This summer has been quite hectic in our house, between jobs, new baby, lots of visitors, and Alaska’s already short summer, I feel like I just blinked and the summer was almost over.

The Alaska State Fair, for me, indicates the beginning of fall. The trees are still pretty green, but the night time temperatures are starting to cool off more consistently. Last night it was 41 degrees F. While the trees still do look green, the green is much lighter, headed toward yellow type of green.

My daughter and son-in-law are here from Utah, and one of the must do’s was going to the fair. She has always loved the fair and her husband is a great sport to go and wander with us.

Here in Alaska we don’t have county fairs. We don’t even have counties. We have boroughs, which are probably the same thing with a different name. But the Borough is missing something that made my childhood special.

My daughter’s husband is from Utah, and lived part of his life in a more rural community, spending time on his grandparents farm, raising his own animals, riding horses, all the things. He remembers county fairs kind of like I remember them and we spent our drive to Palmer reminiscing on “the good ole day’s.”

I didn’t spent much time at my own counties fair, but I spent a ton of time at the Sevier County Fair as that’s where my grandparents and all my cousins lived. Every year my mom would drop me off just before it started and I’d spend a week or more with my grandparents. They were very involved in the fair, so I spent every single day there.

My cousins had show animals, so when they would be up to show, we all watched. When they went up for auction we also sat and listened to the auctioneer, trying not to buy anything with our fidgeting! We helped in the different buildings where arts and crafts, flowers and produce were all displayed, and we helped out at the concession stands a few years as well. It was very family oriented, with local families volunteering to make it all run. There were few if any rides or commercial vendors.

The Alaska State Fair is a completely different experience, with the majority of the fair being vendors and rides, and only a couple of buildings having the stuff that I want to see – the animals, arts and crafts, flower, and produce. I go for the buildings like that, my kids go for the fair food, rides, and vibe of the fair, but now I have a son-in-law who also goes for the buildings, and I’m so grateful for that!

My daughter is pregnant, so she had some pretty specific cravings by the time we got there. She wanted deep fried halibut. That was the first stop. We wandered until we found one, and they had sourdough hushpuppies, which my son-in-law wanted to try (they were both great!). I stopped and got pot stickers and chicken meatballs called ping pong chicken.

Our next stop was to see a pirate show that we decided was geared more towards kids than adults, so we headed to see how my artwork did this year. Last year I got a green participation ribbon, so I was hoping for something a little bit better than that! There is so much artwork, and so much good artwork at the fair though, so I’m sure judging it all is hard. It’s fun to go see what people have created and maybe how they’ve created the different effects. Mine was further into the building than it’s been in the past, but when we found it I was pleasantly surprised to find it had earned a red ribbon, 2nd place!

Going to the fair once in a season is plenty for me, but I will be back on Friday to take the Young Women group I am in charge of. Last year I took them as well, and it was fun to just hang out and watch them have fun. This year will hopefully be a lot of fun as well, although the weather is calling for lots of rain that day. Hopefully they all come prepared.

Featured Artwork: