I really love this shot. Back in the Scone Zone!

I made some new "history" photo albums for my Washington State Fair collection on Flickr this morning—three of them, actually. The only one covering just three visits to the fair (2018, 2021, 2024) is the "Scone Poses" album, as we only started that in 2018, and really only this year officially establishes it as a tradition. The other two cover for different visits (2015, 2018, 2021, 2024) and all of those I have gone to with Gina and her friend Jennifer: "Deep Fried Foods" (2015: peanut butter cups; 2018: Snickers; 2021: Oreos; 2024: Pop Tarts); and "Bubble Dances." I actually completely forgot yesterday, until I looked at previous photo albums after getting home, that I actually got photos of Gina and Jennifer in dancing poses amidst blowing bubbles every single year we've gone. For some reason while we were at the fair yesterday, I was thinking they had only done that pose once or twice before. Such is the sad state of my memory, and the saving grace of my record keeping.

That, in fact, was the biggest reason I created a photo album dedicated to the history of deep fried foods I have eaten at the fair. All day yesterday I thought I'd had the deep fried peanut butter cups our last time there, in 2021. Nope! That was the year I had the Oreos. I had the peanut butter cups in 2015.

I also did not realize until looking at my credit card statement, showing the transaction was with the company called "Totally Fried," that this was the same company I had gotten a deep fried treat from in years past. Previous years had a booth with far more deep-fried options, and I wasted some time yesterday trying to find a similar booth. It turns out, when I settled on the booth that had only deep fried Pop Tarts as an option I had not already tried before, that was actually the same company.

Anyway! In 2015, 2018, and 2021, all three of those years it was just Gina, Jennifer and me. We kind of liked making it a tradition of just the three of us, but none of us ever said we were going to be strict about it. And when Jennifer said her daughter Grace was "whining" to be taken along (did she not have school yesterday? I meant to ask and then never got around to it), Gina and I both said—honestly—that we were totally cool with it. I did not know Beth was also coming until we were all actually on our way. Theoretically Shobhit could have come too, but he had a work shift last night and it would have meant having to rush home, and leave the fair probably at about 3:30. I was actually there until after 7:00 last night.

So, there were five of us this time out. And when we passed some bubbles and I asked Gina and Jennifer to do their goofy dance poses again, they obliged—after which, both Beth and Grace photo bombed it in turn. It actually made for a kind of fun photo sequence.

This year, I opted to take the bus. I know I had driven in 2021, which largely makes sense because that was still enough into the pandemic I would not have wanted to be on a bus for a solid 82 minutes. But, and I did not remember this until I looked it up, I did go there and back by bus in 2018, taking the exact same bus (Sound Transit 578) at nearly the exact same time, getting me to the fairgrounds when it opened at 10:30. In 2018, though, I took the 5:35 bus back, whereas last night I did not catch a bus back until 8:07—but, with a larger group and the fact that this time I actually budgets for some ride tickets (and I had not done any rides since the 2015 visit), it makes sense that the day would wind up longer this year.

And this year, while I was indeed at Puyallup Station by about 10:15 and walked the mile down to the fairgrounds to arrive by the time they opened at 10:30, I did not actually get inside until a solid hour later.

This was due to a mixture of factors. The most significant would be that Jennifer bought a package deal that included two entry tickets, but since Grace already had a free pass from some other source, Jennifer let me use her extra ticket. And to be fair, I was happy to wait an hour for them to arrive before I could get in, if I was going to save $16 on the ticket cost. (I was already saving another $15 on parking.) There was a Starbucks conveniently across the street from the Gold entrance on the northeastern corner of the fairgrounds, so I went in there for a bit and bought a small hot chocolate. I also spent some time charging my phone, which alone is probably the only reason it did not die by the end of the day: the battery was at 2% when I got home.

Another factor, though, was some cross communication between Gina and Beth, before they could even leave Olympia to head north from there to meet me. Gina managed to get off work by 10:00, so I assumed she would be leaving shortly after that—and so, so did I. Beth had a counseling session with a kid at 9:30, though, and while Gina assumed that meant Beth would be done by 10:00, it turned out to be an hour appointment, and Beth was not even done until 10:30.

Jennifer and Grace had gone to Gina and Beth's place to ride with them. I don't know who the hell was driving—I never asked—but maybe it was Gina? given that she never responded to any of my texts while they were on their way, and I was texting the two of them together. And Jennifer's responses were spotty when the communication was kind of critical, which I found frustrating. Eventually she texted me that they were parking in the Green lot, and I don't know if that was because parking staff had forced it or what; I had told them where I was and it made way more sense to me that they would come park in the lot across the street from there.

The Green lot was literally on the far side of the fairgrounds from where I was. A 15-minute walk around, according to my phone. I texted to ask if I should walk around to meet them, and when I did not get a quick reply, I just started walking. Luckily, it was just a short walk to the Blue Gate, and I was right there when Jennifer texted me the ticket QR code for my ticket, and I got right inside.

