Liam and Gibson: A Trip to the Texas State Fair

The day after our trip to the pumpkin farm, my mom returned to Louisiana and the three of us (Will, Liam, myself) ventured down to the state fair of Texas. It was Will and Liam's first time, and my second. I went on a staff trip there three years ago. I had wanted to go back ever since because there were still several things I wanted to see and do, plus it really is something everyone in Texas (at least the Dallas area) should go to at least once.

We took the DART train down there. Liam stayed in his stroller the whole time on the train. Thankfully, it never got too crowded and awkward. There was a girl about Liam's age in a stroller next to us on the train, so he wasn't alone. There were lots of people for him to stare at, so he was very well-behaved.

The first thing we did was go through the American car show. Will had fun sitting in different vehicles, especially the Corvette. It's his dream to own one someday! Then we saw Big Tex, who was talking and letting us know his clothes were provided by Dickies. I still think he looks like the cowboy version of Abraham Lincoln. We then came upon the food court and decided it would be best to eat before there was a rush at lunchtime. We didn't go for any fried food at that time (that happened later). I really wanted to ride the Texas Star Ferris wheel, so once we were outside the food court, I looked up to see where it was located. Then we headed in that direction, passing the Cotton Bowl and part of the Midway. Thankfully, the line wasn't horrendous, and it appeared that we wouldn't have to ditch the stroller until we got pretty close to the ride. We decided to go for it. Liam just made the 34 inch tall cutoff to ride free! He did very well on the Ferris wheel, only squirming a little. It was windy! I loved being up high and seeing the fair below and the downtown skyline in the distance. I only wish the ride lasted longer.

After that, we decided to go find an activity Liam might enjoy. We headed towards the petting zoo. Once again, we had to ditch the stroller at the door and just leave it. I hated that part of the fair. It's unnatural to leave a valued possession unattended, but we had to do it. I comforted myself with the fact that ours was not the nicest stroller there, so if someone were to come through and go stroller shopping, they'd pass over ours for a Maclaren or something. Except for the Ferris wheel ride, Liam had been in the stroller our entire time at the fair. So when we let his feet hit the ground in the petting zoo (animals stink, ya'll), he was off! It was crowded, and he just put his head down and started running. I'm pretty sure he did run into a couple people. Will snatched him up and we tried to distract him by showing him the animals and coaxing him to pet them. It worked a little bit, but really he just wanted his freedom. Unfortunately, we couldn't really give it to him there. The Little Hands on the Farm area was next to it, so we then went there so Liam would be in an enclosed area to walk (run) around in. Liam literally ran through all the stations, didn't get an apron or a bucket, or his corn, or anything. Poor thing tripped and fell down several times too since he was going too fast. We were just chasing him through it, hoping he wouldn't knock anyone or anything over. At some point, a lady handed me a fake dollar to spend in the General Store there. The kid is supposed to pick out a snack and pay with the dollar. Since my kid was long gone, I picked out a granola bar and gave it to Will. We then managed to get a screaming Liam back in the stroller, his freedom once again taken away from him.

We were all tired at that point, and it was HOT that day at the fair. I think we then ended up in the Food and Fiber Building and having a snack and a cold drink. I think this was also when we went through part of the Embarcadero Building and saw an underwhelming butter sculpture and a close to life-size Lego version of Dirk Nowitzki. Since it was almost time for one to start, we decided to see the dog trick show. Liam loves dogs, so we figured he would get a kick out of it. We had to wait about 15 minutes before it started, with Liam squirming and complaining (of course we had to leave our stroller on the ground while we sat in the bleachers). It finally started and the dogs performed a couple tricks, but the trainer guy kept talking TOO MUCH and it sounded like "Whomp whomp whomp" to us. We couldn't understand a word. We wanted less talk and more tricks so Liam might be entertained, but it just wasn't happening. We left about five minutes into the show. Liam was losing it! He was tired and cranky. So we put him back in the stroller, reclined it, put the shade over him, and made him go to sleep. And he did. After dealing with Liam and a lack of water and food, we were cranky. We went back to the food court and had a twister tator (basically potato chips), and once we had eaten that and had some water and calmed down, we decided to go for the funnel cake. Of course it was delicious, but I did feel yucky the rest of the day.

Liam was out, so we decided to go through the other half of the car show that featured foreign brands. It was nice to be in the air-conditioned building. After that, we headed back to the train station to go home. I think we spent about five hours total at the fair. Liam ended up sleeping about an hour and a half in the stroller and woke up around the Deep Ellum stop on the Green Line train. He woke up in a good mood, thankfully. When we got to the Pearl station to switch to the Red Line train that would take us back home, there was one there waiting, so we got off one train and right on to another. This time it was more crowded, and we had to stand for part of the ride.

That was our trip to the state fair. We've decided Liam is not going back to the fair until he's old enough to really enjoy it and walk around the whole time by himself. So probably like when he's four or five. We still didn't do or see everything. I wanted to see the bird show, but there's no way Liam would have the patience to sit through that. It was still a fun family outing!