Florida State Fair

On Saturday we went to the Florida State Fair. It was a fair..fair..smaller than the one held in North Carolina but still very similar. They charged $10.00 entrance fee but parking was free right at the gates. That was nice..no walking a mile to get to the entrance.

Rides, exhibits, fried food(Oreos, candy bars, elephant ears, cookie dough, Pepsi, Twinkies), food on a stick (even pizza), hot dogs, polish sausage with onions and peppers. Can you feel the arteries hardening? Large midway, many animal buildings and food..did I mention the food??














1 big difference we found..they sell alcohol too. Beer and hard liquor. That was a surprise to me.
Another area we found different was a Mexican food pavilion. Mexican and Columbian food and beverages were offered.















We enjoyed the Cracker Country exhibit.

http://www.crackercountry.org/

Cracker Country features thirteen original buildings dating from 1870-1912. These buildings were moved to their present location from throughout the state, then restored and furnished with antiques of the period.

Demonstrations included blacksmithing, spinning, making traditional "Florida Cracker" Cow Whips, woodcarving, open fire cooking, storytelling, sewing, soap making and old tool demonstrations just as was done 100 years ago.

They also had a sugar cane mill. The mill is driven by horse power and grinds the sugar cane to extract the sap. It is cooked down into a thick syrup. A lot like we make molasses.

We also watched a band called the Sweeney Family Band. Old timey banjo, guitar and bass picking and comedy. Very funny.















At noon there was also a small parade. Several of the local high school marching bands. Folks on motorcycles. Even Elvis on a mini cycle too.




















Another difference we noticed was there was not a high police presence. No highway patrol at every entrance or controlling traffic. And not many police within the grounds either.

The fair doesn't seem to be the news story that it is in NC. We have only seen 1 news story about the fair. The reporter went and tried all of the fried foods. She seemed to enjoy it very much. I also heard them talking about the number of people that attended over the 18 days it was held. I think the final count was about 470,000..a lot less than in NC.

Overall..we enjoyed the visit.