Mid State Fair

The other night I went to the Paso Robles Mid State Fair with my mom and my sister, Kristie. It's about an hour north of Pismo Beach and we try to go every year because usually they get fun musical acts and they always have the best kettle corn and funnel cakes. I make most of my important decisions based on food. People think we moved to Texas for Andrew to go to UTSA, but really it was all about the bbq :)

The band Sister Hazel was playing the free stage (they're that 90's band that do the song "It's hard to say what it is I see in you, wonder if I'll always be with you. Words can't say and I can't do enough to prove it's all for you.") They were great and even though we only knew that one song we still had a blast. Like I said, an extra large bag of kettle corn makes everything infinitely better.

The Mid State Fair is where I've seen classic bands like Journey, Heart, Bryan Adams, Steve Miller Band, Rod Stewart, Eddie Money, Switchfoot, 38 Special, Smashmouth, Phil Vassar, and Carrie Underwood (won free tickets for her show... we tend to win free stuff a lot, so yay!)


Sometimes they get pretty awful musical acts though. Like in 2004 when I won tickets to see Jessica Simpson. But whatever, they were free tickets! In fact, the first time I remember going to the fair was in 1992 when my mom won tickets on the radio to see Michael Bolton there. Admittedly M.B. concert tickets are not a great thing to win, which is probably why 8 year old me was the only one to agree to go with her... I was in it for the carnival rides and cotton candy. After one minute of "Time, Love, and Tenderness" we were outta there! 

Monday night when we went, John Mayer was headlining and I'm just not a fan. He's too breathy with his vocals, he ruined Tom Petty's Free Fallin', and he's too much of a playboy. Plus I know he's full of it when he says my body is a wonderland and nobody likes a liar. So we hung out in the stands next to the main stage and listened in on a few songs and then took off to look at blingy jeans and cowgirl hats in the shopping exhibits. North County is like a little piece of Texas and my mom and I jumped at the chance to wear our Sam Moon cowgirl hats (that were way, way cheaper than the ones at the fair. Sam Moon for the win!)

We also did an impromptu photo shoot with the self timer in the middle of the fairgrounds. I always wonder what people think of us when we set our camera up on whatever surface appears to be relatively stable and then pose for 10, yes TEN photos at a time. Ten is the highest number you can set the camera to for timed photos. My mom always taught me about the rule of "best of" photos. You take a bajillion so you have options for what are the best of those bajillion. Thanks to DSLR cameras and 16GB SD flashcards that is a good rule of thumb, but in the days of film processing it was a nightmare!

Unfortunately I'm too impatient to sort through all those photos to find the real "best of" so I just make sure everyone's eyes are open and those are the ones that make the cut.

Here is the take away from today's post:

1. Always say yes to the fairgrounds and order the biggest _________ (insert: cotton candy, funnel cake, or deep fried anything)

2. Always set your camera to the max number of self timer photos and just embrace the wacky stares from people passing by. They're just jealous of how much fun you're having and contemplating a photo bomb.

3. Listen to "All for You" by Sister Hazel until it is as stuck in your head as it is in mine. Ugh, so catchy.