So we decided last minute to take a little drive to The Dutchess County Fair in Rhinebeck, which is a little less than an hour from where we live. We figured it would be something fun to do with the kids -- something to do on a weekend that shockingly had NOTHING penciled in on the calendar.
We packed a little snack bag and hopped everyone into the car, stopped at the Bank of Dad for some cash because we missed the real bank, and headed off on an adventure of sorts.
We made great time, got into town within about 35 minutes, then ended up sitting in completely stopped traffic for over an hour. I missed the pig races! We seriously could have parked our car and walked the mile to the fairgrounds faster than it took to get there!
But other than that and the fact that everything was SO expensive, it was great. The kids absolutely loved it, and Brooke was in awe of everything. It was bigger and crazier and had so many more people than I remembered. I was actually momentarily panicked at the thought of losing one of the girls. I swear, it was busier than Disneyland on a school break. And it was hot too. Like sweaty hot.
There were all of the traditional carnival games -- little Alex was 4 for 5 with winning prizes, and generous boy that he is, he gave everything away to his sisters except the massive ball he won (at the beginning of our time at the fair) and carried around the entire day and a strange little 100 dollar bill key chain. He and the girls threw darts, tried to pick up bottles with a ring on a fishing pole, hit the gopher, threw the ping pong balls into a tiny dish, shot corks at cans... the whole nine yards. Then there were some seriously awesome carnival rides. They were a heck of a lot scarier than I remember as a kid.
Except those scaredy cats wouldn't ride anything with me!
Even little Alex -- I was sure I could convince him to go on some dare-devilish rides, but he chickened. Nobody was brave. I went on the bobsleds with the kids and had a laughing fit and was crying until the ride stopped. Then Alex took the kids into the haunted castle. Everyone wanted to go into the freak show and look at all of the five-legged and two headed animals. I didn't think that thy really did that, but I guess they do. I wasn't going in there. We did see the farm animals though, and the kids thought it was so funny to see cow udders. I finally got little Alex to go on the really high swings with me. Wow -- really cool view, and not at all scary. I love the swings.
Towards the end of the night we stopped at various booths for food -- I got a Gyro (My b-i-l John insisted that you pronounce this as "guy-row," but I found out from the Greek place that he was wrong, it is pronounced like "year-o." In case you were wondering.) from the Greek place and Alex got a huge overflowing steak and cheese. The kids ended up going with plain old pizza -- three slices and a lemonade was $16.00. Seriously. We sat at the picnic tables and watched this cool group of singers and dancers. The kids loved it.
Before we left, we watched the high divers jump into a pool. It was crazy. This guy was up 8 stories high and dove down into a tiny little pool. I have never seen anything like it. Very cool.
We made a quick pitstop for some soft ice cream to eat on the ride home, then headed out of town. The kids were so wiped out, when we got home they fell into bed and slept like little logs. What a great day.
Great post Jessee! Here's a little insight into the "year-o." In Greek, "year-o year-o" (using a phonetic spelling here since I don't have a Greek keyboard...) means "spinning around," like a gyroscope would do (there's a connection.) The meat on the spit spins around and around, which is why it's called a "year-o" in Greek, or a "gy-row" to Americans who go with the pronunciation of a gyroscope. If anyone is still awake at this point congrats, you now have a great trivia fact to bust out at the next state or street fair!
ReplyDeleteThanks for that little bit of info Larry! I should have thought to ask you about in the first place. Kara waitressed at a Greek restaurant for a few years and got scolded for calling it a "gy-row." She can do a great fake Greek accent by the way.
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