We spent just under 6 hours at the annual great Minnesota get-together and managed to pack in quite a lot. While the pictures include many food items not purchased by lakedavid, we wanted to highlight the variety and entertainment value that can be seen throughout your visit to the fairgrounds. In addition, the fair can be great exercise-- David clocked over 22,000 steps on his pedometer! It is challenging to eat little but we occupied ourselves with the free live music stages and enjoyed Becky Schlagel at the Heritage Square stage and Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings at the Leinie's Lodge Stage.

In Toyota's hybrid technology truck David earned enough points (550) from test your knowledge quizzes to plant a tree in California.

We also hit the Skyride, animal barns, 4H, education building, U of M building, dairy building (and the butter princess carvings), international bazaar with hypnotist HynoChick performing, DFL and Renewal by Anderson booths, CCO's we pedal-power booth and the beer garden for some Summer Shandy to cap off the evening.

Click here to see my slideshow.

State Fair Trivia:
http://www.mnstatefair.org/pages/fair_trivia.html

Expected attendance: Over 1.5 MILLION visitors in 11 days

Food frenzy: 63 foods on a stick

Favorite barn: MOO cows

Favorite food: Fried cheese curds, of course, followed by Sweet Martha's Cookies



Favorite green addition: WE [pedal] POWER (bonus: Burns off your cheese curds calories)



Stay tuned to LakeDavid for pictures of our State Fair visit.

Those of you who follow Lake David happenings are going to remember this one from past years. Yesterday was the annual Milk Carton Boat Races, as part of Minneapolis' Aquatennial celebration. Christine and I enjoyed a bike ride around Calhoun and admired some of the sand castle creations and egg nogg boats, before they made their way into the Waste Management Truck.

This past week has been event-filled, comprising visitors to Lake David as well as a long holiday weekend.

The Shabakers of the Shabakers of Naperville came to town on the 1st of July, whence we enjoyed great company. Outings included Convention Grill, PUNCH Pizza Calhoun Village, Como Zoo & Conservatory -- (click here for photo highlights), Lake David HQ, y casa de Yussens Senior. We thank them for the good times and pleasant reconnoiter.

The last week has also been filled with copious amounts of lawn-watering, as a result of mother nature having chosen to bless Iowa and Missoura with all of her gifts of precipitation, leaving us Northerners to drain the Twin Cities water system at a painful price not quite rivaling that of the corner filling station. Thanks to unrelenting TLC, our garden boasts a pea plant, several spry herbs, and two thriving tomato plants that come due for harvest in 2-3 weeks. Photos of the ever expanding array of bowls of annuals will be brought forth in the near future.