"Game On!" - The SD Fair, Part 1 - The Sights

Earlier last week, we three plus TC's friend KDD headed out to the San Diego Fair (which I still refer to as the "Del Mar" Fair)...

We bypassed the traffic on the 5 on a side street...seeing the fair from afar before heading into free parking...

at the Del Mar Horsepark...

As we were being ushered in by the parking attendants, we passed by a treadmill. The difference was that a horse, not a human, was on it! The girls found that very amusing indeed.

They were excited by these buses but it was not to be; we rode on  a regular yellow school bus instead. I have to say that the parking lot folks are very very organized. They are all in sync with each other.

Thanks to the generosity of Cathy, we had these passes and were able to get in early through the vendor/exhibitor entrance.

We loved the theme of the fair, "Game On!" - the Jenga tower with Donkey Kong and the monkeys from "Barrel of Monkeys" rotated!!!

It was so nice getting in a full hour early before the rest of the sweaty masses.

Exhibits weren't really open yet. We'd have to come back later. Most of the food booths were still setting up.

So many choices, and of course, a jillion of them FRIED!

Later on, this booth was bustling with activity with all smokers going on full blast.

Just beyond Chicken Charlie's was...

the Agrifair, which has the petting zoo, animals, and educational exhibits about the importance of farm animals and farming. It's always a favorite with TC.



So cute!

Future bacon slab?

Here's "Bessie" (not her real name)...

They also had goats, sheep, llamas, and alpacas in separate pens.

This year, instead of enclosures with pigs, goats, and such, there were tables and tables full of rabbits and guinea pigs!

Rabbits galore!

This was really cool to see! As mentioned earlier, it was still early and hardly anyone was in the building except for the workers who were replenishing the water and food. It was so cute the way some of the rabbits would perk up when they saw someone approach.


Yes, this was a rabbit. It looked like some sort of fluffy dog!

This one was also a very interesting breed (forgot thename of it), but look at its ears! This looked like a dog!

I wanted to grab a sandwich for our early lunch but the place wasn't open yet (food will be a separate post), so we walked around first...

We liked the minions from "Despicable Me"!

Yeah, rock on dude, ha ha! Hidden behind the ladder contraption was a half nekkid chick. Nice.

Squeeze those lemons...

(that was a reference to "The Lemon Song" by Led Zeppelin)

I like seeing fruit shaped booths!

More rides...

and more prizes

We also took the tunnel to the infield where the kiddie rides are (and the bacon cotton candy), the horses, gardens, and art exhibits...

This attraction from Have Trunk Will Travel has garnered criticism from animal rights activists - the elephant rides ($10 a pop).

I was actually curious to see if Tai the elephant would be there (as mentioned in the newspapers).  She is a famous movie elephant and appreared with Rob Pattinson in the film "Water for Elephants"  in 2011. Yes, RPattz!  The local paper earlier that week had a front page photo of the elephants talking a walk on the beach, to the delight of locals who were probably surprised to see these gentle giants!

The worker said Tai wasn't there that day but Rosie (another famous movie elephant) was along with Becky, seen below. Many of their elephants have appeared in popular films (see link here).

We looked for a few sweets items then headed back to the other side...

so we could have our lunch.

After lunch, we all checked out the local schools' art exhibits. These were various renditions of the fair theme as executed by budding high school graphic design artists.

We also enjoyed seeing the different covers of the yearbooks. This was caught our eye, especially Bert since he is a comic geek.

This one had a hole cut out in the shape of an iphone, and inside, you could paste or tape in your high school photo, making it 'personalized'. A neat idea!  "Insta You" (Instagram? Gosh, I feel so old!)

This school's yearbook looked like a cookbook! TC and KDD were thrilled that their respective middle schools won First Place. They also enjoyed looking at pictures of their friends at other schools.

For me, a trip to the fair is not complete unless I check out the collections.

This tree had cool game theme ornaments like checker pieces, dominoes, dice, cards, and Perler Bead projects (aka fused beads) in the shape of Angry Birds. TC used to enjoy making those fused bead projects when she was younger. We liked it too. You place these tiny beads on a pattern and then orion them together, fusing the design. Bert made a Superman logo for one before. I think we should make comic book or Star Wars oriented ornaments for our tree this year!

