The Best Fair in the US - Part 3 The Rides

 St. Paul, MN

Donna and I made it into the local newspaper during our fair visit

We Rode Some Rides

The other day we went to the Minnesota State Fair and did so much we had to break it into 3 parts.  You can see the other two parts here and here.  Now normally I am not a fair ride rider.  They are usually too expensive, too rickety, and not my kind of fun BUT the Minnesota State Fair, in addition to carnival rides, has permanent rides that have been on the property for years and years.  These are the rides I gravitate towards.  

When we first arrived we saw The Haunted.  We chose not to experience this because it wasn't a ride, it was a walk through, but it is a very popular attraction for some of the locals.  The Haunted House is a privately owned attraction that is only open a small part of the year and employs about 90 temporary employees yearly.  

Is it The Haunted House or The Haunted Mansion?

The first real ride we rode on was Ye Old Mill.  It's a permanent attraction and is a water flume ride. We were expecting a sort of old school dark ride and what we got was a lot less!   I guess we would have had different expectations if we had known it had been around since 1915.  It is known as the "Original Tunnel of Love" by some.  

The couple in front of us was getting ready to "Make Out" on Ye Old Mill.

After paying our $5 each, we were loaded into a boat.

We were both surprised how rapidly the boat moved.  Apparently fixes were made so the boats wouldn't get "Swamped" and block the ride.

The ride was basically long stretches of pitch black areas that were very disorienting mixed in with brief views of weird displays.  I just barely managed to snap this shot.

At the end of the ride we were underwhelmed but kind of glad we rode it. 

If you aren't planning on visiting The Minnesota State Fair and want some spoilers you can watch this video.

Our 2nd and only other ride was The SkyGlider.  This is one of 2 Gondola style rides.  This one is more of a chairlift ride.  It was $6 and gave good views of the fairgrounds.  We were both surprised at how long the ride was.  

Waiting in the fairly short line for the SkyGlider

Apparently throwing underwear off of the SkyGlider is an old tradition that they are trying to end. 

While we were riding The SkyGlider it began to rain.  We were just about done anyway.  By the time we got to the car it was raining pretty hard and we were glad we got to the fair really early.  It was a great day and we would go again.

That's it for today.  If you missed, The Best Fair in the US - Part 2 Photos of Us, check it out.

The Best Fair in the US - Part 2 Photos of Us

 St. Paul, MN

The Minnesota State Fair

The other day we went to the Minnesota State Fair and we did so much and took so many photos that I am breaking this up into parts.  There are all kinds of photo ops at the fair and we took advantage of as many as we saw.  There were selfie shots as well as my favorite, photo Photo Stand-Ins.  If you have seen this blog, you have probably seen some of these types of photos.  The Minnesota State Fair has a ton of them.

The "6am Elevator" selfie!

The "Minnesota State Fair Mirror" selfie!

The "Fairchild the Gopher" (The Minnesota State Fair Mascot) selfie!

The "Waiting in line for the first Giant Egg Roll on a Stick" photo!

The "Waiting for it to cool" photo

The "Is This A Tiki Bar?" selfie.

The "Donna!  Go sit in that giant chair with the cool loon" photo.

The "This one has a hard hat" Photo Stand-in photo.

The "Human face inside the face of a cow" Photo Stand-In photo.  They really didn't think this one through.  It's just creepy.

The "Put me in a dry martini" Photo Stan-In photo.

The "Listening to bird calls" selfie.

The "Thinking about getting more fair food on a stick" photo.

The "I can see your arm in the other hole" Photo Stand-In photo.

The "OMG BEE BEARD!" Photo Stand-In photo.

The "Waiting in line for the SkyGlider" selfie.

The "I accept this gift of a hotdish" photo.

The "Selfie with my two babes" selfie.

There you go.  Photos of us at the Minnesota State Fair.  Now we have an official documented alibi for our time there just in case.

That's it for today.  If you missed, "The Best Fair in the US - Part 1 The Food" check it out.  I talk about all of the food and drink we had at the fair.

The Best Fair In The US - Part 1 The Food

 St. Paul, MN

The Minnesota State Fair

On Thursday we went to the opening day of the Minnesota State Fair.  We hear that the crowds are thick and parking is limited so we set our alarms and got up early.  We were on the road by 6:15 and arrived at the parking lot at around 6:30.  As we waited in line to park we watched the line to get through security get longer and longer.  The doors don't even open until 7am and there were already crowds of people there.  We were glad we got there early.

As we pulled up to the attendant giving directions, they directed us to a different parking lot.  We drove around the back of the fair and found our spot.  When we got out of the car we were directed to a different entrance with no one waiting in line.  We breezed through security and were let into the fair at 6:35am, way before many other people.  This was a really nice surprise. 

