This is about a week late, so try to put yourself back in time by about a week or so to get the full effect. Every other year or so my family likes to attend the Puyallup Fair for it's rides, food, exhibits and of course silly merchandise and this year's trip, was yet again another triumph. Setting out at about 2ish, because Paul had school; myself, my brother Paul, my mom, step-dad Eric, my sister's Tiana and Colleen and Tiana's husband Ken hit the road for a grand family outing.
The trip there was peaceful enough, though I've been getting over various illnesses not to mention Paul was doing Geometry homework on my lap, but the traffic was light and arriving in Puyallup was no problem regarding crowds or parking. My mom surprisngly handed everone about hundred dollars or so to spend for the day's activites, as it was then planned we'd all split up. I of course would be spending the day wth Paul, who got in free, jerk... Though I was worried that his would mean it was my responsibility for him and myself having a fun day, I being the older brother thus being the responsible one, so we immediately set out to find various activities.
For our first stop we went to get some chow. In past years we'd always remembered getting cheeseburgers with Wallla Walla sweet onions that were pretty tasty, unfortunately the one's we got were less than stellar. The onions weren't sweet at all and the burger was pretty basic. It came with curly fries but they were just generic fries in bizarre shapes, I guess we must of went to the wrong stand, but either way it still managed to fill us up.
Later on we went roaming around all the merchandise stands, I wanted to walk away with a silly souvenir so we went near and far looking for something memorable. Most of the stands sold lame t-shirts and generic hats but soon our attention came to a wrestling stand. They sold totally sweet Mexican wrestler masks that me and Paul were just about to buy until we found out that all the good ones were surprisingly overpriced, I walked away in disgust.... Then Paul got an oversized slushy.
After that we checked out some of the exhibit halls, which were mostly guys selling really lame cleaning products. It seemed like you couldn't go very far without hearing someone talk about "the ultimate stain remover". Soon enough we found out this really wasn't the place for us and went to look at the animals. They were cute and what not but what really caught my attention was a stable of zebras as the exotic animals seemed out of place with all the cows, goats and sheep.
We continued to browse the fair grounds contemplating going on some amusement rides, but decided we'd wait for the monsterous crowds to die down. Paul was already getting hungry again and went over to a stand to get some funnel cake. I would of too had it not been for my grueling sore throat. His sugary treat was topped with strawberries and whipped cream and looked pretty good, I actually managed to take a bite or two risking the pain, and was pretty impressed.
It was at this point that the sun started beating down so I decided to finally go get a hat. So we made our way to a quaint shop that sold all sorts of exotic paraphenalia. Stuff like boomerangs, African necklaces, smocks but what really caught my attention was one of those cyndrical Vietnamese hats we've all seen, you know like Raiden in Mortal Kombat. This was an oppotunity that I couldn't ignore and bought it in a heartbeat. The only problem now was, "How I'm I gonna take this on any rides?" To cope with the sun I wore my garish hat that most people just couldn't stop staring at, it was embarrasing but I decided to keep truckin' on. Paul and I entered another exhibition hall where Paul looked for the supidest sunglasses he could. He came upon a light pair of sky blue shades with no frames that looked like something Peter Fonda would wear in the future. He liked them for awhile until he realized they were welded very poorly and thus wobbly.
Sometime in the late afternoon the family all met up just to see how everything was going. Tiana and Ken had told me that they'd seen a monkey show... Whatever that is I'm not sure, but I hear it had Baboons. Everyone seemed to like my Raiden hat so that was a plus, and it was funny to hear that no one had yet gone on a ride but everyone had bought silly souvenirs and eaten plenty. We decided we'd all meet up again at about 9:00pm and once we'd all told of our exploits, split up once again.
So Paul and I finally bought some overpriced tickets and stumbled into the ride section of the fair. We walked around forever looking for a ride with a reasonably small line so we started with the spook house. We'd gone on this ride in past years and were never thrilled, hopefully this year would be different, but it wasn't. After that we decided to tough it out in an unruly line for the "Enterprise". It's tough to explain but it was kind like a bunch of small of little carts that would spin around fast sideways and upside down. We waited for 20 or so minutes and than went aboard, it looked promising though me and Paul did have to sit in a umm funny looking position. Anyways the ride turned out to be a blast and one of the highlights of the whole evening. We followed this by some ride called the "Matterhorn" and then some other less than stellar rides. It was all still in good fun though.
A little while later Paul and I split an onion blossom and then just hung out. Frankie Valli was the musical performer that night so you couldn't go anywhere in the park without hearing his trademark falsetto. We had to wait awhile before everyone eventually met up at about 9:15pm where everyone returned with glowing toys and wands, mys sister Colleen had an annoying but shiny lite up wand and my mom had bought a plush alien. Though I couldn't believe my sister Tiana had gotten a Raiden hat. Just totally ripping me off, I guess I really set the mold or something. Though it did seem kind of funny that the two youngest fairgoers in out group, that being myself and my brother, walked away with the least amount of silly children's toys and what not, but you know everyone has their own way to take in the experience, Otteni out.
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