DEL MAR Fair

I was born & raised here in North County...have gone to the fair pretty much every year since I can remember (except for last year, because I had just birthed a human being)...so, I think that qualifies me to be one of the few people that should be exempt from having to call it the recently re-named "San Diego Fair" - it's IN Del Mar people...so technically it remains to me, the Del Mar Fair, haha! That's just my 2 cents...who's with me??

Anyway - yesterday was pretty busy...and today will be too I'm sure - it's Father's Day...love you hubby...but I'll post on that tomorrow :)

It started with a beautiful, much needed walk down Hwy 101 with two of my favs, Courtney & Arden, from the Starbucks in Cardiff...to the little park at Moonlight Beach - if you Google map that, you'll see that we're pretty hard core - that would be 5 MILES round trip people...dangggg gina! This is what we call, our "Mommy Beach Walk" - it's awesome. We pass by the San Elijo campgrounds - which smells of wonderful campfire...then pass San Elijo Beach - where we get the BEST cool ocean breeze, full of that glorious sea scent...then pass Swami's beach...then cruise through downtown Encinitas with all it's lovely little shops & yummy cafes & restaurants...then finally down to Moonlight Beach to play at the park & have a little picnik - this is a place I have mentioned numerous times throughout this blog - I just can't get enough of it - I'm never leaving this city!

Then after a quick nap (for Kapri of course...I technically could've, although the hubs let me sleep in - so I really shouldn't be tired), James & I packed up the car and the kid...in the cutest lil outfit from Aunti Manda:

...and headed to DEL MAR fair, haha. It was a cluster - but crowds are definitely expected for a gorgeous Saturday afternoon. After waiting forever & a day to park:

...we finally got inside & headed towards Kiddieland!

She's still not tall enough (surprisingly since she's in the upper 90th percentile for height) to ride a majority of the kiddie rides. There were a few that parents could go on with them, but we just stuck with the classic horse carousel! Too cute - she got a little startled when it first began moving up & down...she clutched onto my neck the whole time...but within a few seconds she started smiling, waving & calling for 'dada'. It was adorable:

Then of course we were out of Kiddieland & off to find some greasy goodness - the first few places we passed were all DEEP fried things - no joke. Deep fried chocolate covered bacon, deep fried twinkies/smores/pop tarts/oreos/klondike bars/avocado/FROG legs (ummm nassstyyy, where are we?? We don't live in the South!), even deep fried BUTTER...omg gross. See, there's a pic below - all that stuff behind James...and those few stands were just 3 of the 23617482160 places with fried junk:

We got a d/f burger, which wasn't really what we thought it'd be...it was like a normal burger, bummer - I think we had a picture in our minds of the burger d/f in thick, crunchy batter...like chicken-fried-steak-ish. Oh well.

Next stop - corn dog. That's one of my ultimate fair staples. And not the "Hot dog on a stick" kind that you can get in the mall any day of the week (see pic above, see the red/yellow/blue outfit? That's what I'm talkin about). No. I have to get the kind that has this thick, delish corn batter - that is super crunchy on the outside & moist on the outside...SO YUM. (and no offense to any HDOAS employees...my lil cuz Chris works there this year, hahaha) Then we decided to venture through the game area to win Kapri a stuffed animal - we stuck with something relatively easy...throwing darts at balloons, haha, tough huh?! We won her a little fishy, because that's what she's turning into when she's in the water!

She was tripping out on all the people, colors, lights and HUGE crazy rides - too funny. PS - there's some wacky craze this year with the stuffed animals...BANANAS & Monkeys everywhere...did I hit the jackpot this year with my obsession with bananas? Ummm...I think so. Next time we go, I have to try & win this cute freakin baby monkey, who's bottom half is like, swaddled up inside a peeled-open banana - IDK, that's really the best description for it. But so damn cute!

Finally we stopped at my fav desert place to get my usual chocolate covered frozen banana (duh) with rainbow sprinkles (duh - I'm so predictable). I always have to get this on our way out, it's the perfect little treat to eat during the long treck back to the car! All in all - great day, lotsa walking = sore feet, but all so worth it! I think Kapri had a great day too: