Here are Some Must Dos If Heading to the Minnesota State Fair

We headed to the Great Minnesota Get-Together yesterday and had a great time.  Admittedly, we are not people who go to the state fair every year.  We generally go every other year.  It seems to work, and keeps it enjoyable and not mundane.

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FLASH SALE FOR TICKETS

The years that we do plan to go, we get tickets at the end of the year during a one day flash sale.  At that time, the tickets are the cheapest they will ever be, including any of the discount days that occur throughout the fair.  I believe I paied $13 a ticket for this year's fair.  Totally worth it.  Normal admission is $20.  And you can choose any day of the fair that you'd like. The announcement of that one day flash sale comes late in the fall.  I purchased our tickets in December.

PARK AND RIDE

We also decided on taking one of the 30+ park and ride options.  It's free and so easy.  You just park your car, jump on the bus and they take you to the fair.  Then you look for the sign that corresponds with the place where you got on the bus, and they take you back.  The busses run about every half hour.  Perfect way to get to and from the fair without paying a bunch for parking and also not fighting traffic to get out from around the fairgrounds.

First stop when we got there was LuLu's which is located to right of the Grandstand near the police station on the fairgrounds.  They had several new beer selections, a really great cheese curd caprese appetizer and also this - raspberry beer soft serve cone.  Basically beer ice cream.  Rave reviews.  Cost is $11 so be aware of that.

Next up - wandered around the Grandstand, since it was right there.  All sorts of fun things in there.  We even tried on some winter coats with built in mittens.  The coats and vests were great, and very soft, but also pricey.  $200+.

There was also a ton of other cool stuff and a lot of it was hand made.  Question is always - will you ship this?

We also had our handwriting analyzed and was surprisingly accurate for all 4 of us.

FOOD BUILDING

Here is where the best cheese curds are.  There are several stations around the fair that offer cheese curds - but these are the best.  Just got a small boat of those at the "Mouth Trap".  Then got a spicey burger and to wrap things up - the NITRO Ice Cream.  So good!  Very dense, creamy and delicious.  4 of us shared the large size and still didn't finish it.

Moving on to the Bazaar.  This place is awesome!  So many different cultures, foods and goods.  I wound up buying Caribbean Jerk sauce.  Can't wait to try it.

BUTTER SCULPTURES

On to the Dairy Building.  Usually I would have gotten some ice cream here, but since we tried that yummy nitro ice cream, we passed on that, but had to check out the butter sculptures.

Each of the Dairy Princesses get to keep their sculpture, and all of the scraps.  Still wondering what to do with it.  The cooler where the butter is carved and kept is at a constant 40 degree temperature.  Not freezing, but cold enough to carve the butter.

BABIES!

We then wandered into the Miracle of Birth buidling.  We saw some lambs that were only a few hours old and also some baby pigs and chicks.  Very cute.

COLOSSEUM

Seeing the normal stuff in here.  Animal and country things, plus, this sign.  We had to find out what the heck that meant.

Sounds crazy, right?  Well, their marketing worked.  because it was just pork and potatoes that you feed your face with.  Genius.

SPACE AT THE FAIR

Something you absolutely can not miss at the fair - the space exhibit from the Science Museum.  It's kind of awesome!

If you wanted to know what it's like in space, like at the space station, mars, how people relieve themselves with no gravity, sleep, eat, etc.  Everything is answered for you.  They also had a VR simulator.  I opted not to do that because I get motion sickness easily, but there was a line for that.  Oh - and it's air conditioned in there too.  Nice break if you are too hot from walking around the fair.

NEW BAR

Right across from the space exhibit was a new-ish bar called the "Hangar".  You can get just about any libation there and NA drinks too.  Plus a pretty large appetizer menu.  And they have live music at various times throughout the day.

Great day at the fair, also checked out some of the new cars, trucks and motorcycles available.  Too expensive, but always fun to see what's out there.