The Montgomery County Fair
Aug. 31st, 2015 12:00 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bunrabThe Montgomery County fair is the first one Larry and I went to together, once we were dating, and it's definitely the one we measure all others against. At the time we first went to it, we didn't realize that it is the largest county fair in MD, and somewhat larger than the State Fair in several respects, so that it's rather unfair to expect other fairs to come close. But there you are - it's what we think of as a real fair.
It's also an expensive fair, at $10 a pop and $10 for parking, so it's quite worth adjusting one's schedule to go on Senior Day, which was Tuesday the 18th of August. That way, we got in free - senior is 62+ and with my hat and dark glasses on, I can pass for 62 :D Parking is still $10 a pop even for for handicapped, and then there's $35 for the electric scooter rental. On Senior Day, the scooters go fast, so we got there a few minutes before the parking gates even opened at 10:00, so as to get a scooter. Same rental company has been there for as long as we've been going, and I like their scooters - really good charge on the battery, good size basket on front. Anyway. The scooter rental is at the "front" gate - the first gate after you get to the handicapped parking. There's another gate, about halfway around the fairgrounds, which is where the various tour and charter buses from the senior living communities park, and if you don't want to rent a scooter, come in that gate - there's a couple of trams that hold about 20 people each, for the seniors, and they circulate around the fair all day; one can get on and off at 6 different stops around the fairgrounds. The front gate comes in at the midway and carnival, and one has to walk through the carnival to get to the animal barns and such. The second gate comes in at the "Old Timey" exhibits, appropriately enough for seniors, back by the antique farm equipment and the fake general store. More about those later.
As we went through the carnival to get to the ag stuff, I noted that the ride I spotted last year and swore to go on this year if it was there again, was there again - the water ride called Hampster Dance. And indeed, on our way out, I did go on that ride! The carnival theoretically opens at noon every day, but there were already a few things open right at 10, and a lot of them open by 11, particularly the food and drink booths.
Ag stuff: first thing in, on the left, is the horse barn and horse arena. There's only the one small horse barn, oddly enough, given how many horses MoCo has (all of Maryland is horse-y!) but I suppose horses are too big and too expensive for the majority of 4-Hers. This day was draft horses, all the Clydesdales and Belgians, the really big ones, that weigh as much as either of our cars. I love the big horses! From there, we walked up the far aisle, past the Community Stage, to double-check that the Raptor Show would be there when we thought it would be. By the way, you'll definitely want to grab a map for this fair. It's a /large/ fairgrounds, with several corridors, and if you are weaving in one end and out the other of several goat barns in a row, it's easy to forget where you started. After confirming the time of the raptor show, we walked through a couple of the goat barns. They were judging one class of dairy goats, which we stood and watched; the judge keeps up a pretty continuous stream of patter, and every sentence contains the word "mammaries" and one time he got four "mammaries" mentions in one sentence. An awful lot of mammaries in dairy goats. We didn't go through every single goat barn - there are quite a few of them, but we did catch the meat goat barn as well, the Boer goats and such. Not that I'm planning to eat goat, but they are very attractive goats. Then the rabbit barn - this fair has a sizeable rabbit show. The cages are well ventilated and well-lighted, and the dedicated rabbit barn is always busy and full. Not a huge variety of rabbits - a lot of mini-Lops rather than Holland Lops at this one, as well as a smattering of Hollands, a bunch of mini Rex, assorted English Spotteds, a couple of Lionheads and Jersey Wooleys.
Then time for the Raptor Show at the Community Stage. We've seen this one before, but it's slightly different every year. The father and son who put it on are apparently somewhat fundamentalist Christians, with strong creationist beliefs, which makes some of their patter a bit odd, but nonetheless the knowledge they have of how raptors think and feel and work is amazing. Owls and hawks mostly. One take-away from the show: if you think you've spotted a peregrine falcon in your backyard, it's not. It's a Cooper's hawk. Pretty much any raptor you think you see in your neighborhood during the day is going to be a Cooper's hawk. Out in huge open areas, red-tailed hawks, and at night screech owls, but mostly what comes near human habitation is Cooper's hawks. Eagles for strength, hawks for soaring, falcons for speed, owls for stealth. Fun show, and it happens a couple times each day, so if you go next year, do catch it. They're such beautiful birds!
