This Post is a couple days late. Sorry.

Hours of Daylight – not sure, but the mornings are dark once again

Boise sits on the western edge of the Mountain Time Zone. In fact a good chunk of Idaho is actually in the Pacific Time Zone. This means we get nice lingering evenings, but our mornings are dark as the days get shorter. In the midst of winter it’s dark here in the morning until after 8:30am. We’re not there yet, but i can feel it starting. It’s not a bad thing, it’s just a change that I think is worth mentioning.

So i could let loose with a bluster of venting today, but i’m going to skip all that and just talk about where we went Friday night – The Western Idaho Fair.

Now I for one am a huge fan of state fairs. If you’ve read my other blog about Minnesota then you know what i’m talking about. Yesterday, Friday, was the first day of the Western Idaho Fair. The population of this state combined with the fairly restricted access results in there being several fairs at this time of year. I think there’s an Eastern Idaho Fair and a Northern Idaho Fair. But, the Western is probably the largest due to the majority of the population living in this portion of the state. And once you get out of Boise (and past Meridian) the economy is still pretty ag-based, so the fair is still relevant.

So to the fair we went. We met up with Sarah at the gate and Kevin inside in the building where the award winning products were showcased. The first order of business was to see what awards their products had collected.

I failed to include Sarah’s third place finish for pies. So that makes four award winning entries. If Kevin’s Orange Marmelade is as good as his Grapefruit i find it hard to belive what the first place entry must taste like.

Now, remember that Annette and I are 5-time veterans of the Minnesota State Fair. Over the course of the two week run of "The Great Minnesota Get-Together" i’m guessing there are more people in attendance than live in the state of Idaho. However bigger does not mean better. In fact much of the Western Idaho Fair was better than the MN fair. First of all the ID Fair was much more approachable and had a more "realistic" feel. The only things i missed from the MN fair were: 1) Cheese Curds, 2) Actual Pronto Pups, 3) the Poultry Barn, 4) Cheese Curds.

What did the Western Idaho Fair do better? Well, first is we actually know people who entered the judging. That we got to sort of "participate" at least by proxy is a huge bonus. Second would be the farm engine display – a wonderful assortment of stationary internal combustion engines designed to assist all manner of farm labor. The funny sounds of those goofy little single-cylinder gas and diesel engines alone was worth the price of admission.

The midway at the Idaho Fair was also a bit better. The MN fair’s midway is huge and assaults your senses as you walk through. That ID’s was smaller and lower-tech was no problem. I did miss watching the "extreme rides" of MN, such as the Skyscraper or the Ejector-seat, but i got over it.