Golden Coral.
Today is a Miller Brewery tour, a museum and a picnic at my aunt's house.