Then, continuing the bird theme, to the poultry barn. This was, though we didn't think about it at the time, the last poultry show of the season, since the MD Dept of Ag said no poultry after August 25, because of fears of avian influenza. Lots and lots of chickens here; there's a dedicated poultry barn, and it's a good size. A good representation of turkeys - Bourbon Red and something else that came in grays, the name of which I forget now, rather than plain white turkeys. Quite a few of the Golden Laced Wyandottes, and some Sebrings which are another laced-looking feather pattern, and the Mille Fleurs, which are really pretty feathers. A few of the Phoenix, with the long tail feathers.
On through a couple more animal barns - a scattering of beef cattle and dairy cattle, and on to the Chilly Mall, which is what the commercial building is called, for the air conditioning. The commercial vendors include the usual - knives, expensive cookware, window replacement, bath refinishing, a few jewelry vendors and fancy baked goods/caramel apples/etc. And a small candy maze, and since we had finished the candy from the HoCo fair, we went ahead and got a bit more.
We wanted to try the dining hall here, since we never had before and since we now had tried the dining halls at several fairs. We'd still like to try it someday, but this was not the day for it. We walked in and (a) off to one side was an extremely loud band playing moldy oldies at top volume - for (b) the waiting line of hundreds of seniors. We wanted to eat sometime the same day, and the dining hall line didn't look to be getting any shorter. So we went back out again. Back near the horse barn, a United Methodist church was serving barbecued chicken, and a Catholic church was serving pulled pork sandwiches; we rather arbitrarily decided on the Catholics.
We could have taken each other's photos with a life-sized cardboard cutout of Pope Francis, but somehow we resisted. These church stands are permanent buildings - small, just kitchen and serving windows, with eating areas outside. St. Francis of Assisi's sandwiches were right next to the first of the goat barns, and so while we were eating, goats kept being led past to the judging arena; it definitely lends an Ag atmosphere to things. There's another church, I forget which one, that runs a sandwich counter in the back hallway of the Chilly Mall; it's an odd area, very narrow and with limited seating, but we ate sandwiches there one year and they were OK. Also, outside the Chilly Mall, another permanent food stand which I've never seen identified as to vendor, which sells barbecue sandwiches and sausages; we ate there the first year we ever came to this fair. (And of course there's tons of food in the Midway.)
After lunch, back to the other floor in the Chilly Mall, which has the Home Arts stuff. This was the biggest I've ever seen the Home Arts at MoCo - a lot more quilts and knitting and crochet than I've seen there in previous years. This is another "open" fair, meaning that adults as well as 4-Hers enter things, and also people from neighboring counties. This expands the possibilities a lot. The "You be the judge" wall was hand-sewn tote bags this year, not nearly as interesting as the children's hats or scarves of previous years. I was really impressed with the quilts, and also with all the knitting and crochet - nice job on the judging, Megan! Most of you don't want a blow by blow walk-through of the home arts; enough to know that they're there, and I hope that next year when you decide to go because of my write-up, they'll be even better.
In the baked goods and such area, our favorite was a marzipan creation.
Yes, a hot dog and mac-and-cheese, done in marzipan. There were some nice cookies, too, and a few attractive cakes.
After that, over toward the General Store, which is two things - (1) a reproduction of an old-time general store with all kinds of vintage stuff on display, from antique stoves and kitchen cabinets of a century ago, and vintage saxophones, to canisters and tins and whatnot from old food. Also a few agricultural implements, and some stuff from the history of the MoCo fair, including the deed to the fairgrounds. And (2) the produce section, all the veggies and fruits to be judged, along with the beekeepers' stuff and something different, a selection from local winemakers. Here, the weird veggies are called "Vegetables Most Unusually Formed" (Veg MUF for short), including the seven-and-a-half-foot-long squash.
Outside the general store, there are other old-time things: antique farm equipment, blacksmith equipment, old metal-working stuff, a replica of a 19th century workshop of some sort. I know we've gone through that in the past but we didn't do anything except cut through a corner of it this time. You'll want to investigate it more thoroughly if you're going for the first time; there's lots of stuff for kids to climb on, too. This is where the "back" gate to the fair is, and where the trams start their route.
The building next to the old-time stuff is the Arts/Photography building - the entries of photographs, paintings, drawings, lego sculptures, woodworking, model-building. We only gave this a quick run-through; some years there's something outstanding that catches our eye, but this year we didn't see anything we absolutely had to call to anyone's attention. (Also, we were beginning to get tired.)
