More from the State Fair of Texas!
Animals
Across the way from the Embarcadero are the Pan-American Arena and the beginning to the animal exhibition buildings. We were highly anticipating a fair tradition, pig races, but had some time to kill so we found the petting zoo. I was expecting your garden variety petting zoo with goats and chickens and sheep and such, but what I found was much more extreme or super, since that’s the fair’s theme this year.
My attention was first caught by the pen right next to the entrance that had three kangaroos including a cute little joey and a tortoise. From there my attention went to the pen I saw with zebras and African antelope varieties. From there we turned and saw a big pig with her baby piglets and that’s when I looked across the building and saw a giraffe. We made a v-line for the giraffe. We also saw and petted ostriches and emus, llamas and alpacas, camels, baby bison, four-horned sheep (they look like aliens), and zebus. It was a pretty cool petting zoo.
We went straight from there back to the arena for the pig races. I remember watching the pig races as a kid and was super excited to see little pigs race around a track for an Oreo. Of course the whole experience came with the corny presentation, which made it even better. All of the pigs were given names like Hamma Montana, Sylvester Stilloin or Oprah Swinefrey and each section was supposed to cheer for their pig. Our section was red and we won the first race with Arnold Swartzenhammer (or something like that). They do three races each time; one with a hurdle and one with a pot-belly pig as a racer. I remember the races being a little different when I was a kid but that’s okay because they are still pigs racing – how do you beat that?
Food
Many people go to the fair just for the food. Where else can you find just about anything fried? Every outing to the fair as a kid, we would get a funnel cake but that was it, so this was my chance to try some of these fried delicacies. My friend tried a fried banana pudding while my sister and I tried fried chocolate and a fried peanut butter and jelly sandwich with bananas. Both of 
these were absolutely delectable. Honestly, I think this is the way a PB&J is supposed to be prepared. The crunch on the outside from the frying process and the creamy inside where the PB&J seemed to have joined together in perfect harmony to accent the banana. I was in euphoria for a moment. Anyway, if you’re planning on eating at the fair, be sure to bring some money, it isn’t cheap.
We wanted to ride the Texas Star, the largest ferris wheel in North America, but the line was too long. My sister and I are planning on doing this tomorrow. I may also try fried cookie dough or fried coke or fried butter then.
We used tickets my mom got from the school she works at and got in for free, otherwise it would have been $15 or only a couple if we had brought canned-food to donate. I don’t think we have ever had to pay to get into the fair. When we got there, we used one of the unofficial fair parking lots meaning it was much cheaper, $5 as opposed to $15. We entered the gate near the Esplanade at the Green Line’s Fair Park Station.
Tomorrow we will be going again before we see Shrek the Musical in the Music Hall at Fair Park. I’ll write more this weekend about that adventure.
Now go have your own adventure.
