State Fair + Oprah = Greatness

Need I mention once again how much I love the State Fair of Texas? My parents came in town yesterday and we battled the cool weather and potential rain for an all-around amazing day. We saw the usual, including but not limited to:

Big Tex (unfortunately crooked and with his head cut off - will need to find a different random photographer next year)



The Pumpkin Carver - working on Oprah



The Butter Sculpture


AND - drumroll please....

OPRAH IN PERSON!!!!!



I knew she was going to be there today - October 12 - but apparently she made the rounds and was filming a day early. We caught her walking out of the Embarcadero and into her suburban to be transported to the next place of filming. I pretended like I was TMZ and took a video of her also. Had we gone today, there's NO WAY we would've gotten this close or been able to see her in person. WOW!!!!!!!!!!!!

Among the traditional corny dog, we also tried fried oreos and fried snickers. The fried snickers was amazing, and may become a new annual tradition in my book. We got drenched on the way out as the skies parted and rain came down, but all in all it was another spectacular trip to the Fair...

Californeeah!

As most of you know, my bro lives in Cali. This past weekend while K was engaged in a tactical gun class, I went to visit him along with my parents. Highlights of our stay included:

The Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival in San Fran - talk about a massive event. There were LOADS of people at each of the 6-7 stages that hosted a variety of performers from Lyle Lovett to Robert Earl Keen to Steve Martin to the Old 97's. We contemplated moving from stage to stage in order to witness different acts, but the overwhelming crowds caused us to remain in our same spot the entire day. For the record, I have never been surrounded by so much weed. I think I got high from just breathing regularly. Check out the type of clientele at the event in the right hand side of the picture below:


And on a completely unrelated topic, below is another "posed" picture of myself, but really of the guy behind me wearing the Texas shirt at a random bar in Houston a few years ago. I think he and tye dyed swirl girl would get along nicely.


We also went wine tasting a couple days. Here we are at Van Ruiten Winery, home of the Wall Street Journal's best zin:


Lodi, a town nearby that's known for its wine and fruit, has lots of produce stands around with fresh goods for purchase, so our 2nd morning there we stopped by and picked up some home grown corn on the cob, strawberries, tomatoes, etc. We got the best sausage I've ever eaten from a local meat market, my bro bought a new $25 grill from Wal-Mart, and we had a serious feast the next night while watching Monday night football:


On our way out of town, we stopped at Tex Wasabi in Sacramento - Guy Fieri's restaurant (blond crazy guy with spiked hair on the Food Network). My favorite dish was the jackass roll: Tapioca rice paper roll with sushi rice, avocado, BBQ pork, french fries & a garlic chili mayo sauce. It sounds disgusting, but was absolutely fabulous. Bubbie needs to work on his chopstick skills!!!!