As we worked our way back, we stopped briefly in the Old MacDonald's Barn, which is a petting zoo sort of things - burros, a couple of alpacas, an enormous pig, piglets, play area for the kids. Then, across from the dairy cattle barns, there's a big permanent ice cream building, run by the Lions, of course. (You will have noticed that as a theme running through several fairs.) So we got humongous scoops of ice cream and ate them, and then continued to wend our way back toward the carnival, taking note of the pig races we could have watched, and an upcoming magic show at the Community Stage, and an all-percussion band playing in front of one of the buildings - things we could have spent more time on, were we not hot and tired. When we got back to the carnival, I did indeed go on the Hampster Dance ride. Photo below - it's basically a shallow swimming pool, with gigantic inflated tubes; you crawl inside a tube, and then try to stand, try to maneuver around, try to walk, try even to crawl, and mostly fall over. I was alone in there, so I could bump into all the other tubes with impunity; I imagine if several of you wanted to play simultanously, there could be quite the bumper-battle of the tubes! If you could get any of them to go somewhere in particular rather than at random. Mostly, what I did was keep falling over; it's fun, but I really couldn't control it, and I exhausted myself. Next year, if I can get someone else to come in at the same time... (Larry was patiently watching the scooter and my purse and shoes and belt, none of which one is allowed to bring into the inflateables.)
And then we returned the scooter and limped over to the car, exhausted after 5.5 hours, and we could easily have spent 8 or 9 there if it weren't so hot, as we skipped half the goat barns and most of the cattle, as well as several of the shows mentioned above. I think one year we did spend 7 hours there, but mostly heat does us in before that. Those of you who are more weather-resistant, and who can eat more, plan on spending longer there and eating several meals there - /somebody/ has to try that dining hall.
Lots of freebies along the way - several people giving out tote bags, chip clips, etc., including a couple of the big hospitals in MoCo, a few of the businesses in the Chilly Mall, and some retirement communities apparently trying to steal some of the seniors away from each other :D You could get your year's worth of pencils and pens, get key chains and such from the various county agencies and state agencies, including a lighted keychain from the transit system people. Good idea to try to find one of those as you come in, so you have a tote bag to stick everything else into that you pick up along the way. I don't know what the Christian Motorcyclists, the Christian Farmers Association, or the Bible Studies booths were giving away, but those are all there also. It's the biggest ag fair in MD, bigger than the state fair except for the size of the state fair midway, and if you're only going to go to one, this is the one to go to. Bring money.
It's also an expensive fair, at $10 a pop and $10 for parking, so it's quite worth adjusting one's schedule to go on Senior Day, which was Tuesday the 18th of August. That way, we got in free - senior is 62+ and with my hat and dark glasses on, I can pass for 62 :D Parking is still $10 a pop even for for handicapped, and then there's $35 for the electric scooter rental. On Senior Day, the scooters go fast, so we got there a few minutes before the parking gates even opened at 10:00, so as to get a scooter. Same rental company has been there for as long as we've been going, and I like their scooters - really good charge on the battery, good size basket on front. Anyway. The scooter rental is at the "front" gate - the first gate after you get to the handicapped parking. There's another gate, about halfway around the fairgrounds, which is where the various tour and charter buses from the senior living communities park, and if you don't want to rent a scooter, come in that gate - there's a couple of trams that hold about 20 people each, for the seniors, and they circulate around the fair all day; one can get on and off at 6 different stops around the fairgrounds. The front gate comes in at the midway and carnival, and one has to walk through the carnival to get to the animal barns and such. The second gate comes in at the "Old Timey" exhibits, appropriately enough for seniors, back by the antique farm equipment and the fake general store. More about those later.
As we went through the carnival to get to the ag stuff, I noted that the ride I spotted last year and swore to go on this year if it was there again, was there again - the water ride called Hampster Dance. And indeed, on our way out, I did go on that ride! The carnival theoretically opens at noon every day, but there were already a few things open right at 10, and a lot of them open by 11, particularly the food and drink booths.
