State Fair time!

Today Don and Kaleigh went to the Illinois State Fair. Don wasn't eager to go on the first Saturday of fair week, with the weather all nice and everything, expecting major crowds. But he decided if they got going as soon as they could in the morning, it could be all right. And it was. They got off the bus at the fairgrounds at 9:00, and got on the bus to go home at 5:00!

Kaleigh wanted to go on the canoe ride at Conservation World, but Conservation World didn't open until 10:00. They looked in some nearby livestock barns, with goats and sheep. They saw some sheep getting sheared. Baaas of boredom and annoyance resounded throughout the sheep barn. Like consumers waiting too long for something not worthwhile.

Finally, Conservation World opened. But it turned out the Voyageur canoe ride didn't start until 11:00. Sigh! Don and Kaleigh poked around in various tents in Conservation World, looking at replica mastodon and giant ground sloth bones, playing in a water table (where you make channels for water and toy boats to course through), and pedaling a bike to see how much it takes to light an incandescent bulb vs. a compact fluorescent. There was probably more that Don can't think of right now. Kaleigh petted a bluegill fish, and a crawdad. (crayfish? crawfish? craydad?) They decided to take the fairgrounds tram over to the food area and come back later for the canoe ride.

After eating their day's worth of trans-fats, white sugar, and white flour, they moseyed over to the kids' area. Kaleigh rode the bicycle course several times until Don got bored of waiting around. Kaleigh did a little putt-putt golf in a 4-H food bank tent. Then Kaleigh climbed into a smallish but real Cat brand digger, working levers and observing the air conditioning controls.

They went to the fire safety area and Kaleigh slid down a firefighter's pole a few times. Then they went through the fire safety house (more like single-wide trailer) and learned different safety tips for different rooms in the house. The event culminated in the mock-second-story bedroom with a smoke machine pumping smoke into the air, and the closed bedroom door feeling what. What to do?! Get down on your hands and knees, and climb out the window and down the emergency ladder, and in real life you'd go meet your family at the prearranged meeting place.

Then the tram pulled up, so they saw the chance to go back to Conservation World. They FINALLY got to go on the canoe, with about 20 other people. It was a BIG canoe. Kaleigh and everyone else seated on the outside got to help paddle. A fiberglass canoe through a machine-built lake.

It's time to go put her to bed, and I haven't even gotten to the chemistry tent yet!!