Sister Visit Part I

It's that time of year again... when I get to see family as they're finishing up the summer and heading back home to Seattle.  While I'm never very excited for fall (since it's a reminder that the cold, dark winter is quickly upon us), I always look forward to visits from my family.  Jeannea is the first to arrive - her season gets done in August - and I get a follow-up visit from Sara (in September).

The timing for Jeannea's visit couldn't have been more perfect, since it coincided with the state fair and it's been a few years since she's been able to go with me.  We hooked up with Stacy and headed out early.  At least, early for me on a weekend... since we got there just after 10am when they open, and I'm normally still in bed at that early weekend hour...  But the start of our eating adventure (that's what fairs are, right?) went a long way to make up for it.  How can you pass up fresh doughnuts?

We spent the next 8 hours or so, wandering from food to food: fresh made pretzel, fresh dipped corndog, deep fried pickles, kettle corn, roasted corn on the cob, fried cheese curds...  And in between that, we got our faces painted, saw the pigs and cows and goats, examined the enormous pumpkin (902 lbs - I wonder how many pies that'd make?) and stopped in the beer tent to give our barkin' dawgs a brief respite.

 

We even tried the chocolate covered bacon.  How was it, you might ask?  I give it 1-1/2 thumbs up.  I think I'd like to try it again, but I'd like the bacon a little thicker and crispier (lack of crisp might be because they made it and then froze it) with just a tad less chocolate.  I think if I were to open a chocolate covered bacon stand, I'd find a way to deep fry the bacon (so I can consistently get it to the perfectly crispy but not overdone state), then have some of that magic shell chocolate on hand.  That way as I get orders, I can dip my perfectly cooked bacon in the chocolate just prior to handing it off to my customer...  Anyhow.  It was good enough that the idea of bacon cookies doesn't seem that ludicrous any more.  Hmmmm.

We didn't get to see the roller derby, since it was typical fair weather: rain.  Thank goodness I was with people who have their heads on their shoulders.  Stacy brought rain ponchos for all of us, and both Stacy and Jeannea brought dry socks and shoes.  Turns out that was a good thing, otherwise I would've been driving home barefoot.

I had a *lovely* time visiting with Jeannea.  Too bad her company isn't based in Anchorage - then I'd have both of them (Jeannea AND Sara) close by all year 'round.  Ah, well.  At least this gives me something to look forward to in the spring - my next visit...

By the way, Jeannea: Thanks for the RockStar treasure hunt!!  It took me more than a week to find them all, and that was with some helpful hints from your cohorts in crime.  We all know I'm not the most observant person in the world - especially in the morning - but I opened the medicine cabinet three times before I finally saw that one... =)