The Shinn Digs

We’re all in Minnesota … Kinsley and Keaton have spent the entire summer at their Nana and Papa’s enjoy their time with them, riding horses, water skiing, and visiting their family. Garth and I flew here on Tuesday … I’ve been visiting one of my best college buddies, Julie Fredeen (whom I always call “Fredeen”) … and Garth has been meeting with clients and visiting with friends and family. It’s been a great trip! It was so fun to be together again and “squeeze the life out of” the kids (that’s what we call those really great big, bear hugs! Fredeen lives on the opposite side of the city from where Garth and the kids were staying, so as I sit here enjoy my last Caribou Coffee for awhile, I’m really looking forward to meeting up with them at the airport for our trip home!

Yesterday was quite an experience … the Minnesota State Fair, or as I will now refer to it, “The Fat Fast.” This is not a reflection on those who attended, but rather on the potential outcome if you spent more than one afternoon scanning the food selections. I am serious when I say this … every food you can think of can be found at the fair - with one catch … it was fried! I’m just going to list the foods Fredeen and I ate (sorry … I realize this is slightly disgusting):

• Pronta pups (corn dog - batter around a hot dog dipped in batter … and fried)
• 1919 draft root beer (ok - not fried)
• cheese curds (little bits of cheese dipped in batter … and fried)
• roasted corn on the cob (not fried, but lots of butter)
• deep fried pickles (a giant dill pickle cut in slices, battered, and fried)
• deep fried snickers bar (a snickers bar dipped in cake batter, and fried)
• Dole whip (a sorbet-like dessert - not fried … I needed a break)
• we sampled some Kashi brand food at a booth (again - we needed a break. Plus we got free canvas grocery bags!)
• Lefse (not really fried, but sort of like a crepe)
• One more stop at the 1919 root beer stand

Now … this is a lot of food! But what we passed by was unbelievable!

• a bucket full of Sweet Martha’s chocolate chips cookies
• deep fried Twinkies (the thought is nasty!)
• Tom thumb mini-donuts (fried of course)
• Deep fried corn fritters
• Fried green tomatoes
• Pork chop on a stick
• spaghetti on a stick (I don’t quite understand it either)
• Alligator on a stick
• Ostrich … on a stick
• Hot dish … on a stick (who knows!)
• Chocolate covered bananas … on a stick

Thus … The Fat Fest. We walked for about 5 hours, and about 20 minutes of that time we didn’t have food in our hand. It was nasty … disgusting … delicious … extravagant … and I need some vegetables when I get back to CA!