OUR STATE FAIR IS THE BEST STATE FAIR...

do any of you remember the movie "State Fair" and the song from decades ago?

We had a super time and slept a lot this afternoon to recover. We sampled some fun foods, visited several buildings, people watched, and enjoyed the great weather. For the first time in my life i even purchased at the fair shoes and a bag too. Pretty fun and very reasonable.

Emma was a bit overwhelmed at first with all the people, noises, excitement. The attendance was a record I heard for the 1st day. The great weather helped I think.

Some things we did that I think helped the experience with Emma:

1. We ventured off and after just a few blocks of them walking me scooting on my electric scooter realized Emma needed time to adjust. We stopped. Reassured her and just sat while she could observe the many people, the smells, and so on. A great move on our part. We talked soothingly to her. I repeated "it's okay Emma" and you could see her body language indicate she was more comfortable.

2. We carred a dish and lots of water. Refilled at drinking fountains or bought water. Gosh Emma drank more in one day than I have ever seen her consume. With extra walking, sun shinning etc that came in handy. People would watch in amusement as she would set the dish down, I would pour water and then when she was done she would hand it back to me.

3. The Dairy Building was nuts. Home of the great ice cream but not well regulated this day for the amount of people trying to get in line. We tried to leave and the crowd was overwhelming. In this case Greg had to take Emma out while I tried to fight the crowd with my scooter. Having him take Emma was smart. We learned to preview the building before we entered. We avoided the few spots with that wild a crowd from then on. A good move.

4. We really watched Emma for signs of needing to rest, and/or needing water. I was glad we did that. She was a real trouper but it was good to watch that at time she needed to lay down a bit before we might expect. Other times she handled it more distance....in daily life she does not walk for several hours like you do at this type of event.

We are so glad we took her as we felt it added to the fun. Due to my stamina and navigating crowds with scooters we did not go to some places we did in younger years. We skipped animal barns as we knew that might not be good for Emma to adjust to and we also had to prioritize what we could handle anyway.

We also were glad to go the first day. We met a family who left their service dog at home (Canine Companion Dog) because they had such a bad experience one year with two much food and debris on the ground. It is so much cleaner the first day.
Our only hang up was Martha's Cookies booth where they stack cookies so high. Lots of people drop one or two. We managed to have Emma only get one without us stopping her first but then someone threw a cookie at her so fast? Well she lived but next time I guess I will wait with her across the street or something.

Emma did get a few tastes. her first small morsel of a pronto pup was my confession. A bit of pork but I had kibbles of her food and her evening meal if needed too.

More tomorrow.

FUNNY COMMENT - MY MS DOCTOR TODAY THOUGHT EMMA LOOKED MORE SUBDUED. I explained we had gone to the State Fair and he said "Emma I feel that way too after I go to the State Fair"....yes it is fun but tiring.

Emma slept from 7pm last night with just one potty break and then till morning. We both took a long nap this afternoon.

Mary and Emma