The California State Fair came and left with lower total (but greater daily) attendance than last year owing, officials point out, to a run that was six days shorter. In addition, it was hot - really hot - and the wonderful delta breezes we usually rely on to cool things down brought little relief.

Dawn and I go to the Fair at least a couple times every year to “take it all in,” but this year, because of the heat, we decided once was enough. We’d gone one weekday right after work and stayed until closing so we could enjoy the evening fireworks. We watched The Temptations perform, toured the exhibit halls, took in some of the livestock and finished on the midway. As has become our custom, we even rode the giant Ferris wheel. It was a lot of ground to cover in too little time and, with the heat, we were exhausted (I was drenched!); I think it was still pushing 90 degrees when we left!

One of the things we love but missed seeing this year was the judging of the 4-H kids with their livestock. Bidders pay top dollar at the after-fair auction for the hand-raised quasi-pets. We also missed the horse races, the herding dog demonstrations, the pig races (oh yeah, pig races!) and the corn husking competition (Dawn’s even entered a couple times over the years!) And no, I didn’t allow them to launch me 180 feet into the air with a giant rubber band this year. Good thing, too, because there was a mishap. A “rubber band” snapped and left the two riders stranded 80 feet in the air (thank goodness for the safety cable) and a bit shaken up!

We finally received word that Canon has repaired and shipped Dawn’s new pocket camera, but not in time for the Fair. So I took my Nikon and a “walk around” lens to try, in one visit, to capture at least some of the flavor of the event. I’ve posted 40 images… Enjoy!

A reminder: All the album images are clickable; once in the album, clicking on an image enlarges it, clicking again returns you to the regular sized image.