it was the best fair ever…

Hundreds of pounds of food donated to the food bank, 73 trashosaurus sculptures and hundreds of thousands of smiling faces later, the Sonoma County Fair wound to a glowing close on August 9. Hope to see you next year!

Experience the Fair before it ends this Sunday, August 9th—or you’ll be kicking yourself on Monday

The Fair has gotten rave reviews this year from the folks who have visited “The Garden Time Forgot”, in fact, Sherm Byers, the owner of the dinosaur replicas around the grounds and in the flower show says of all the state and county fairs he’s been to over the years, nothing compares to the Sonoma County Fair Flower Show, which is the largest themed flower show in the United States.

Also a huge favorite with all ages is Dinosaur Island. This exhibit combines interactive activities, like painting on a giant dinosaur mural and digging for dinosaur “bones”, an extensive array of fossils and dinosaur replicas, and a stunning display of “Descendents of Dinosaurs”, with exotic turtles, snakes, lizards and frogs. There are baby snakes in the process of hatching and a huge snapping turtle. Some huge boas rest contentedly in their exhibit while the two macaws entertain everyone with their antics and loud quips and whistles. All of the animals are domestically raised—none are taken from the wild. The presentations by Brad’s World personnel at the exhibit stress preservation and conservation and are remarkably informative and entertaining.

Not to be outdone in the entertainment department, but also educational are the Fido 500 Mini Dog Races. The show owners have dogs from all over the world—Hans from Germany, Lulu the pug from Tibet, Sergeant Barkley, the all-American mutt (cross between a Beagle and a fence-jumper) and more. There are prizes for dog trivia questions, like “What was Jed Clampett’s dog’s named on the Beverly Hillbillies?” and lots more fun besides getting to see all these cute little dogs go flying around the track.

The crowds have been really big at Wine Country Horse Racing—come see what all the excitement is about. We personally like the Big Hat Day on Sunday and are working on ours tonight. You wear a big outrageous hat and the first 50 people to come to the Service Station (located on the ground floor–look for the balloons) in a big hat will receive a free $2 betting voucher. Play that $2 well—some of the exactas have had terrific pay-offs.

The show we can’t wait to see is the Destruction Derby tomorrow and on Sunday. Our neighbor Russ is driving both nights so we’ll be out there rooting for him. If you’re thinking of going, be sure to grab some tickets right away because there aren’t too many left for Saturday we hear.

$2 is almost free…

I never get tired of looking for free stuff, and while a two-dollar discount isn’t exactly free, this is still a good thing.

I’m talking about the Food Bank Fridays at the Fair, back again this year. When you bring two cans or packages of nonperishable food to the Fair on Fridays, they’ll give you a $2 discount on your $9 general admission.

Now maybe two dollars doesn’t sound like a lot to you—good! You must be among the people who have not been laid off in the last year, which is great. Add that to the fact that you live in Sonoma County, and you can safely count yourself among the most fortunate people on the planet.

Just for fun, let’s multiply the two bucks a couple of times. Let’s say there are four of you in your group. If all four of you bring two food items, you’ve saved $8 among the four of you. That’s enough to park in one of the premium parking lots here at the Fair. Now we’re talking. You may not care about the close-in parking when you get here, but after hiking a few miles around the course of your day at the Fair, that close-in parking could come in handy.

So let’s multiply one more time, like my third grade teacher always asked. What if there were eight of you in two vehicles? You could all park in close and feel like bigwigs at Bohemian Grove (okay, that’s a stretch at best).

But here’s what’s very cool—if eight people bring two food items each, your group has single-handedly delivered enough food to help out a family whose bread-winner has been laid off get through a couple of days.

You have it in your power to make someone’s entire weekend a whole lot better because their kids now have some peanut butter or pasta or chili or fruit or tuna—you get the idea.

So you have a job, you get to live in one of the most beautiful places on earth, you come to the Fair with your friends and get the bigwig parking spot– and you make someone else feel fortunate too.

Now that’s a beautiful thing.

See you at the Fair!
Visit today – www.sonomacountyfair.com

One of my favorite words has always been “free.”

One of my favorite words has always been “free.” Free food, free time, free for all—all good things. In this case I’m focusing on free as in “Get into the Fair for free,” also a very good thing.

You probably already know about the official free days for kids and seniors (Thursdays for kids; Tuesdays for seniors) but on Sunday August 2 everyone has a chance to get in free. FREE. Adults, kids 13 and older, seniors who are busy on Tuesdays—everyone.

How? By building a trashosaurus. Yes. A scrap sculpture dinosaur.

First you head out to the garage. Dig through your husband’s stuff first, then your kids’ stuff, then the recycling can (obviously your own stuff has tremendous value so you wouldn’t want to use any of that). Call your mom, whose religion precludes ever throwing anything away. She probably still won’t be able to part with anything, but everyone should go see their mom anyway.

Now it’s time to get creative. Pry the keys off that old keyboard to make teeth, cut the picture of the old girlfriend into little bits to create colorful scales, grab the Gorilla glue and get to work assembling a tail out of those V8 bottles. This can be enormously beneficial to your mental health as well as the state of your garage. While you work you can start cooking up a story about what happened to old what’s-her-name’s photo.

Once you’ve completed your Trashosaurus, you need to remember two things:
1. Bring it to the Fair on August 2
2. Get there before 4 pm.

It won’t do any good to claim you built a scrap sculpture dinosaur to the gate people—they hear it all—so bring it with you and they’ll let you in free. It won’t get your free-loading brother-in-law in though, he’s going to have to build his own Trashosaurus. Everyone who has one in their hands gets in free that day—even the kids—but make sure theirs are small enough for them to carry them by themselves or you know who’s going to end up lugging them across the parking lot.

Now you head to the Dinosaur Island area near the south end of Finley Hall—you know, over by the Sheep Barn. You can leave the Trashosaurus there, where they’ll all be judged at 4:15 and ready to join the Daily Parade at 5. Heck, you might even win a ribbon.

It’s all good, it’s all free—and a great use for old what’s-her-name.

See you at the Fair!
Visit today – www.sonomacountyfair.com

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