I was a good pepere this weekend
Yesterday Monique, Elijah, Pam (Monique's friend) and I went up to the Big E. It was my first experience with it. On the way there Elijah asked us why they call it the Big E. I told him it was because the Big O was already taken. It went over his head, of course, but I got hit for it anyway. ;-) Ok, maybe that wasn't the part where I was good. The real answer, the one I gave him anyway is they call it that because that's its name. I think it has to do with Exposition or something silly like that. I like my answers better.
Fairs like this can be divided into two basic categories; stuff that will interest a five year old and stuff that won't. I suppose you could also break it into stuff that will interest a 50 year old grandmother and stuff that won't. There is not a lot of overlap in the two "interest" categories, so I pretty much took the bullet, jumped on the grenade, etc and took Elijah to do the stuff that will interest a five year old, leaving the women to go do the other stuff.
We went through the petting zoo, rode about $60 worth of Midway rides. Elijah is brave for the most part. He wanted to ride all the big people rides, even the ones that I looked at and went, "Thank goodness he's below the minimum height to ride that even with an adult". I'm not sure *I* would have ridden some of them. The big people rides he could go on he handled like a champ. He wanted to drive the bumper cars but his foot wouldn't reach the pedal.
He also wanted to ride the log flume ride. I was *NOT* in favor of this, as I hate getting wet, but he really wanted to go on so I went on. Due to stupid rules, since it was only me and Elijah, they made *me* sit in the front with him behind me. Needless to say Elijah didn't get wet because I took all the waters, which he thought was pretty funny. Needless to say, I did not find this nearly as amusing as he did.
They have about 6 different fun houses, one of which is a haunted house. I thought Elijah should pick that one after I went on the flume ride for him, but he was scared of that. I told him the scariest thing in there would be me, but he was having none of that and we went in one of the friendlier looking, open ones instead. My grandson picks the darnedest time to get afraid of something.
We shared an ice cream filled donut. I think I have found a new love. This is one of those heavy pastry like donuts, the kind they use to fill with jelly, but instead filled with ice cream, with lots of extra ice cream spilling out. Then they put a topping of your choice on it; in our case hot fudge. Then you get a choice of toppings, like sprinkles or M&Ms or crushed peanut butter cups. This $6 concoction was absolutely delicious and we split it 50/50. Ok, he had as many bites as I did, even if my bites were significantly larger than his. I shared, ok? He was happy. I'm still a good pepere.
They have a one ring circus too that's part of the admission, so we went in there. Well, we went in there *after* I got Elijah over his fear of clowns. Clowns? Really? Since when? No grandson of mine should be afraid of clowns. Spiders I can see, but clowns? Anyway, the circus is where we met back up with the women. The circus of course had lots of stuff to sell aimed at little kids to get parents and grandparents to spend money. I got Elijah one of those big LED staffs with the glowing handle and ball that have 4 different settings from multi-colored obnoxious down to slow transition obnoxious. It was actually a good deal, only $10. I was really surprised overall with the prices. I thought everything would be grossly overpriced, but really absolutely everything was very reasonable. I guess they make it up with quantity.
The circus was excellent. There were some absolutely astounding acts and it was a nice opportunity to just sit back and relax for a bit. There was a clown, though not the traditional kind. It was a guy with a huge hairdo and a squeaky voice, but no makeup. Elijah was enthralled with him and I have some great shots of him looking very happy. It was a great opportunity to point out to him that this was a clown who was not scary.
We spent seven hours at the fair. I have the sunburn to show for it. I'm pretty sure I earned lots of brownie points with Monique for my efforts.
Fairs like this can be divided into two basic categories; stuff that will interest a five year old and stuff that won't. I suppose you could also break it into stuff that will interest a 50 year old grandmother and stuff that won't. There is not a lot of overlap in the two "interest" categories, so I pretty much took the bullet, jumped on the grenade, etc and took Elijah to do the stuff that will interest a five year old, leaving the women to go do the other stuff.
We went through the petting zoo, rode about $60 worth of Midway rides. Elijah is brave for the most part. He wanted to ride all the big people rides, even the ones that I looked at and went, "Thank goodness he's below the minimum height to ride that even with an adult". I'm not sure *I* would have ridden some of them. The big people rides he could go on he handled like a champ. He wanted to drive the bumper cars but his foot wouldn't reach the pedal.
He also wanted to ride the log flume ride. I was *NOT* in favor of this, as I hate getting wet, but he really wanted to go on so I went on. Due to stupid rules, since it was only me and Elijah, they made *me* sit in the front with him behind me. Needless to say Elijah didn't get wet because I took all the waters, which he thought was pretty funny. Needless to say, I did not find this nearly as amusing as he did.
They have about 6 different fun houses, one of which is a haunted house. I thought Elijah should pick that one after I went on the flume ride for him, but he was scared of that. I told him the scariest thing in there would be me, but he was having none of that and we went in one of the friendlier looking, open ones instead. My grandson picks the darnedest time to get afraid of something.
We shared an ice cream filled donut. I think I have found a new love. This is one of those heavy pastry like donuts, the kind they use to fill with jelly, but instead filled with ice cream, with lots of extra ice cream spilling out. Then they put a topping of your choice on it; in our case hot fudge. Then you get a choice of toppings, like sprinkles or M&Ms or crushed peanut butter cups. This $6 concoction was absolutely delicious and we split it 50/50. Ok, he had as many bites as I did, even if my bites were significantly larger than his. I shared, ok? He was happy. I'm still a good pepere.
They have a one ring circus too that's part of the admission, so we went in there. Well, we went in there *after* I got Elijah over his fear of clowns. Clowns? Really? Since when? No grandson of mine should be afraid of clowns. Spiders I can see, but clowns? Anyway, the circus is where we met back up with the women. The circus of course had lots of stuff to sell aimed at little kids to get parents and grandparents to spend money. I got Elijah one of those big LED staffs with the glowing handle and ball that have 4 different settings from multi-colored obnoxious down to slow transition obnoxious. It was actually a good deal, only $10. I was really surprised overall with the prices. I thought everything would be grossly overpriced, but really absolutely everything was very reasonable. I guess they make it up with quantity.
The circus was excellent. There were some absolutely astounding acts and it was a nice opportunity to just sit back and relax for a bit. There was a clown, though not the traditional kind. It was a guy with a huge hairdo and a squeaky voice, but no makeup. Elijah was enthralled with him and I have some great shots of him looking very happy. It was a great opportunity to point out to him that this was a clown who was not scary.
We spent seven hours at the fair. I have the sunburn to show for it. I'm pretty sure I earned lots of brownie points with Monique for my efforts.