2011.09.24

New York State Fair!!

This might be the easiest and the hardest NY State Fair that Mimi ever had. The easiest part is that she got to sit on her wheel chair most of the time. The hardest part is to be able to get around to places where wheel chair is not accessible.

It was a beautiful Labor Day weekend. We decided to take the trip to Syracuse to the state fair before school started. We were pretty lucky from the beginning. At the entrance, mommy was ready to purchase the ticket. Suddenly, someone handed us extra tickets that they had, just like that. I guess that was our lucky day!!

As usual, we started our day in the 4H Building. This is the building with all the youth activities hosted by Cornell Cooperative Extension — the place where mommy works.

Mimi’s first challenge is to use aluminum foil to make a boat and see how many coins you can carry with your boat. There are a few physics concepts you get to apply in this exercise. They won’t tell you but will ask you try on your own.

How is our girl doing?

She tried using one layer of foil and create a flat center and it SANK very quickly.

So she had to change her strategy…..

This time, she was making a cup that floats but it didn’t carry as many as she wanted.

Finally, she created one that floats and carries.

And she was able to carry 34 cents on her boat.

And she tried again, using the prototype provided by the host.

And this time, she made 38 of them!!

After that exercise, she tried a few other things….

while keeping herself cool.

She was making a ballon rocket.

Ready, set and………….

and can you see how fast it went?

We had a quick lunch at the vendor — clam chowder and fries…

There were a few display that showed people how people lived hundred years ago in the colony. You weaved.

and how you made soup.

This is an interesting display. This is a setting of a kitchen from a colony family. This reminded me the book I read when i was young — Little Women.

She was making a real dinner — for display only. It was a pretty hot afternoon. I can see that girl was sweating heavily.

We then moved to the Dairy Building. There was a stand that sold a cup off milk with only 25 cents — very cheap!!

This is a butter sculpture made of butter. Can you imagine?

You can see the details from the sculpture. However, the display will be thrown away after the fair because it will not be consumed after exposing this in the room temperature for over a week.

This lady is making a cheese sculpture.

Of course, Mimi won’t miss the chance to have a taste of ice cream.

Another cheese sculpture.

We also visit the table to make a free chid’s ID. They will store the child’s bio data — finger print, height, weight, etc, and print it to the card and burn it to a CD for parents.

The guy is showing Mimi how to do the emergency rescue — to clear the air way.

Very hands on — you get to put your hands to it.

Mimi really enjoyed this. She asked us to purchase this unit on the spot. Sorry, Mimi, I don’t think we are going to pay $1100 for an outdoor furniture.

But we can still enjoy somoe free foot massage.

Of course, we can’t leave without visiting the sand sculpture. This year is the 10th anniversary of 911 attack. That is the theme of this year’s sand sculpture.

Mimi wanted to play a few games before heading back home. On her way to Syracuse, she told mommy “I really want to win one of the stuff animal banana.” Mommy said “Well, it’s not that easy to win something from the vendor. You can try a few times but that’s it.”

Here we come.

She was the last one joining the game. Because she couldn’t sit close up due to her injury, the guy next to her let her sit on this spot.

You aimed and you fired….

To the center target.

Little did we know, Mimi won the first prize…..

Among all the stuff animal she could get (including the banana), she choose the little blue smurf.

Mimi said thank you to the guy who sat next to her. It was his spot and he could have won the game….

Next, Mimi came to this game. You have three chances to throw your ball to knock down the target. Easier said than done….

This guy let Mimi off the hook a little by getting the target a bit closer for her. Because of that, she won again. I guess people are really nice to Mimi because she sat on the wheel chair.

This time, she picked the very big pig…. and it takes up lots of space at home…..

This girl is VERY happy that she harvested several prizes this afternoon.

See, she couldn’t even carry these without the wheelchair.

We were going to the casino for dinner buffet. However, all of us were stuffed from a variety of food sampling in the afternoon. Therefore, we still went to our usual Chinese restaurant for a late dinner. Pretty much the same as we did last year with grandma!!