We went to the Cal Expo and State Fair. I have never been to the State fair but I have been to a County fair such as Solano county many years ago. My husband has been to the State fair when he was very very young. It was a good day to go to the fair but it was too hot.
The State fair was very big. They had livestock shows, concerts, exhibits, carnival rides, lots of eating areas and so on. The admission for adults is $12 each. Our son was free. The parking was $10. If you want to ride the carnival, you can either pay for each ticket which is $1 or pay $30 for unlimited rides. We didn’t go on any carnival rides. Instead, we went to see the livestock show and petting zoo as well as look at some exhibits. The State fair also had shopping expo which housed all different retailers selling clothes, house products, outdoor products (kinda like the Napa Home and Garden Show).
The concern I had about the State fair was the bathroom! I thought they only had portable pottys. But they actually had restrooms… clean restrooms. 🙂
Overall, we had a good time. I especially liked watching the cooking demonstrations. There were other businesses there who gave free stuffs. Some businesses were Golden Credit Union, Walmart, NBC news, PG&E, so forth. At the Golden Credit Union, I won a backpack! All I had to do was spin this wheel and if the needle landed on any yellow number, I win a backpack. The NBC news provided free photographs. You get to choose different backgrounds and they take your picture for free. We chose the background that says California State Fair 2011. At Walmart, we got free smoothies. PG&E gave us a free battery powered fan.
Nathan had a very wonderful time at the fair especially when feeding the animals like goats, deer, etc. To feed the animals, it cost $3 for adult and $1 for the food. Nathan was free since he is only 21 months old. Nathan was kinda scared at beginning but once he got used to being around the animals, he would run up to them and pet them.
In the livestock area, a pig just gave birth that morning. She had 4 gilts (female swine) and 4 boars (male swine). I even saw the pig’s placenta. There were also other animals such as goats and cows that just gave birth. Now that I think about it, do the farmers purposely make these animals get pregnant so that they can give birth in time for the fair? In another livestock area, we saw rows and rows of cows. Some cows were actually getting their hair trimmed. The livestock area didn’t really smell as bad as I thought. The workers did a good job cleaning up the stanky poop.
Some exhibits were interesting such as the County exhibit.
In Amador County, you can actually ride on an open train while you eat and drink!
The fair also have their own monorail like Disneyland but you have to pay to ride it.
There were people in costumes entertaining everyone
Carnival area had roller coasters, bungee jumping and other usual carnival rides.
After the fair, we went to Wild Buffalo Wings which newly opened in Vacaville. The one in Vacaville is bigger than the one we go to in Fairfield. Since the one in Vacaville just opened, it was crowded. As usual, we got our wings with different spices such as salt/vinegar, spicy garlic. Nelson got the 3 chili cheese dogs with fries.