Once that was done, though, we still had to figure out how to meet. Jennifer doesn't use an iPhone so, after several minutes, I just sent my location to both Gina and Beth, but I don't think either of them ever noticed it. It was 11:31 when both Gina and Jennifer texted me to meet at the "scone place." There are several scone places at the fair.

I was finally told to stay where I was when I told them I was at the Pig Palace. It was nearly noon when they finally found me there; I waited a good ten minutes after that text. And side note: these things always get more complicated and take longer when trying to coordinate a larger group, so I guess that's my only complaint there. But! I should also take some responsibility here; I saw in some older Washington State Fair posts that we simply told each other from the start some landmark we would meet at, and we should have just done that. Last time, in 2021, we met at the Extreme Scream ride, which is the tallest structure in both the fairgrounds and Puyallup.

I should take some notes about this stuff, for reference when we all meet at the air again in 2027. We'll see if I bother with rides again next time, though. I did the Giant Slide two different times with Grace—which I also did once with Jennifer, in 2015—and after the second time, as I kind of limped over to return the mat I had slid down on, I thought to myself: I'm not sure I'll be able to handle this after a few more years. The successive falls down the separate hills of that slide alone kind of did a number on my body. I got rather jerked around on the "CrazyCoaster" (with car fronts shaped like mice), but it was still fun. I'm just not sure I'll be as interested, say, when I'm 51.

I actually bought—and had budgeted for—a pack of 40 tickets, or $24. I used tickets on three different rides with that: the Giant Slide; the Ferris Wheel; and the Skyride—which was originally used at the 1962 World's Fair at Seattle Center; they sold it to the Puyallup Fair (now the Washington State Fair) in 1980—after which I had only four tickets left and which ultimately went unused and wasted. ($2.40, down the drain!) I actually got on two other rides without using my tickets, joining Grace, who is 17, on rides no one else wanted to go with her on: the CrazyCoaster, and the second round on the Giant Slide just to burn through the ride vouchers she had from the package Jennifer had bought for $99.

I had budgeted $105 for expenses yesterday, but that had included both the $16 for entry and the $15 for parking, neither of which did I end up paying for. So in the end, even with the unplanned expense of $17.32 for passport earrings I absolutey fell in love with, I spent a total of $77.91 at the fair yesterday—$27 under budget. Yay me!

I think, though, for next time I will note that the birds-eye view photos are best taken from the Ferris Wheel, which may be the one ride worth bothering with the next time I go. I was pretty gung-ho to ride the gondola (Skyride) yesterday, thinking that would be where I could get the best aerial photos. But, while there is a retro cool to these gondolas that come from the Seattle World's Fair, they don't yield as good of photos as I thought, especially through these oddly blue-tinted windows. The Ferris Wheel gondolas are roomier, open-air, and actually go much higher.

I got a wonderful selfie with Gina while we rode the Skyride though.

With so much time spent on rides or looking for rides, we actually spent less time than usual looking at the animals—the livestock and the 4-H dogs and cats (and there were no cats yesterday, which disappointed me, especially after I kind of dragged the whole group to that building just to see them). And that's even though we were all together as a group for a solid seven hours. My hope is to have more time for that next time.

I'm still inclined to keep the cadence at once every three years, though. Very little changes at the fair year to year, and going every year really strips it of any of its novelty. I'll still make notes to put in my calendar for September 2027, though.

I might have made it back for the 7:08 returning bus, but I was headed back to the second ride on the Giant Slide with Grace when I checked the time and realized I had less than 20 minutes until that bus was to leave. Even if I had left that second, it would have taken time to cross the fairgrounds to the corner I had first arrived at, and then walk the mile to Puyallup Station. The bummer of this was that I had forgotten the buses drop from once every half-hour to once every hour after 7:00, so now I had another solid hour to kill.

I took one last group selfie at 7:07, and we all said our goodbyes shortly after that, headed for our respective gates. I took a couple photos of rides now with lights on as the sun began to set, and the last photo I took at the fair yesterday was at 7:13. In the end, the full photo album has 99 shots in it, by far the most of any Washington State Fair album I've ever made. This is both because I just have a more refined eye for photography and I tend to take more photos in general, and because Gina, Beth, and Jennifer all shared photos they took with me as well. I'd say about 12 of the photos were taken by one of them, so even without that the album would be of record size by a wide margin (the previous record was 59 shots, in 2011, and that one was augmented by 11 shots taken at the "Weird Al" Yankovic concert).

Anyway. My return bus trip, much later than I expected, turned out to time perfectly with Shobhit's commute home from work, especially since he stopped to buy some naan from a restaurant downtown. I'd have otherwise walked home from the stop on 9th and Howell, but I got off at 6th and Olive, and Shobhit picked me up there and drove me home. My bus was several minutes delayed, but again, it kind of helped things work out in the end. Such is my life, always charmed!

I had a really good time yesterday.

[posted 1:54 pm]