Monterey County Fair, Monterey, California – 8/28/2014

AUGUST 28, 2014 (Thursday)

Very productive day. Michael and I are both tired – he with good reason. Our connex (large ocean going cargo container) has some venting issues and it’s ruining our furniture and other things inside. He felt it was time to vent it. He got up and ground the openings and put in all the vents. Hope it works. Looks good too. Good job honey. While Michael and Lexi were doing the venting, I stayed down in the mobile and putzed. I went through some old coins, cut some shrubbery, pulled some weeds, and did some laundry.

After, with two vents, sloping done and covered with insect screen.

Roof vent with whirlly vent top to suck air our and pull it in through the 3 front vents. — Roof vent with whirly vent top to suck air out and pull it in through the 3 front vents.

Around 2:00 PM, we got ready and left for the Monterey County Fair. Today is Senior’s Day and it’s free (normally $9.00) for seniors who enter between noon and 3:00 PM. We got to the entrance right at 3:00 PM and they still let us old folks through. What fun it was walking through all the buildings and vendor booths. Lots of free stuff was given away (pedometer, cook book, child book, cloth bags, lip balm, tape measure) to us – and I’m sure we missed much more. I think we were both surprised at how many politicians had booths set up to try to get votes. We saw our favorite candidate for County Supervisor, Ed Mitchell, that was nice.

We love the mix of fog, water, sand, city, and trees.

Walking to the entrance gate, saw a goat judging.

Right inside the gate there were some very serious chain saw artists at work.

One of his chain saws had a roller attachment on the end.

There were many small booths selling all manor of things and services. — There were many small booths selling all manner of things and services.

While walking around, we went into one exhibit hall that dealt with all the agriculture and saw all the winning entries from the various farms. There was some amazingly huge celery, and lots of other types of fruit and vegetables, all gorgeous prize winning stuff. There was also a snake and a bug guy inside. While we were looking around, we saw there was a cooking demonstration going to happen soon so we sat down and watched a nice lady prepare some delicious won tons, some fried rice, and a lime drink. Really good and quick. We got to sample the food at the end and it left us wanting more, much more. Very good.

Edie fell in love with this and wants one. I told her I'd get her one when we come off the road and live in a house. — Edie fell in love with this and wants one. I told her I’d get her one when we come off the road and live in a house.

No end to the bad for you food you can get at a fair.

The wood working entries were fantastic. Looked more like pottery.

Broccoli flowerlettes. — Broccoli flowerettes.

Beautiful Cauliflower. — Beautiful cauliflower.

This celery is about 3 feet long, didn't know they had giant celery. Ocean Mist Farms was the big winner. — This celery is about 3 feet long; didn’t know they had giant celery. Ocean Mist Farms was the big winner.

Cooking demonstration. Note mirror at top.

Won Tons and fried rice. — Won tons and fried rice.

Fort Ord had a booth. This snake eats rattlesnakes.

Later, as we were walking around, I asked someone in one of the booths dealing with the Monterey County Sheriff’s Department if Terry Wright was here at the fair this year. Terry Wright is the Chief of Police with the Tillamook Police Department in Oregon. He used to be a Deputy with the Monterey County Sheriff’s Department and would work the fair and other special events with the Explorers. (I worked with his wife at the Sheriff’s Department years ago, and was also in their wedding way back when.) The guy in the booth said Terry was here, and told us where to find him. As we were walking to the building, we saw Terry walking out. He hasn’t changed at all. So good to see him, if only for a couple of minutes because he’s so busy. He was always such a fun guy and had a really nice, warped sense of humor.

We left the Monterey County Fair around 5:00 PM and headed to Marina to one of our favorite Japanese Restaurants, New Tokyo. Michael had the vegetable/shrimp tempura, teriyaka chicken, rice, salad, soup, and a Sapporo beer. I had the vegetable/shrimp tempura, California roll sushi, rice, salad, soup, and a diet coke. Excellent food (as usual).

Traffic was ugly for a mile or so, not really bad at all.

An old favorite that we have not visited in a long time.

I apologize, I was hungry, I did not photograph the entries. — I apologize, I was hungry, I did not photograph the entrees.

This is the last picture I took. When the food arrived, I devoured, sorry.

We are now home. We both took some ibuprofen. That was our day. Hope yours was great!