Thursday, October 23, 2014

NC State Fair 2014, gotta love it!

Dick and Lindy invited me to volunteer again for the Kiwanis ham-biscuit booth at the NC State Fair.

Early morning departure for the drive to the Raleigh fairgrounds......

Weird to see the fairgrounds so early - like a ghost town!



This "alley" is usually filled with fairgoers!


Getting ready to open up!



The biscuit "factory"!  Luan, Charlee and Lindy hard at work.



Jerry spent the entire day unwrapping "Grands" biscuits, putting them in the oven, then taking them out of the oven when they were just "perfect"!



Dan spent the entire day grilling the country ham....a smelly job!


I spent the entire day at the window taking/filling orders....in a lull moment, I had time to eat my breakfast - a fabulously hot Grands biscuit with some homemade peach butter.  Yummy!!!!



We had a break mid-morning when the sales dwindled....the 4 girls went for a "walkabout".....random fair judging photos....

Loved this sailboat painting.



And the quilts displayed were amazing!




Did I say amazing?  This one was mind-blowing!  You can't see the detail in this photo - but this is the "best in show" area.  Really, really detailed.



Large amounts of knitted goods - my sis would enjoy this area!



And my sis-in-law would enjoy this one - there were so many amazing quilts on display that they had a lady there all day flipping thru them for the crowd!  Each one was a masterpiece!



But we only got to roam for a little while....had to get back to the booth!  I took this photo out of the window of the booth.  He wandered the alleyway stopping to chat with all sorts of folks.



Mid-afternoon I got another chance to go solo for a quest for some "corn"... I always like to get one of those roasted ears of corn - simple and yummy!

Now the perfect weather was bringing the crowds.



I meandered thru a couple of buildings.....happened upon a judging in one of the livestock buildings.


And there were cute little goats displayed too!



The next building housed the fruits and veggies.  Amazing pumpkins!



Every kind of veggie was represented and judged.



There were plenty of NC apples - and familiar names on the tags.....thought I snapped a photo of it, but there were tags for Tony Hill also.



And I finally found the booth I wanted for my corn.....the vendor kindly posed with my snack!  It was yummy!


A walk near the midway....I'm not into the rides at all.....



And I certainly wouldn't want to win one of these things 'cause I just don't want them!


Back to the booth.....for a few more hours....

And one more mini-break to go see these balloons.  Lindy had seen them and insisted I needed to sneak out for a peek.

She was right - the "balloon sculpture" was pretty cool!  All made 100% of balloons.  Enjoy!








2 comments:

affectioknit said...

Yep! I love the fair too...you remember when I lived in Raleigh...I actually won 2 second place ribbons for knitting...one was for an aran sweater that I no longer even have...alas...too small...and I can't remember the other one...but I'm sure I have a photo of it somewhere...

Love,

T

Elizabeth said...

Nice tour of the fair. Everything is amazing but those balloons are very unusual. MOM