Friday we drove an hour to Palmer, home of Alaska’s largest event, the State Fair. It’s biggest attraction for me turned out to be a disappointment. I had read about the giant vegetables grown in the Matanuska Valley. (See interesting, I think, historical note below.). Eighteen hours of summer sunshine have produced a 2,051 pound pumpkin, a 25 pound mushroom, an almost 6 foot long carrot and a 138 pound cabbage in previous years. I wanted to see those, but, sadly, no record breakers this year. I did see a 15 pound mushroom and a 50 pound cabbage. Yawn. The vegetables apparently don’t taste the best and are donated after the fair to the Alaska Wildlife Conservation Center, where we went Thursday.
We did have a really fun time. It rained, of course, but not heavy rain and not all day. We ate, and everything was sooo good. Talkeetna spinach bread had been recommended to us by the Yeti Dogs team, and they were our first food stop. Yum, yum, yum. Next door were Russian pierogis; I think that was my favorite. We had dumplings, a reindeer dog and cream puffs. Everything was split and shared, except, after some debate, we each got a cream puff to end the day. A large cream puff with caramel. 👍
The animals were a hoot. There was a cow named Carl’s Jr. How funny is that? Poor cow. Also a June and Johnny Cash. Sal now wants a goat, they were so adorable. We spent a lot of time with the bunnies. So pretty, soft and cuddly-looking. I can see getting a bunny before a goat.
And we shopped. We each got something nice that we’ll have as a souvenir of the fair. We were there six hours and I’m definitely going back next year. We’re already talking about the food we had to pass on this year that we want to try in 2023.
Historical Note—-
We are heading north to learn about mushing. Need to go, so please read for yourselves. I do think it’s interesting.
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