Iowa State Fair and Cubs Game

Yesterday morning we woke up and was trying to think of things that we could do for the day. Some of the first ideas were to work on the farm … and then Daryl had come up with the idea to go to the State Fair in Des Moines. OK, now that is a much better idea! So we fed the animals really well and headed south to Des Moines. The weather was great (high 70’s) and sunshine. We haven’t been to the fair for a very long time so we thought we’d go and check it out. Our plan wasn’t to go for the rides, but to see the exhibits and some of the livestock barns.  We really had a fun day and the animals that I just LOVE are the miniature cows. For quite sometime now I think that I would like to have them on the farm, but I don’t think they would make us any money. They would just fun to have around.  Before we left we had to try the latest craze – Fried Butter. Yea, Fried Butter. After standing in line for what seemed forever, it was my turn to get ours. $4 for a stick of butter and it was really good. It tasted like a warm cinnamon bun with frosting and then drenched in butter.  They coat the butter stick with a cinnamon batter and then deep fry it. Daryl said that he read they serve over 60 an hour in this one booth. Then he also read that they are around 1000 calories each. No wonder why they taste so good! I think the next time I’m going to try the deep fried Snickers, that also sounds good.

The Iowa Cubs were playing at home that night and we were about 10 minutes from the stadium. So when we were walking back to our car, we stopped to get a Des Moines map and off we went to the game. Daryl really enjoys any kind of baseball and he hasn’t been to the new Cub’s stadium before so it was a good choice to go. We got there early, but that was OK just to sit and relax before the game. The stadium is really nice and there was quite a few people there for everything that was going on in the area. The Cubs are not having a good year this year and in the 5th inning I told Daryl that we must be their good luck charms because the score was 4 to 1 with the Cubs winning. Then everything went south. We finally left at the 8th inning because the score was 4 to 10 with the Cubs loosing. We must not be their good luck charm after all.

State Fair 2011

Deep fried butter!

Fried Butter and 1000 calories - BAM!

Iowa State Butter Cow celebrating 100 years!

Watching livestock judging

One BIG pumpkin

After the game we stopped to get a sandwich and we were both getting tired. It was after 11:00 when we decided that we were going to look for a hotel and spend the night. We knew that William had already plans to spend the night at a friends house so we wouldn’t have to worry about him. We found a Super 8 and headed inside to see if they had any rooms left. Even though now it’s around 11:30 and neither one of us have any luggage, the guy behind the counter didn’t even give it a second thought. It seemed a little weird to me that we wouldn’t have any luggage but I guess not to him. We decided to stay because it wasn’t worth driving 3 1/2 hours home tired and trying to watch for deer. We laughed when we checked out the next morning because it took us maybe 3 minutes (or less) to get out the door. To be honest it was kind of nice not having to double check to see if you missed anything, but I did miss brushing my teeth. Oh well, I guess that’s why we had gum in the car.

Nice night for an Iowa Cubs Game - getting the field ready for the game