Ag stuff: first thing in, on the left, is the horse barn and horse arena. There's only the one small horse barn, oddly enough, given how many horses MoCo has (all of Maryland is horse-y!) but I suppose horses are too big and too expensive for the majority of 4-Hers. This day was draft horses, all the Clydesdales and Belgians, the really big ones, that weigh as much as either of our cars. I love the big horses! From there, we walked up the far aisle, past the Community Stage, to double-check that the Raptor Show would be there when we thought it would be. By the way, you'll definitely want to grab a map for this fair. It's a /large/ fairgrounds, with several corridors, and if you are weaving in one end and out the other of several goat barns in a row, it's easy to forget where you started. After confirming the time of the raptor show, we walked through a couple of the goat barns. They were judging one class of dairy goats, which we stood and watched; the judge keeps up a pretty continuous stream of patter, and every sentence contains the word "mammaries" and one time he got four "mammaries" mentions in one sentence. An awful lot of mammaries in dairy goats. We didn't go through every single goat barn - there are quite a few of them, but we did catch the meat goat barn as well, the Boer goats and such. Not that I'm planning to eat goat, but they are very attractive goats. Then the rabbit barn - this fair has a sizeable rabbit show. The cages are well ventilated and well-lighted, and the dedicated rabbit barn is always busy and full. Not a huge variety of rabbits - a lot of mini-Lops rather than Holland Lops at this one, as well as a smattering of Hollands, a bunch of mini Rex, assorted English Spotteds, a couple of Lionheads and Jersey Wooleys.
Then time for the Raptor Show at the Community Stage. We've seen this one before, but it's slightly different every year. The father and son who put it on are apparently somewhat fundamentalist Christians, with strong creationist beliefs, which makes some of their patter a bit odd, but nonetheless the knowledge they have of how raptors think and feel and work is amazing. Owls and hawks mostly. One take-away from the show: if you think you've spotted a peregrine falcon in your backyard, it's not. It's a Cooper's hawk. Pretty much any raptor you think you see in your neighborhood during the day is going to be a Cooper's hawk. Out in huge open areas, red-tailed hawks, and at night screech owls, but mostly what comes near human habitation is Cooper's hawks. Eagles for strength, hawks for soaring, falcons for speed, owls for stealth. Fun show, and it happens a couple times each day, so if you go next year, do catch it. They're such beautiful birds!
Then, continuing the bird theme, to the poultry barn. This was, though we didn't think about it at the time, the last poultry show of the season, since the MD Dept of Ag said no poultry after August 25, because of fears of avian influenza. Lots and lots of chickens here; there's a dedicated poultry barn, and it's a good size. A good representation of turkeys - Bourbon Red and something else that came in grays, the name of which I forget now, rather than plain white turkeys. Quite a few of the Golden Laced Wyandottes, and some Sebrings which are another laced-looking feather pattern, and the Mille Fleurs, which are really pretty feathers. A few of the Phoenix, with the long tail feathers.
On through a couple more animal barns - a scattering of beef cattle and dairy cattle, and on to the Chilly Mall, which is what the commercial building is called, for the air conditioning. The commercial vendors include the usual - knives, expensive cookware, window replacement, bath refinishing, a few jewelry vendors and fancy baked goods/caramel apples/etc. And a small candy maze, and since we had finished the candy from the HoCo fair, we went ahead and got a bit more.
We wanted to try the dining hall here, since we never had before and since we now had tried the dining halls at several fairs. We'd still like to try it someday, but this was not the day for it. We walked in and (a) off to one side was an extremely loud band playing moldy oldies at top volume - for (b) the waiting line of hundreds of seniors. We wanted to eat sometime the same day, and the dining hall line didn't look to be getting any shorter. So we went back out again. Back near the horse barn, a United Methodist church was serving barbecued chicken, and a Catholic church was serving pulled pork sandwiches; we rather arbitrarily decided on the Catholics.
We could have taken each other's photos with a life-sized cardboard cutout of Pope Francis, but somehow we resisted. These church stands are permanent buildings - small, just kitchen and serving windows, with eating areas outside. St. Francis of Assisi's sandwiches were right next to the first of the goat barns, and so while we were eating, goats kept being led past to the judging arena; it definitely lends an Ag atmosphere to things. There's another church, I forget which one, that runs a sandwich counter in the back hallway of the Chilly Mall; it's an odd area, very narrow and with limited seating, but we ate sandwiches there one year and they were OK. Also, outside the Chilly Mall, another permanent food stand which I've never seen identified as to vendor, which sells barbecue sandwiches and sausages; we ate there the first year we ever came to this fair. (And of course there's tons of food in the Midway.)After lunch, back to the other floor in the Chilly Mall, which has the Home Arts stuff. This was the biggest I've ever seen the Home Arts at MoCo - a lot more quilts and knitting and crochet than I've seen there in previous years. This is another "open" fair, meaning that adults as well as 4-Hers enter things, and also people from neighboring counties. This expands the possibilities a lot. The "You be the judge" wall was hand-sewn tote bags this year, not nearly as interesting as the children's hats or scarves of previous years. I was really impressed with the quilts, and also with all the knitting and crochet - nice job on the judging, Megan! Most of you don't want a blow by blow walk-through of the home arts; enough to know that they're there, and I hope that next year when you decide to go because of my write-up, they'll be even better.
