The California State Fair opens today in Sacramento. Dawn and I look forward to it every year and usually go two or three times in order to take in the full “experience” — the kids with their livestock exhibits, the craft displays, the product demonstrations, the rodeo, the horse races — and we always ride the giant ferris wheel and the tram at least once. Both give us a bird’s eye view of the fairgrounds and, let’s face it, ferris wheels can be pretty romantic at night. We take a pocket camera to record the fair “atmosphere” — I’ll try to post some of images this fair season.

Meanwhile, I thought you might enjoy a slide show compiled by one of the Sacramento Bee’s premiere staff photographers. During the past several years, Manny Cristostomo spent his summers taking pictures for a series called “Postcards From the State Fair.” Hundreds of “postcards” were published in the newspaper and on-line at sacbee.com. Here are some of his favorites.

This is streaming from the Bee’s server, so it probably requires broadband and may require a free “subscription” to the Bee’s web site. Enjoy the slide show and “See ya’ at the Fair!”