My last post wasn’t easy to write, but I needed it. I had to take a minute to focus on what I was going through in order to start to get it under control. That said, yesterday I took a day for myself with absolutely no responsibilities and no pressure. Joe and I went to the Big E fair! It was so nice to get out and enjoy a day where my primary objective was to see how many animals I could pet/feed.
It quickly became clear that healthy eating was going to be a struggle at the fair. Fried balls of butter, are you kidding me?!
Even the food stand full of vegetables couldn’t serve as a healthy option. Dr. Vegetable was all about the deep fryer.
Does this mean I skipped it? Um, no. This girl is originally from the South and there is nothing like fried green tomatoes.
Despite growing up going to fairs, this was unlike any I had ever attended. Fairs back home (in a tiny rural town in the mountains) are primarily about agriculture: farm animals, giant vegetables, and homemade goods. While this fair had plenty of those things, it also had product demonstrations (after all, the Big E is first and foremost an exposition, I suppose), a circus, a couple of petting zoos, carnival rides, wine and cheese tastings, buildings for products and services unique to the different New England states (a MA building, a Vermont building, so on), and elephant rides!
Yep, that’s me on an elephant with three small children I had never met before.
I have literally been waiting to ride an elephant since I was in first grade and one of my classmates rode one on a trip to the zoo. I didn’t have extra spending money for the trip and was super sad. It only took me almost 20 years to make it happen for myself.
In addition to riding an elephant (but what really matters after that?) I pet and fed literally dozens of animals. Joe thought he was making a clever joke when he said, “Are you going to pet all of them?” I wish you could have seen his face when I very earnestly said, “Well, yeah.” I even fed a camel! My favorite though was when I fed two goats at once.
Why am I not smiling you ask? Because there was a sheep trying to get in on the action and head-butting the goats. I was giving him a stern talking to. I promise I was having fun, my heart wants to burst just looking at this picture.
After I fed/pet goats, sheep, a zebu, donkeys, and a miniature horse (not to be confused with a pony), llamas AND alpacas, we went to the carnival.
Joe doesn’t like rides. I, on the other hand, live for them. We compromised and went on the merry-go-round (not even joking), the tilt-a-whirl, and then through a couple of the funhouse type things. Amazing how fast you can go through 22 tickets.
After the carnival we found ourselves on the street as the Budweiser Clydesdales came trotting through.
Those are some big horses! Still not as big as the weird hybrid one we paid $1 to see though. Thing was like a small dinosaur. I wish pictures could do it justice, you would have just needed to be there.
A trip through all of the buildings (and me ALMOST spending all of my money on a Vitamix) later, we got some wine and cheese and stumbled across this butter sculpture.
As incredibly artistic as it was, seeing that much butter after eating fried food all day made me want to hurl.
Even though yesterday was a no-stress, no-responsibility day for me that was certainly not focused on fitness or nutrition, I managed to eat at least somewhat healthy and did a ton of walking, over 8 miles worth! Not too shabby, I must say. Still, that’s not why my legs are sore today. YOU try sitting on an elephant and see if it doesn’t feel like you’ve been doing splits.
Unfortunately today won’t be anywhere near that as I have to write a 15 page paper before 10pm. That’s a lot of work to do in the next 8 1/2 hours, I’d better get a move on. Not every day can be as carefree as yesterday. Enjoy the rest of your weekend and I will catch you all tomorrow!
fried green tomatoes… and elephant rides! ummm.. I am jealous! We need to get them at our fairs ASAP! We do though have the butter sculpture… where do they come up with this stuff?
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Who knows, but it’s kind of crazy! Next year you’ll just have to come to the fair with me and we can eat fried green tomatoes and share the elephant ride.