My Trip to the Shawville Fair!

Usually when it is a long weekend, I sit at home and wonder where all my friends went. But not this year! This year my friend Jeni invited me to her hometown in Shawville, Quebec for the Shawville Fair. Any this isn't some silly small town carnival, it is a huge fair that attracts tens of thousands of people each year!! I was very excited to attend!

We rented a car and left Friday after work, arriving in Shawville around 11pm. The first night was low key and we mostly hung out at her house. But the next day (after a glorious sleep in) we headed out to the fair! Her mom had entered some baking and flowers arrangements in their competition and we walked around to see what she had won (quite a few blue and red ribbons! She is a superstar!) and then we toured the barns to see poultry, bunnies, cows, and horses. After that we sat and watched some sort of awesome horse costume contest. I told Jeni this is CLEARLY how dressage was meant to be done.

We loved the pirate hat on the horse

We took a break from watching the horses to take some fun photos. It was a hot day, so in between beers, it is important to distract yourself.

We also went to the petting zoo! But we just went to look. I ain't wasting my food monies on donkeys and sheep.

Either Jeni just saw someone she knows, or she's hitting on a llama

But, of course, the most important part of a fair is the food! I made it my mission to eat everything, but I failed big time (I will have to go back next year for the deep fried mars bars). Over the course of the weekend I did enjoy some pizza, ice cream, milkshake, beavertails, poutine, and mini donuts! I have the drawstring pants on today to prove it.

This was a SMALL ice cream!

That night we hung out with Jeni's childhood friends who were a great bunch, but I got sick! I don't know what it is, but I always have a day of feeling sick on vacation. Jeni thinks it may be stress-related, and I think it is over-indulging (even though, let's face it, I over-indulge all the time). In the end, we theorized maybe it was the beer. So when I am in Mexico in a few weeks, I'm gonna stick to straight up tequila.

The next day, we had a day of music! First we went to see Jeni's father and his band, Thursday Morning, play! They were super awesome and even though I don't usually listen to bluegrass, I was tapping my foot the whole time. It was super duper hot and I felt bad for the poor band up on stage trying to play instruments!

Rockstar!

That night we went to the midway with some friends who had kids (the joy of overpriced, probably-gonna-break-down-and-kill-you rides had long passed for the adults)

Then we went over to the stage to have a beer and watch the headliner, Terri Clark, sing! She is a pretty big Canadian country singer so we knew a few songs and enjoyed watching some of the show!

On our last day, Monday, we went to the bank because I ran out of junk-food money and laughed to find out the city was OUT of $20 bills and I had to take out $50s! Then I used the $50 to buy a water because I'm a high-roller like that.

That afternoon we went to the demolition derby! It was a lot of fun watching these cars smash into each other and luckily there were no injuries (compared to watching horse musical chairs on Saturday when some lady broke her ankle on a bad dismount). It was SO hot and dusty! The fire department kept wetting the dirt, but every now an again a huge cloud of dust would fly into the crowd. We were so dirty!!

I think this is a true "farmer's tan"

Then, late Monday afternoon we had to wash our feet, pack up our bags, hug the parents goodbye, and start the long drive back to the city. I am going to miss the countryside and fair!!! (But maybe not the dirt)