Solano County Fair

Yesterday we went to the Solano County Fair, in Vallejo. We actually live in Yolo County, but this fair is multiple times bigger than our local fair. We had a great time eating totally unhealthy fair food, looking at the livestock, watching Allie and Ashley go on rides, and just enjoying the atmosphere.

Chris, Matt's mom, had entered 4 pieces of her art into the fair (she lives in Solano County), and 3 of them won prizes! One of them even won the "Best in Show" award for the amateur fine arts division! We are so proud!

Jackson, Ashley, and Allie especially enjoyed playing in a makeshift sandbox, made of straw bales and dried corn kernels. In fact, they happily played in it for close to 1 1/2 hours! The most amazing part was that Jackson only tried putting straw and corn in his mouth a few times. Thank goodness he seems to be slowly leaving that stage where he wants to put every microscopic thing he can find in his mouth!
But 3 things were VERY different from the Skagit County Fair that my family and I went to when I was growing up. #1. It was so big that we didn't run into anyone we knew (at the S.C.F--Skagit County Fair--it was like a big reunion for everyone in the county) #2. There wasn't a wide variety of animals that were there to be shown. There were just cows, goats, llamas, and sheep (at the S.C.F. I always looked forward to seeing the wide variety of poultry, rabbits, horses, etc.). #3. We had to go through METAL DETECTORS to get into the fair! Yes, METAL DETECTORS! What's the world coming to when you have to go through metal detectors to enter the county fair?! (Obviously, Vallejo is a bit more gang and crime-ridden than Skagit County, but still . . . )

I have to say though that we all had a wonderful time, and felt completely safe the entire time we were there. We had such a good time that we all decided we should make it a family tradition to go to the Solano County Fair every year.