Sacramento Trip Day 2: CA State Fair, Again

After lunch at one of my favorite restaurants, Old Spaghetti Factory, we headed back to the Cal Expo Fairgrounds. Since our media passes allowed us to go multiple days, we decided to spend a bit more time at the fair before we started the trip home.

Before the wait got too long, we got in line right away for the dinosaur exhibit. As we stood in line, you could hear audible roars coming through the tent walls. It was a bit creepy and we were unsure what to expect inside. We found it was actually pretty interesting with the life-size animatronic figures featured in florescent spotlights. The brontosaurus display was massive. It turns out the only reason the line moves so slow was because people didn’t move, they just stood still to read the information boards. As you can see, it was not crowded at all once you passed the entrance door.

Later we walked into the agricultural area. Some of the grounds keepers were harvesting some zucchini from one of the decorative displays. I commented on how huge they were and they asked if we wanted one. Well, you know I couldn’t pass up something free and this thing was HUGE. I kind of liked showing it off as I carried it over my shoulder but it got a bit redundant when we kept hearing, “That’s a big zucchini!” So we went to put the huge vegetable back in the car before we continued. Speaking of food, I had to get my main ‘fair’ staple – a freshly-made funnel cake. Yum!

I think the unique highlight today was the opportunity to see a live birth of a baby calf. The mother cow was having a hard time so the delivery took a long time and it was pretty brutal how the on-site vets assisted. I won’t get too detailed on you but let’s just say that cow, the vets, and everyone looking on was exhausted by the time the calf finally came out. I was very sweet to see the mother licking her baby clean though. Glad we went Monday since Tuesday they had to shoot a pregnant cow that ran a muck – so sad.

When asked to described the State Fair, many just said that is was just the usual city/county fair, just bigger. I would say that is true but quite an understatement. The grounds were expansive, the exhibits more elaborate, and there are so many activites to partake in and see. You can cover the usual fair with attractions and booths within a few hours. I was really happy we spent more time here and there was actually enough to come a third day but we were ‘plum tuckered out’. We headed home, ate at Chili’s, then zonked out in our own beds. So nice to have a little get-away!