Yeah, yeah, I’m being “cute” with the title, but I couldn’t help myself. We went out on our first excursion as a trio today. ☺ A trip to the LA County Fair has been a Metcalfe tradition for quite some time now. I have a vague memory of going to the Salt Lake County Fair in grade school (3rd grade, perhaps). After moving to Wyoming we went several times to the Lincoln County Fair in Afton. But my first visit to the Los Angeles County Fair blew me away. It was so … BIG. There was so many things to do and stuff to see and food to eat! It was a sensory explosion. I don’t think I had ever considered that a fair could be that large. Now that I think about it, the Salt Lake fair was probably somewhat comparable as far as size is concerned, but I was six or seven at the time and we probably had very specific places to visit as a class; because I was herded from place to place, I may not have truly grasped the expansiveness of the experience. For the first few years after the boys were born, we may have gone to the LA Fair sporadically, but as they became old enough to appreciate the experience, our on and off visits became a yearly event.
With Ben on his mission and the Grahams (who sometimes come with us on our trips to the fair) not able to make it this year, we made our yearly trek as a trio. We can’t bring our lives to a screeching halt just because Ben isn’t here. He’s serving the Lord in Colorado and we need to keep doing things that we would normally do. Eventually, the trio will become (or return to) a duet. When that happens Jennifer and I can’t stop doing things together just because our sons are out of the house and living their lives—how boring would that be. ☺ So, off we went, with our discount tickets from Ralph’s, to enjoy the final Saturday of the fair. Yes, there were moments for all of us when we looked around and realized we were one short of our usual compliment, but those moments didn’t overwhelm our overall enjoyment of the day. Those moments were comparable to when I returned home from my mission. No sooner did I get off the plane then I was told that we were going to a mall in Salt Lake City to buy some clothes for various siblings. There were a couple of times when I had “Where's my companion?” moments while I was there (plus it was weird being in a mall on a Saturday afternoon). Today I had a couple of “Where's Ben?” moments (we all did at various times), but quickly reminded myself that he’s in Colorado.
All of our usual areas were visited. We walked through all the Expo Hall buildings and checked out the booths. Jennifer wanted fudge. I'm not a huge fan anymore (it's too much concentrated chocolate for me), but she and Isaac enjoyed a piece as we looked at the different things for sale. The Chinese acrobats show was, as always, a must see (although they didn’t seem to do as much this year as they have in the past). This year the fair “discovery” building had to do with science fiction inventions that have become “science fact” (like Star Trek communicators and flip phones). The first thing we saw as we walked into the building was a Doctor Who TARDIS (well, basically a replica of the front door). I'm not sure when a time traveling machine disguised as a police box became a “science fact,” but, okay, I'll go along with it. Besides, this gave Isaac and I a chance to have our pictures taken next to it. Jennifer and Ben took pictures standing next to a “real” TARDIS when they went on a tour of the BBC while visiting London back in early June. This was a chance for Isaac and me to at least have a somewhat similar experience (just not in London). Also in the discovery building we found the Batmobile made for one of the 1980's movies (the 3rd one, I think) and the lightcycles in Tron
Garth George from our ward was found in the model train area of the fairgrounds. We had met him there several times over the years. Interestingly, we had thought about waiting to see the trains later in the day, but we weren’t far from the display and decided to go then. If we hadn’t, we would have missed him because he had only 30 more minutes of his shift to go and was planning to head home as soon as it was completed. The barns were visited as usual and we made our yearly trek to the cow milking demonstration. I think it constantly amazes Jennifer that I used to milk cows in pretty much the same way when I was a teenager because she always mentions it while we are watching the demonstration. After the demonstration, we made sure to stop and buy a pint of chocolate milk. No trip to the fair would be complete without it. Strawberry flavored milk was back on the menu this year, so we all wanted a pint of both flavors—chocolate is the best; so smooth and tasty! ☺ The Flower and Garden Pavilion was made had a Mardis Gras theme this year. Murals made of flowers and seeds (like Rose Parade floats) depicted Mardis Gras costumes and masks. We also visited an art display. One of the pieces was a runaway stagecoach that I think was carved out of a single piece of wood. The detail was quite good. Jennifer also made sure we looked at the table decorating competition.
For dinner, we decided to try Juicy’s. Isaac wanted the Outlaw Burger and Jennifer and I got the Giant Western Sausage in an equally large bun (it really is big). It’s interesting that we finally ate here because we’ve been making fun of this place for about 5 years. Isaac is not a fan of soda (doesn’t like the carbonation; didn’t take to it as a young boy and the embargo will probably continue throughout his life). Five years ago, we bought hamburgers at Big Bubba’s BBQ (no, I'm not making that up ☺), but all they had to drink was soda. I told Isaac that I would buy him lemonade at another place. Throughout the day, whenever we passed Juicy’s, the advertisement’s voice would blare out all the different foods that could be purchased there, and then he would say: “And we’ve got lemonade, lemonade and more lemonade.” Juicy’s was not too far from Bubba’s, so I figured it would be the easiest place to get Isaac’s lemonade.
After standing in line for at least 5 minutes (it was dinnertime and a lot of people were in line), I stepped up to the counter and said, “I like to get a regular-sized lemonade, please.” The teenage worker looked at me like I’d suddenly grown a second head. “We’re all out of lemonade, sir,” he finally said. I was caught off guard by this statement. “What do you mean, you’re out of lemonade? Your sale pitch voice says you have ‘lemonade, lemonade and more lemonade.’ How can you tell me you have no lemonade when your advertisement seems to claim you have thousands of gallons?” “I’m sorry, sir, but that’s just our advertisement. We’re completely out of lemonade.” “You’re seriously kidding me, right?” He wasn’t. Muttering under my breath, I stomped away. It took me another 5 or so minutes to track down a place that actually sold lemonade. By the time I got back to the table to eat, I put the cup in front of Isaac and said, “You better enjoy this!” Of course, he gave me a look of, “What did I do?” while everyone else wanted to know what took me so long to get the lemonade. When I told them the Juicy’s story, it quickly became a Metcalfe/Graham legend. Over the last several years, we still use the “lemonade, lemonade and more lemonade” line in different settings. ☺ This was the first time we’d actually eaten their food and I have to say it was quite good … and they had lemonade! ☺
All in all, we had a fun time together. We will do other activities as a trio, I'm sure, but based on our first outing, I think we’ll be able to handle it. ☺
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