"WHERE THE ANIMALS ARE SERVED FIRST...AND AREN'T ON THE MENU!"

Sunday, July 27, 2008

The Vegan Visits the Sonoma County Fair

I went to the fair for the first time in at least a decade today!! Despite the fact that the fair is not very vegan-friendly, I had a great time (going with a fun extended family helps!)...and even got a hand-carved Lazy Vegan sign for The Lazy Vegan!! The guys who made the sign got a big kick out of it- one of them has a sister who is vegan. I also saw the Budweiser Clydesdales...apparently the donkey doesn't tour with them any longer...but I found out he (or she) lives at Sea World! The clydesdales were beautiful but it was sad to see them in their very small stalls (although I must say they had tons of clean and fluffly pine shavings on the ground...it made me want to rush home to clean the donkey barn!). I don't believe in horse races, but I went up to the very cool box seats with the rest of the crew and managed to catch some racing ambiance before leaving to pick up my custom sign. AND, highlight: I won two stuffed animals- a pig and a cow- at two different stupid fair games!! Perfect for the vegan at the fair!
With my pig and cow, at the balloon dart game (I was, quite frankly, a natural).
Deb has custody of pig and cow.

Winning at the coin toss. Classic fairgoer...I KNEW I had actually one the HUGE stuffed animals, but the sly game-worker swiped the coin off so fast we couldn't tell for sure. I was happy with the small pig!
Aaron and his wacky Aunt Diana.
Again...didn't realize I posted three almost identical photos. But you can't really have too much of Aaron, his wacky Aunt Diana and the little pink pig!
OMG! (Oh, my god...for those of you who don't know text language...and actually, it is the ONLY text word I know!). I almost forgot- I also won the red necklace Aaron is wearing!

Aaron tries his hand at the dart game!

One of the Budweiser Clydesdale in his very clean stall with his nice fresh hay. They were all boys- wonder what the reason for that is? Probably they're all gelded, which is the best type of temperment for all equine- get rid of those hormones (geez...maybe that's what I need to do!).
Aaron and the ferris wheel.
Aunt Diana showing some restraint--not hugging her nephew in public.
Aaron tries the coin toss!


A lot of photos were taken of me today! I feel somewhat like a celebrity!

Getting The Lazy Vegan sign made. What fun! I have to figure out where to put it now. If it passes the design commitee (of one: The Lazy Vegan foreman, Randy), I might put it on a tree that borders the driveway!
What a crew! Right after I took this photo the custom sign guy came running up to me...to give me back my VISA card. Details! This on the heels of locking my keys in the car this morning. More details! Snap & Deb in front of Mom's Apple Pie, where I bought Dad a Mom's Apple Pie shirt. Dad, no doubt, was meanwhile thoroughly enjoying his solitude with a book back out at the beach house.
Pretty impressive horse trailer!

The whole crew!



My friend Marion's beautiful sunflower painting... won second place!!
Only at the fair will you come across something amazing like this...made from toothpicks!
Chow down time. Not much vegan fare at the fair. I did, however, find an espresso stand that had soymilk- so I got a great soy latte! I will treasure this last photo forever...here they are, folks...my mom and my stepmom, each with a corn dog, (let's just pretend it is a tofu dog, shall we? Maybe next year it will be!) posing like veteran fairgoers!!!