This shelf belonged to an Anglophile who collected Royals memorabilia. She had stuff from Queen Elizabeth's coronation, as well as the weddings of Prince Charles and Princess Di, and of course Prince William and Princess Katherine. Look at the mug below. That's not Will! It's the Spare!

Someone should fire the guy who made that mug, ha ha.

This was a very cool collection of glamorous hats, pins, and gloves from the 40's and 50's. There was also a related exhibit on Lucite purses.

This person collected Beatles memorabilia...

This was a collection of  Limoges boxes. Do you see King Kong climbing the Empire State building?

Bert really liked seeing this person's collection of mini motors. He was one of those curious kids who enjoyed taking things apart and then putting it back together. This was right up his alley.

This was a very neat collection:

I'd never seen these types of cups before!

Perhaps hipsters nowadays would find these cups useful? I think the mustache trend is so OVER.

The collections area also showcases cakes, pies, cookies, and preserved foods.

The following games were definitely in line with the fair's theme of "Game On!", with this Battleship cake...

along with Candyland...

and of course, Operation!

The baker who did this "Wreck it Ralph" cake also did the Nike shoe cake...

which I thought was cool!

It was neat seeing all of the different kinds of fruit preserves and the variety of pickled foods (it's not just for cucumbers anymore).

The fair got pretty crowded after 12 noon. It was crazy trying to maneuver through folks at the main walkway.

To escape the rush, we walked through the relatively tranquil garden displays where we admired all of the different types of landscaping and backyard design ideas, like this rattan fence with a view.

and this wall of bromeliads!


This plant was called the Rat Tail Cactus!

Inside the Exhibit Hall, it was also much cooler. We marveled at the lush dahlia blooms...



as well as the roses...


Bert and the girls had fun looking at all of the expensive saunas and hot tubs. This one below had a rowing exercise machine function. Wow, who has money for these things?

As our day winded down, we once again, rested outside in the relaxing environment of the garden displays.

Then we checked out the Game On exhibit (located at the front entrance) where fairgoers can play a variety of games like Connect Four, cards, dominoes, Jenga,  old school video games (Bert likes Galaga), and a giant version of Operation to name a few.

This was a neat collection...

There is a Philippine game similar to the mankala games below, called "sungka".

One of the last places we checked out before leaving was back at the infield's garden area. Bert and I thought this was really cool!

Hmmm, perhaps this could be a future garden project for Bert and me?



As we were here, there was a live band playing on the other side. I'm not sure who it was, but they were playing some good music! Later that evening, La Ley would come to the fair because one of her favorite Spanish rock bands, Caifanes, would be in concert.

These gardens were so lush and amazing. I want my backyard to look like this.

Just seeing the leaves of this chili pepper plant made me hungry. I like using the leaves in Chicken Tinola (Philippine ginger based soup).

We always like going to The World of Horses; it's one of TC's favorites.


This was also cool...

but it smelled so awful! But hey, those worms do wonders for the soil!

There was a gigantic tent that held even more art exhibits ranging from elementary to high school age. This youngster got first place for her mini eraser collection.

This boy also got first place for his Droid Collection.

My Little Ponies and Care Bears...

This collection was quite cool. The gal who put this together was a former winner/kid chef at the fair!


This one was a bit "random".   Look at the places where he got the soap - "Mom's closet" and "Grandpa"!  Soap klepto much?

The soaps looked pretty new though. No gross hairs on them, ha ha.   I liked the "unknown" origin soaps. Gosh, where did the kid pick those up? On second thought, I don't want to know!

Now this one was adorable - the little girl wrote on an index card and decorated it too!

Bert and I were very impressed with the caliber of art displayed here, especially this oil painting of a golden retriever. Awwww...

Here's one last look at Donkey Kong on the Jenga tower!

While waiting in line for our bus, we noticed this kid's ribbons! Whoa! I wonder what he got them for?

This was just the sights folks. Well, the sights I found interesting.

Who else went to the Fair?

The always reliable Cathy of Mmm-Yoso:
San Diego County Fair - Part One: Before it Opens
San Diego County Fair - Part Two: It's Open!
along with Kirbie and Darlene.

Previous Fair recaps (exhibits and sights):
2010,
2011
 & 2012

The Food post will be coming up!