Harvest Fest 2017

On Friday night, we attended Harvest Fest at State Fair Park. Our last festival of the year had hotter weather than any of those in the summer. You have to love the odd Wisconsin weather!

Harvest Fest is a nice family friendly festival that has smaller crowds and many activities geared for children. We saw a few animals, camel rides, pumpkin bowling, a very large piggy bank, make your own scarecrows, a few bands, a colorful midway, lots of food vendors, and an outdoor market.

Unlike the other expensive things at State Fair Park, Harvest Fest has free admission and a small parking charge. 

Our favorite vendor, Water Street Brewery, was there serving their famous Chicken and Waffle cone. We were in heaven. We had been looking for this the entire season long, and were delighted to find it at our last festival.

Generally, the midway is very far away from the actual State Fair, but for this festival, the midway was brought into the Fair Park. The lights were beautiful against the dark sky.

We generally are in jackets and jeans at this time of year, so shorts and tanks were just part of the great time we had.

Now, the challenge is to find fun things to get us through the winter!

Sheboygan County Fair 2017

Our last fair of the summer is in Plymouth. Although this fair is a good hour drive from our house, it is a great way to close out the 2017 season.

We love to see the girls do "horse-dancing," as I call it. The precise, choreographed moves really do mimic a dance. Sometimes, the horses wear rhinestones and ribbons. This year, we caught the end of an act.

A school-age children art exhibit was really quite impressive. The entire upstairs of what looks like it may have been an old farmhouse was covered in art work from local children.

Of course, the fair wouldn't be complete without showing the many creative entries from Sheboygan County folks hoping to win a ribbon. I always snap a few photos of things that catch my eye.

We saw lots of animals at this fair, and especially impressive was the size of the beef cattle and milkers. Cows look so much smaller when you see them from the road but up close and personal they are HUGE. It is always fun to try to get the animals to pose for a picture, though I never have too much luck with that.

We are in a bit of a food rut at this fair because we always get the walking taco. It is just that good!

Well, it was a very good season. We had excellent weather, great food, available parking, and lots of new things to see. The only real problem is the massive crowds that enjoy the fair on the day we decide to go. Maybe next year, we will try to visit on weekdays!

Walworth County Fair 2017

Today we decided to visit a county fair mid-week. What a great idea!! The lack of crowding, ample parking, and beautiful day, made the Walworth County Fair so enjoyable we didn't want to leave.

Because this was the first day of the fair, we actually got to see some of the judging. We watched the "pie ladies" cutting and tasting the pies. What a great job!! As always, it was fun to see the exhibits and get a few pictures.

The 4-H exhibits are very interesting and this county's exhibits really focused heavily on agriculture. We always learn so much from these displays.

Apples on Display

Giant Onions

Monster Cabbage

Bee Keeping

Really Cute Cake

Alfalfa Hay

Quilting Demonstration

The animals are a fair must-see. Ugly turkeys, monster rabbits, pigs, horses, sheep and goats are what makes the fair "the fair." Lou tried to engage several goats in conversation. One of the goats actually freaked out when Lou made a turkey sound. So weird!!

Baby Chicks

Mini Horse

Scary Turkey

Flemish Giant

Lou freaked this goat out!

We were more than surprised to see our favorite Ice cream Vendor, Yesteryear's Ice Cream. This year, the owner baked cherry pies to go with the amazing churned custard. We generally split entrees, but we have never, ever tried to split this wonderful dessert. It just would be too painful:)

This was soooooooooooooooooo good!

We listened to a lively polka band and enjoyed the accordion and banjo sounds. What a wonderful way to spend a late summer afternoon.

Lou with Packer Flags vendor

Irish Fest 2017

We attended Irish Fest on Friday night. The weather was warm, sunny and perfect for this amazing music festival.

Map of Ireland. Our mother's great grandparents were from County Limerick ( south west).

Milwaukee Irish Fest is a yearly ethnic festival held at the Henry Maier Festival Park, on Lake Michigan, United States, every third weekend in August. More than 130,000 people attend the Fest each year to take in nearly 250 acts on 17 stages. The four-day festival in downtown Milwaukee started in 1981. Irish Fest is the largest of the ethnic festivals held at the Summerfest grounds which report attendance, and holds claim to the largest celebration of Irish Culture in the world.

Perfect escape from the crowd.

Lou on the rocks!

With 17 music stages, there was music and dancing everywhere. Sometimes, it was hard to keep track of the groups we saw, but the music was such a nice change from the blaring electrical sounds of all the county fairs we have visited this summer.

Kavan from Cavan

Every Irish instrument represented in this group

Edel and Kate

Flute and Fiddle

The Irish step dancing is always a pleasure to watch since little girls and boys are usually the dancers. The energy and enthusiasm displayed by these young people is something we really appreciate.

Cashel Dennehy School of Irish Dance

Parents and Kids dancing together

We saw many men in kilts and quite a few in the parade that marched throughout the festival grounds. Paddy McFest  joined them on the march.

Paddy McFest

Can you tell which is the woman?

Of course, I always snap a picture of the human statue. This year, I saw him play the flute and engage with the crowd for a few moments before turning into the statue again.

Human Statue

The genealogy tent offered festival goers help with locating their Irish roots. A poster of common names did not have our maternal grandma's name of Minihan, or great-grandmother's name of Shaughnessy, but it was exciting to look for them anyway.

Friday's highlight was the Celtic Canines. These playful Irish Setters thrive on constant human companionship, and it was fun to watch the interaction between the dogs and their owner.

Irish Setters

Irish Terriers

No Irish Fest would be complete with something relating to the Titanic. Our very own great, great  uncle, Dr. William Minihan, drowned on that fateful night in 1912.