Texas State Fair: A Fair Amount of Quilts and Cars, Part 2 - Sunday, Oct. 16, 2016

Continued from previous blog (Part 1)...

I just couldn't wait to get into the Creative Arts Building. Ever since my parents took us to our first fair, I was fascinated by all the things people won prizes for: quilts, knitting, embroidery, cake decorating, painting, drawing, crocheting, canning, photography, the list goes on and on. 

When we stepped through the door, we entered a world of color and creativity. At the top of everything were the quilts, hung way up high in a league of their own. Some quilts were geometric, others were swirls of colors, or butterflies or themed (Harry Potter was one) and I was snapping photos of them all. Below are my favorite quilts...

The quilt pictured below looks like a compilation of all the other quilts this person has made. The work that went into it is amazing!

First Premium

Swirl pattern with lots of little triangles -
Third Premium

Harry Potter-themed quilt - First Premium in Youth

Butterflies - Second Premium

I was so busy looking at quilts that I walked past the butter sculpture inside the front door. It was in its very own cooler.

Butter sculpture by Ken Robison

Stats on the butter sculpture: It takes 1,000 pounds of butter to make this; and it takes 21,200 gallons of milk to make 1,000 pounds of butter! Wow. Who thinks up stuff like this?

Intricate embroidery won First Premium

Close-up of embroidery

Stained glass fairy

Awesome fused glass ocelot won
First Premium

A beautiful cross-stitched piece!
(Only received Honorable Mention)

We spent a lot of time looking at photography entries. I realized I should be entering some of my photos in these contests! So much fun to see other people's perspectives and what they think is photo-worthy.

On the way out of the Creative Arts Hall, we snagged a cup of Dr. Pepper Chocolate Chip ice cream to share. YUMMY!

Across the hall from Creative Arts was a shopping embarcadero. We roamed the aisles to see what looked interesting. We found a couple of things to buy.

We bought a blue round light
like the ones on top

We also bought a fancy hummingbird feeder. This feeder has lots of openings on the top so hummingbirds can move naturally from "flower to flower." 

The set-up below looked like a fun Christmas gift for a child. The gear pieces have batteries in them, so you can hook a bunch together and make lots of moving parts.

"Funny Gears" sets

Once we were sufficiently cooled off, we headed out into the 95 degree heat. We saw Lone Star Boulevard, but were distracted from going that way by a great rock 'n' roll band playing on the Chevy Stage. We stopped to listen for about 1/2 hour, but there was no shade. A food tent next door provided a brief respite from the sun while we listened.

Lone  Star Boulevard - State Fair 2106

Chevrolet Main Stage

We once again bypassed Lone Star Boulevard to make our way to the Hall of State. Inside, as a special fair exhibition, is "The Taylor Swift Experience." This exhibit came directly to the Texas State Fair from the Grammy Museum in Los Angeles. We saw her gorgeous costumes, instruments, hand-written lyrics, photos and a movie of Taylor Swift's life to date. The auditorium with the movie was very well air conditioned so we chilled out for about 15 minutes there.

Bob (on right) going up stairs to Hall of State

The 11-foot-tall Tejas Indian statue by Allie Tennant (below) above the Hall of State doors is bronze covered in gold leaf. The blue tiles represent the state flower, the bluebonnet.

Lunchtime was upon us and we decided to have corn dogs (we each got our own). So far the corn dog line was the longest line in the park. Apparently Fletcher's Hot Dogs are very popular here. Our order was for two "Bird Dogs" (turkey corn dogs). They were cooked to perfection, a beautiful golden-brown crust encasing the cornbread-like covering around the turkey hot dogs. We waited about 20 minutes in the hot sun to get them. Right behind us was Big Tex, the biggest Texan in Texas. He says "Howdy" and other stuff and moves his arms and hands around.

Big Tex is 55' tall with a 95-gallon hat and classic Dickies, size 434 x 240 inches. Big Tex began his existence in 1949 in Kerens, Texas, as the World's Largest Santa Claus built to lure holiday shoppers. He was put up for sale two years later and was snatched up by R. L. Thornton, president of the State Fair of Texas, for $750.

Thornton hired Dallas artist Jack Bridges to shave Santa's beard and transform him into the face of the Fair. In 1952, Big Tex debuted at the Texas State Fair and Texans fell in love with the big guy. When going to the fair, it's a tradition to have your photo taken with Big Tex.

Big Tex as seen from the Fletcher's
Corn Dog line

After securing our corn dogs and loading them up with condiments, we sought shade and coolness under a spray-misting machine at the Chevy Dealers Truck Zone.

Our first photo with Big Tex

After corn dogs and lemonade (how much more state fair can you get than that?), we strolled through all the outdoor truck exhibits, checking out Chevys, Fords, Dodges, and whatever else was out there. Once again, the heat got to us so we headed into the air-conditioned auto exhibit building. 

Below is a see-through robot that moves from side to side. Maybe this will be the future Big Tex. But I bet they won't get him for $750!!!

A future Big Tex perhaps?

Outside once again, we sat in the shade to watch the Zuzu African Acrobats. They were so-so and we didn't sit long. Our next stop outside was Lone Star Boulevard to watch Xpogo, daredevil pogo stick acrobats. They were very good. At the end, they were jumping over a 7' bar and doing flips over the bar on their super-duty pogo sticks. They had to pump up their pogo sticks with air!

Xpogo performer

Xpogo - Clearing the 6' bar

7' -Gives new meaning
to raising the bar!

My camera was seriously low on battery power because I forgot to charge it. I wanted another photo of the Art Deco architecture before it ran out.

Centennial Hall was originally the Exposition Building which dated back to 1905. More square footage was developed/added in 1935 and 1936 for the Texas Centennial Exposition. There are three female statues in porticoes along the building. The statues represent Spain, the Confederacy and the Republic of Texas

Centennial Hall and one of the three statues

The Centennial Building and Automobile Building flank the long sides of the Esplanade. Once again we walked through a building for the air conditioning, once again it was a building filled with cars and shopping.

The Esplanade - where a lot of entertainment took
place throughout the day and evening

We were in need of water and we found bottles for $1 being sold by the Daughters of the American Revolution in the D.A.R. House, another historic structure at the fair. 

At the Marine Corps Square in front of the D.A.R. House, we saw these Flamenco dancers so we sat and watched for a few minutes. 

Flamenco dancers

Festive flamenco

Colorful skirts a-swirl

We then headed over to the Women's Museum Building thinking we'd check out "Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel - The Exhibition" appearing in America for the first time ever. The additional admission fee of $8.00 deterred us, so we didn't go in. 

At 3:30 p.m. we wanted to see Le Freak perform at the Chevrolet stage. They are a tribute band and play 90s disco songs like "Le Freak" by Chic, "YMCA" by The Village People, "Dancing Queen" by Donna Summers, "Get Down Tonight" by K.C. and the Sunshine Band, "Brick House" by the Commodores, Bee Gees, Michael Jackson, Rod Stewart, Sister Sledge and more. We watched them for over an hour. They were quite entertaining.

We wandered around the fairgrounds some more as dusk set in and found a mobile redwood log home. The inside of the log was hollowed out to make the home inside. The log that this home was made from is 1,000 years old and this is only a small portion of the whole tree. Can you imagine what it would cost in gas to tow this mobile home around?

Bob got a photo of me in front of the Lone Star Boulevard sign. You can see how crowded the fair is.

As evening descended, we breathed a sign of relief as the temperature became more bearable and the sun dropped out of sight.

To be continued in Part 3...