Fall Festival

Our nearest large metropolitan area has this annual fall festival. It's something like six blocks long and is rumored to be the second-largest street festival in the country (second to Mardi Gras in New Orleans). It's mostly made up of individual food booths run by and benefiting charitable organizations (churches, high school band boosters, football boosters, fire department, etc). There are also rides and games, but the food is the draw. And 80 percent of the food you'll find there is either deep fried or dessert (or both). Actually, make that 90 percent. I'm having a hard time coming up with items that don't fall into one of those categories, so it may be higher yet.

Anyway, it's pretty much the place to be this week. So Olivia and I planned our Fall Festival outing for yesterday.

We had fun! We met some friends there and ate a bunch of junk. Actually, I ate junk and Olivia ate the cut up pieces of meat and fruit that I had prepared for her, but still. She loved watching all the people. Plus, she got a balloon. So, all in all, it was definitely one of the highlights of her week.

We capped off the day with some shopping, and Olivia entertained herself by running up and down aisles and trying to hide from me. We also played a bit at the Mall's play area. She was in heaven. I think she gets a little bored when we stay home for days on end and don't get out to see people. She's definitely a people watcher. With a tight budget and gas prices and everything else going on in the world, we try not to make too many unnecessary trips to "town". And since we live in Tinyville where the most exciting thing to do is either go to the park (where we are typically the only two people there) or the grocery store, Olivia doesn't have much opportunity to enjoy people watching. But boy do we have fun when we can get out!

We'll have to plan more trips to the Mall. Under usual circumstances, I hate the Mall. But seeing it through Olivia's eyes...it's like a wonderland. A carousel in the food court, people walking all different directions, all kinds of interesting things to explore, and a play area to boot. And as long as we don't venture into any stores, the most I'll usually spend is a couple of bucks for coffee. And that's just to keep me from falling asleep on the drive home, because as fun as these outings are, they wear us both out!