Iowa State Fair.......

It was a mysterious view on Tuesday evening. I don’t think we received any rain from this but we did have a couple of small showers

I don’’t have an open view for this.  If I got in the car and drove to the opposite in of town I might have caught this but then it would be gone by the time I took the drive.

The next morning we went to the Iowa State Fair.  We drove downtown to a parking ramp that was free and took a bus for fifty cents a piece to the gate 10 of the fair entrance.

The photo shown is a big round pavilion used for the showing of cattle. We stopped in to just find a place to sit down.  We watched for a while to see it all happening as the young people brought their steers in to be judged.  On the opposite end of the entrance Jersey milk cows were in the ring.

I like watching the people who do this activity and watching those in the crowd. It is in the shade being in the building but the seats are wooden ones and you do know you are in a cattle barn by the smell.

In another historic building that use to be called the “women and children” building.  It is renamed the "Agricultural Building”.There are a variety of things that are shown here.  This whole table was full of like-groups of vegetables. I think that in this care that the largest cabbage was chosen the winter. They must have planted them very early in the spring to make sure they would be big enough to show in the fair.

There were flower arranging contests in the same building. Other things judged were roses, glads, and bee honey in jars.

I had to take shots of the building as its classic architecture is so great. I don’t know the age of the buildings but I know they were standing in 1957 when I was young and I bet they are a lot older than that. The building is not handicap assessable as there are grand stairs to go into them at both sides as if you were entering the capital of the state.

Another view of this building shows the areal ride that one can take the full length of the fairgrounds. We went on a very busy day.  It seemed like everywhere we went that there were more people than space for people to view things. We went to the art show and a photography show, Both places were swamped with views.  The wood carvers too had their own space and we squeezed out way through a lot  of people to see the winners in different categories. They had a pottery team demonstrating the wheel while have wares for sale on many shelves.

By one o’clock in the afternoon we found ourselves at a new grand pavilion built for horse shows.  We sat almost two hours watching various categories of horses being judged. It is fun to see that side of the world where people proudly show the trained horses doing their thing.

It was so great that a rich man built this place.  It is so great for people to watch it all.  The sit up stages during the  year for concerts too.  The dirt gets picked up and trucked out of there for the concerts. The seats were better than wooden planks and we did get rested up while watching the contests.  The final horse show for the day was the under 6 age group. Grandparents put a six year old on a big show horse and they walked them around the arena while the boys or girls waved.

We finished the day visiting the DNR building filled with wild Iowa fish and wild birds in a small pool. The building has been around back when I was young and everything goes look smaller today. It was such a fascination to me.

We also hit a building full of new born farm animals with  chickens and ducks. I will share it all as time goes on.  I will return to my other photos of the North Shore visit but for now I have the fair to share.  Thanks for stopping by today.