Do the Puyallup

Sunday, September 27, 1998
One year ago: Green Valleys of Silliness

It wasn't too difficult getting going for a trip to the Puyallup Fair. We stopped at the Cinnabon conveniently located at a local grocery store, Jack, me and his two daughters, and had some breakfast. I'm so glad that chain has spread itself around; I remember a few years ago, when I had to make a special trip to Northgate mall to get a fix.

Jack had been worried that there would be a lot of traffic, but it wasn't bad at all. It was another beautiful Seattle day, and it was the very last day of the fair. This isn't the state fair; it's a private exposition formally called the Western Washington Fair. Jack has his favorite place to park, on the back side of the fairgrounds. Lots of people don't know that there are entrances on all sides of the fair!

We went in, and immediately went to look at the horses, since that barn was right near the gate. I was interested to see that the costumes of the 4-H riders are getting very fancy, almost as elaborate as ice skating or gymnastics outfits. The traditional English-style riders still wear the same clothes as always.

This year, for the first time, Jack let his daughters do the rock climbing. This is a fun activity! They have harnesses and ropes to let you climb safely and rapell down easily. They even provide the shoes! Each girl got two climbs, and succeeded both times. A---, Jack's older daughter, said her arms were shaking after she was done! They were both tired, but very proud of themselves.

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Of course, Jack had a system, a way that he likes to do the fair. We looked at the things around the edge of the fair, then went back and covered the things in the middle. Crafts, vendors, a bluegrass band, a pretty good juggler and comedian. The girls had some money to spend as they pleased, so if they asked for something that Jack didn't want to buy them, he'd tell them to pay for it out of their pocket. He'd buy for them pretty often, though. We ate very often throughout the day -- part of the Puyallup experience! Scones (a fair tradition with raspberry preserves), taffy, a big dinner (I had barbecue chicken), elephant ears, and root beer floats, as well as various beverages.

A favorite part of the fair for both Jack and me is the Hobby Hall. This large exhibition hall is filled with people's collections of things, and with craft exhibits and competitions. The collections are fascinating! Not just typical things like model cars, but specialized collections like models of ambulances, or images of rhinoceri. The crafts are great to look at, too! Leather working, wood carving, doll making...

I'm not so impressed with the booths where they had things for sale. We didn't have time to look carefully at the area reserved for real crafts people and artists, and most of the rest were gimmicky stuff you might see at the home show.

The girls did play some of the games, and won a few small items. We were glad they didn't succeed at winning a hermit crab, though such a prize would have a better chance of living than the goldfish they used to have as carnival prizes. The girls were well-behaved all day, with only a few minor lapses. Jack let them go by themselves into the Sony Playstation truck, not realizing there wasn't an automatic cutoff that would send them out in good time. The girls got wrapped up in the game, and didn't realize how long we'd been waiting, so Jack had to in through the exit door and roust them. A--- was humiliated, but got over it after a little while.

Jack's favorite thing of the whole fair was the roller coaster! They have a good-sized wooden coaster there. We waited in line for about fifteen minutes, which wasn't too bad. The two girls wanted to ride together, so Jack and I got to ride together, too. It was great! Very much worth the wait; I alternated between shrieking and laughing. Because Jack rides with both hands in the air, he did slide into me during the turns, but it was't too bad.

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The last ride we did was the ferris wheel. It was just past dark, and the lights of the fair made it all look very glamorous! The two girls used up most of the rest of the tickets on the big slide, then Jack handed our last two to a young tot (with parent) who would enjoy riding a two-ticket ride.

We pulled out and continued on the road south; we needed to take Jack's younger daughter back to her mom's place near Olympia. The drive back to Redmond didn't take too long. We were really very lucky with traffic, all day long! Jack's back had been paining him in a small way all along, but he was feeling so bad as we were driving home on I-5 that he had me get a small packet of ibuprofen out of his beltpack. He swallowed two pills, dry! Poor guy.

A really nice weekend, from dinner Friday evening, to seeing the moons of Jupiter on Saturday, all the way to Sunday night!