Coconino County Fair

It was a full day yesterday as we decided to drive to Flagstaff and go to the Coconino County Fair. It was located at the Ft Tuthill County Park which is 4 miles south of town. It was a good thing. We arrived at the exit off I-17 at 11 AM and there was a line of cars as far as you could see - on the south exit of the freeway. Most of the people were coming from Flagstaff and our northbound exit was almost normal, traffic wise. It still took us a good half hour to get to the parking lot and get in line for the tickets:

The tickets were only $5 each for Seniors, so it started out as a pretty good deal.

It was a good size Fair and there were lots of activities and fun things to do as you would expect:

Here are some of the neat things that were going on. Starting with some entertainment:

and some fun water activities:

We went through the pavilions where there were all the things you might expect to see at a Fair. Even some things that were unusual, like a gem and minerals pavilion where you buy an agate stone and have it cut open to see if you were lucky to get a nice design. This is one that we watched get cut in half which had a pretty good design inside:

Of course, there were farm products on display with all the ribbons that were won and the stitching pavilion where, in addition to many quilts, there was this cross stitch design that won Best of Show:

It was very nice and deserved to win the top prize, but, as biased as I am, mine would have been better. It was ironic that the winning piece was an Indian theme, like almost all of mine.

We went through the animal pavilions and came to the horse arena where a competition was being held. We watched the contestants prepare their horses and go through all the moves that the judges evaluated and watched as the winner was announced and the trophy was awarded:

In between all of this we were gauged for lunch to the tune of $22.50 for a burger, hot dog, one order of fries and two drinks. Robbery!

We left the Fair at around 3:30 and made it home by just after 5:30. It was a great day at the Fair (except for a brief shower) and it was a nice drive to boot.

It looks like today will be spent close to home as Josie has her eyes on doing some decorating in the house. That will include a trip to Lowe's or Home Depot, so I hope we don't break the bank...