We were very happy to be able to enter the fair before most others.  We took the extra time to take some photos.

Nothing was open yet but we were in!  All this room for activities!

This photo was taken at 6:56am.  There was already a line at our chosen breakfast spot.

The Minnesota State Fair is all about the food for us.  We had picked out a few things that we wanted to eat, most of them being on a stick, and had a loose plan for day.  Our breakfast was at Hamline Church.  We wanted to split a Hamloaf Breakfast Sandwich.

Hamline opened right at 7am.  By the time we got our food the line was out the door and getting long.

This was why we were here.  The Holey Hamloaf Sandwich.  It doesn't look like much and it isn't on a stick but it was delicious!

"If you love our hamloaf, try our church" is a pretty great slogan.

The guys in front of us had their photo taken for the newspaper.  Donna checked this morning and they didn't make it in.

With our first stop done, we were feeling good about getting through the things we wanted to see.  In my mind, we were already ahead of schedule.  There was still more eating so we decided to walk around and explore.

We used this great app to help us navigate the giant fairground and all it has to offer. 

It was still early and the DFL booth wasn't open.  It was hopping later in the day.

We happened by another food item on our list pretty much right away.

Giant Egg Roll on a stick!  We were told it was going to be a 2 minute wait for them to come out of the fryer.

When they handed us the egg roll they said, "you get the first egg roll of this year's state fair".  I asked if I could get a t-shirt and he said, "come back next year and I will have one for you."

We both really liked the egg roll.  It was surprisingly good.  Donna had read about it in the paper.

I have only been to one other state fair so I am not the most experienced visitor, but my assumption with fairs is that most of the vendors and rides are provided by companies bringing in trailers and setting up for the time the fair is open and then packing up and heading to the next fair or festival.  This is the case with some of the vendors here, but there are also permanent stands on the fairgrounds that have the same vendors there year after year as well as built in rides that are only open during the fair.  Our main focus for food today was on these permanent vendors.  

Our next stop was The Food Building, a building with permanent vendors.  It was kind of like a food court but cooler.

There was an army of workers at The Mouth Trap and they had a huge area roped off for a queue that will fill up later.  We didn't get cheese curds but they seem very popular.

We got the lefse.  When in Minnesota right?

It was good but not as good as we would have wanted.  The lefse wasn't warm so it just kind of tasted like a tortilla.

So we went to the Herbaceous Butcher, a vegan butcher.  Sounds weird but they make some good stuff.

We got one of the most delicious sesame buns we have ever had.  It was filled with a vegan cheeseburger filling.  Now I want to go to their actual restaurant.  

Minnesota is known for its Nice, not its Spice, so "Oh God It's Hot" is probably a good slogan for this Caribbean place we didn't try.

We did some walking around and saw some stuff I will post about in Part 2, but soon we were hankering for more snacks. 

$1 Milk!

Donna got regular milk and I got Chocolate Milk.  It was delicious and such a deal.  You can't get much for a dollar anymore.  We could have paid $3 for all you can drink milk elsewhere but the jokes on them, 1 cup is all we can drink!

Our next food stop was in the Agriculture Building.  We went to see the crop art, content for a different post, but first we got Honey Ice Cream from Bee MN Nice and a flight of beer from the Brewers Guild.

They had 4 or 5 different 4 beer flights you could choose from.  This is the flight we chose.

They were all fine beers.  Nothing special, but good.

Our next stop was at Union Hmong Kitchen.  The Twin Cities area has a huge Hmong population and a Hmong celebrity chef.  Chef Vang has a few restaurants in the area and a great show called Relish on PBS.

The line was long but not near as long as it can get, we are told.

We got a Grilled Sticky Rice Stick with pickled mushrooms.  It was, in our opinion, the best thing we ate all day.

Our next food of the day was back in the Food Building.  We wanted to get some Minnesota Walleye.  Walleye is a very popular fish in Minnesota.

The fish was mixed with potatoes and maybe onion to make balls that tasted great.  

Our last food of the day was also at the Food Building.  I couldn't go to a state fair without getting the quintessential fair food, a corndog!  And I couldn't just get any corndog when in the part of the country, so I had to get a Corn Brat. 

"Shut up stomach!  You're getting more grease!"

The Corn Brat was fantastic and greasy.  I don't think my stomach could handle anymore grease today.  

Well that is a lot of fair so I will break this event into 2 or 3 posts.  Check back next time for a report on the fair rides and other stuff we did.  It was a great day and I am sure what they say is true, The Minnesota State Fair is the best fair in the US.

That's it for today.  If you missed, The Biggest Cave in Minnesota, check it out.