In the baked goods and such area, our favorite was a marzipan creation.
Yes, a hot dog and mac-and-cheese, done in marzipan. There were some nice cookies, too, and a few attractive cakes.
After that, over toward the General Store, which is two things - (1) a reproduction of an old-time general store with all kinds of vintage stuff on display, from antique stoves and kitchen cabinets of a century ago, and vintage saxophones, to canisters and tins and whatnot from old food. Also a few agricultural implements, and some stuff from the history of the MoCo fair, including the deed to the fairgrounds. And (2) the produce section, all the veggies and fruits to be judged, along with the beekeepers' stuff and something different, a selection from local winemakers. Here, the weird veggies are called "Vegetables Most Unusually Formed" (Veg MUF for short), including the seven-and-a-half-foot-long squash.
Outside the general store, there are other old-time things: antique farm equipment, blacksmith equipment, old metal-working stuff, a replica of a 19th century workshop of some sort. I know we've gone through that in the past but we didn't do anything except cut through a corner of it this time. You'll want to investigate it more thoroughly if you're going for the first time; there's lots of stuff for kids to climb on, too. This is where the "back" gate to the fair is, and where the trams start their route.
The building next to the old-time stuff is the Arts/Photography building - the entries of photographs, paintings, drawings, lego sculptures, woodworking, model-building. We only gave this a quick run-through; some years there's something outstanding that catches our eye, but this year we didn't see anything we absolutely had to call to anyone's attention. (Also, we were beginning to get tired.)
As we worked our way back, we stopped briefly in the Old MacDonald's Barn, which is a petting zoo sort of things - burros, a couple of alpacas, an enormous pig, piglets, play area for the kids. Then, across from the dairy cattle barns, there's a big permanent ice cream building, run by the Lions, of course. (You will have noticed that as a theme running through several fairs.) So we got humongous scoops of ice cream and ate them, and then continued to wend our way back toward the carnival, taking note of the pig races we could have watched, and an upcoming magic show at the Community Stage, and an all-percussion band playing in front of one of the buildings - things we could have spent more time on, were we not hot and tired. When we got back to the carnival, I did indeed go on the Hampster Dance ride. Photo below - it's basically a shallow swimming pool, with gigantic inflated tubes; you crawl inside a tube, and then try to stand, try to maneuver around, try to walk, try even to crawl, and mostly fall over. I was alone in there, so I could bump into all the other tubes with impunity; I imagine if several of you wanted to play simultanously, there could be quite the bumper-battle of the tubes! If you could get any of them to go somewhere in particular rather than at random. Mostly, what I did was keep falling over; it's fun, but I really couldn't control it, and I exhausted myself. Next year, if I can get someone else to come in at the same time... (Larry was patiently watching the scooter and my purse and shoes and belt, none of which one is allowed to bring into the inflateables.)
And then we returned the scooter and limped over to the car, exhausted after 5.5 hours, and we could easily have spent 8 or 9 there if it weren't so hot, as we skipped half the goat barns and most of the cattle, as well as several of the shows mentioned above. I think one year we did spend 7 hours there, but mostly heat does us in before that. Those of you who are more weather-resistant, and who can eat more, plan on spending longer there and eating several meals there - /somebody/ has to try that dining hall.
Lots of freebies along the way - several people giving out tote bags, chip clips, etc., including a couple of the big hospitals in MoCo, a few of the businesses in the Chilly Mall, and some retirement communities apparently trying to steal some of the seniors away from each other :D You could get your year's worth of pencils and pens, get key chains and such from the various county agencies and state agencies, including a lighted keychain from the transit system people. Good idea to try to find one of those as you come in, so you have a tote bag to stick everything else into that you pick up along the way. I don't know what the Christian Motorcyclists, the Christian Farmers Association, or the Bible Studies booths were giving away, but those are all there also. It's the biggest ag fair in MD, bigger than the state fair except for the size of the state fair midway, and if you're only going to go to one, this is the one to go to. Bring money.
