Fried food, big vegetables, and farm animals...

WHAT FUN! And all this "funness" and more can be found at the NC State Fair! Now before this trip, I hated the fair! I thought of scary dangerous rides, creepy people, nutty parking, crowdedness, and dirtiness! But this year when Paul asked me to go with this Greensboro, I thought maybe I would go but was still not that excited but I was open-minded! Paul (and two of his gboro friends) picked me and our friend Sarah (she just moved here but went to UF for college so Paul knew her from Gainesville) up, and we all headed to the fair! We then met up with the rest of the gboro crew which included my favorite red-headed cousin... Meghan!

Trammel (one of Paul's good friends) with his turkey leg

After hugs and hellos to all of Paul's roommates and friends, we split up in smaller groups.
The three Radcliffs stayed together along with Sarah and Rachel.


First stop... lunch! And what lunch at the fair would be complete without fried food?

Paul with his fair must... turkey leg!

Fried green tomatoes and Fried Pickles

After a yummy lunch, we headed to the very crowded pig races!

Waiting for the poodle show (Sarah, Rachel, Meghan, and Paul)... we got there really early because we wanted to be able to actually see it since we could not see the pig show

While waiting for the poodle show to start, Paul, Meg, and I went in to the 4H exhibit where we saw different ribboned displays:
Paul and Meg showing off the cool house made with Popsicle sticks, shingles, etc.

Me and the very cool sewn flip flop backpack

Paul with the weird pickled stuff... pickled shrimp anyone? Yuck!

Meg showing off the awesome Hansel and Gretel cake... notice the other cool cakes, too.

Sarah and I waiting for the Poodle show... at the wrong location, of couse! But this was also the place of the hay stacks which made Sarah very sick!

The 3 adorable poodles who did a variety of tricks. (There were two obedient boys and 1 girl who never did the tricks the right way but her OWN way!) I think I am going to try some of the them with Zoe... hey, you never know!

Could not resist this corny picture! (It was one of the many church restaurants.)

After this, the hay made Sarah very sick so Paul and I took her home where she could get away from the crazy fair smells and hay that were causing her allergies to freak out.

When Paul and I got back to the fair, it was just the two of us for most of the rest of the night and we had a blast doing the "boring" (not to us, just to others) fair things.

Ice cream churned by John Deer tractor motors? Only at the fair!

The largest pumpkin weighed over 800 pounds

Huge watermelon... as long as a yard stick

All types of tomatoes (esp. heirlooms) at the fair! That's how it's done!

That is some honkin' big okra!

Sweet mama and baby cow

spotted pigs with adorable curly tails

Sarah (one of Meghan's roommates) and Ellie with their ducklings

Sweet duckling (who cocked its head from Meg's camera... too cute!)

Paul and his adorable brown/yellow duckling

My best moment of the entire fair!! Paul and I walked up to the WRAL tent (my favorite news station I watch every morning) and saw that the greeter for this time slot was... MIKE MAZE!!! My all time favorite red-headed weatherman who I have watched since I was in middle school (and dreamed of being a weather women).

My fair experience is not complete until I get a fried 3 Musketeer bar! (no judging until you have tried it yourself)

Our final picture of the night (Paul does quite well taking pictures of us!)