We did it. We finally took our kids to the Orange County Fair. As a kid, we went to the county fair every year because I was one of those awesome 4-H kids that raised pigs ;) Each August we spent at least 7 days being at the fair taking care of our pigs. But that ended in 7th grade. So, other than the second date the hubby and I went on to the Del Mar Fair eons ago, I haven't really been since.
Boy was there a lot to see and do at the OC Fair. We went on a Sunday, so parking was not a good situation. All the lots were closed by the time we got there around 1:45pm, so we spent about 35 minutes just trying to find parking. If you are planning to go to the OC Fair, get there early or go during the week.
Once in, the kids were amazed with all the rides and food. Our first stop was to the ticket booth to buy 100 tickets. It sounds like a lot, but we blew through those in about 45 minutes! In the kid area, rides were 5-7 tickets each. When we got to the carnival area and the rides our kids really wanted to go on, they were between 7-14 tickets/ride. All the tickets were loaded onto a bar-coded fun card that made it easy to keep track of the tickets. You paid for games with tickets as well, so it was nice to give the kids the option of rides or games, too.
As we walked around, the kids noticed other people carrying the Despicable Me 2 minion stuffed toys and it became my son's mission to win one. Luckily, after checking out all the games and weighing my odds, I was able to win one (pictured above) for my son on the first try! Phew! Somehow, I was able to convince the kids that they would share the minion, too. Kevin, our purple minion, took a picture with the kids at Hot Dog on a Stick and even enjoyed some cotton candy.
We stopped by the livestock exhibit, too, seeing over-6-foot-tall cows, as well as the goats, pigs, bunnies and sheep. (It brought me back to my 4-H days, I'm not going to lie.) There was even a cool art exhibit we stumbled upon when exiting out of the restroom.
And the food...I am surprised there aren't cardiologists just waiting outside the gates for people to keel over. You can get just about anything deep fried....including oreos, twinkies, and frog legs. They also had bacon cotton candy and chocolate cotton candy. Actually, you could get pretty much anything wrapped in bacon or fried at the fair. We were very unadventurous and stuck to corn dogs, icees, and cotton candy this trip, but the brisket, the chicken and gravy, and nachos are definitely going to get some attention from me next time around! Perhaps, on a week day!
The kids had a great time, my son loving the Wild Rivers log ride the most and my daughter opting for the Crazy Coaster as her favorite. The Crazy Coaster was my favorite, too! All in all, the OC Fair is definitely a fun family outing.
***And if you can, get your kids to wear close toed shoes. Several of the rides the kids wanted to go on required close toed shoes and they were wearing flip flops.
The OC Fair is open now through August 11. If you are planning to go, I highly recommend you checking out the quick guide Tiny Oranges posted a couple of weeks ago.
Posted by Leslie
