Our Day at The Great State Fair of Texas

Everyone sing! "Our State Fair is a great State Fair..." OK, that's enough. After the failed attempt at attending the fair on Columbus day I pulled Lynne and the boys out of school and we went on a Thursday. It was alot less crowded but it was senior citizen day. Will got his foot run over by a little old lady in her electric scooter. She never even slowed down, it was funny.

The sand castle exhibit was interesting. How do they get that sand to stay in place so they can carve it? I guess they pack it while it's wet.

The new Texas Skyway was up and running. We didn't ride, I still remember what happened to the last one. The gate we entered the park thru was under one of the stations.

This is the first animal we saw when we went into the petting zoo. They had alot of exotic animal there as well as the barnyard variety.

Here are the boys petting an American Bison (aka: Buffalo).

Then the boys got hungry. Here they are eating lunch. Oh wait, that's the wrong picture. See the post "Together at the State Fair" below for that picture.

Here is the view up the Esplanade looking toward the Texas Hall of State. The picture isn't fuzzy, those are the water drops from the fountains at the front of the pond.

I think Jesse found his car!

The Amazing Acrobats of Africa were performing in front of the African American Museum. How low can you go?

And of course the entire day we're making a big loop around the Cotton Bowl. You can see the Skyway again in this picture.

We went to the bird show again this year. It was fun as usual.

If you look real close you can see them releasing an eagle out of the gold car on the Texas Star Ferris wheel. It glided down and landed on the guys arm on stage. It's an eagle from Africa but it looks kinda like a Bald Eagle.

Here is an owl taking flight. Look at those talons!

One more shot of Big Tex. In the background you can see the Tower Building (I wonder why they call it that), the Cotton Bowl, and the Texas Star.

And of course I had to include this picture. There was a garden railroad around the base of Big Tex! We decided that we are just going to pull the boys out of school every year to go to the State Fair. It is alot less crowded and much more enjoyable during the week. And there were alot of other parents and kids there who had done the same thing!

Together at the State Fair

Of course, when you go to the State Fair of Texas you have to have a corny dog.

The Dog Show at the State Fair

I think the kids favorite part of the State Fair was the dog show. It was a little too dark for photography, but the video worked on the camera. It had a little trouble focusing but I think the videos came out OK. The first video is from the weave pole race.

This next dog reminded me of Barker (GranPa's dog). A pole got in the way but yes, he did catch the last one.

Last video. The dog was going for distance. I believe the world record was over 31 feet. This dog didn't quite make it.

More Arboretum Pictures

Monday at the Arboretum

Monday we headed to Dallas to take the kids to the State Fair. After spending an hour and a half in traffic and not finding a parking place within 10 blocks of Fair Park, we decided not to go to the fair. So I took Lynne to the Dallas Arboretum instead.
The boys weren't that thrilled about it but they'll get over it. We even toured the house. The picture below is the courtyard outside the master bedroom and bath.

This was everyone's favorite room, the library. The guide called it their "wow" room because that's what everyone says when they walk in.

There is so much to photograph it's hard to know where to point the camera. There were pretty flowers and alot of colorful foliage.

Jesse really liked the plant below. I asked him to read the tag to see what it was. He said it was gigantus something.

There were pumpkins floating in one of the fountains. Jess tried to push them all back into the middle of the pond. And you shouldn't pick up pumpkins and throw them into the water because they might hit the bottom and break. Or so I've heard.

There were many interesting water features at the garden. We ran into a lady here with a camera that made mine look like it came out of a cereal box. The lens was about 2 feet long.

Andy had to pose for his fans.

There is a Texas area set up for educational tours with different types of structures. Below is the sod house they built.

They even had Agave there Uncle Alan!

I just wondered how many man hours it takes to keep this place looking so good. I have enough trouble keeping the yard mowed. As for the State Fair? I think I'll pull the kids out of school and go on a Thursday.

An Old Gin

After reading GranPa's blog from a few days ago and seeing his pictures of the Five Points gin I decided to visit myself. I've probably only been there once or twice in my life and couldn't remember when the last time was.

There are many interesting parts to an old gin. Most people (including me) probably have no idea what they are or what their purpose was.

The area around the old gin was mowed and clean from debris. I guess someone is taking care of it.

The old gin in Maypearl was torn down several years ago, it's just a vacant lot now. The are preparing the old depot for a move to behind the bank. The plan is to restore it to original condition.

There is a piece of farm equipment in front of the old depot. I bet GranPa knows what it did. Maybe remove corn from the cob?

Try This GranPa

Ok, I was playing with my camera tonight and took these pictures. You may have to click on them to get a bigger picture to see better. I did shrink them by half for a faster dial-up upload. My camera may not be able to leave the shutter open longer so I don't know if I can get the stars brighter or not.
I believe the first three pictures were taken with the same settings, but I can't remember for sure. Those smudges in the pictures is the Milky Way.

These last two pictures are the same area of the sky with two different settings. The first one is kinda grainy but you can see more stars.

The second is clearer but the dimmer stars don't show up as well. Which do you think is better. If you have any suggestions for better pictures let me know.