Today to distract myself from my endless email, phone calls, planning, and to-do lists I went with Wes and Sofia, and Sofia's friend Tess, to the California State Fair in Sacramento. After a few false starts we left about 1:30 and realized once we arrived that our plans to avoid the hottest part of the day were useless because the ENTIRE day was the hottest part of the day. Driving through the city to the fairgrounds, I read the time and temperature sign beside above Saturn of Sacramento: 103 degrees.
By the time we walked from the parking lot to the entrance gate all of us were red-cheeked and damp. The girls were remarkably well-tempered about the heat, and Wes and I did what we could to be enthusiastic. Standing in the shade between rides, pausing at the fountain beside the handwashing station to drench our hair and have a water fight, and spending time in the somewhat-cooler livestock buildings admiring the cows, goats, and pigs were all good solutions but nothing changed the fact that it was over a hundred degrees. At our mid-afternoon ice cream break I realized I had sweat all the way through my shirt--not a cute look but not much I could do and checking out my fellow fair-goers I saw that I was not the only one. I have not been hot like that since Jerusalem in July...
Following an afternoon of corn dogs, lemonade, and photo ops on rides with names like "The Dragon Wagon," Sofia and Tess were on the verge of a mini-meltdown but a trip to see the baby pigs, born just this morning, perked them up. After a quick trip to what Wes called the "Get-Stuff Area" where everyone chose something by which to remember our sweltering day we went to the restroom and got back in the Jetta for the trip back to the East Bay, blessedly air-conditioned and traffic-free.
I did not get a chance to revisit my competitive hog-calling skills from the Iowa State Fair a dozen summers ago, but somehow I was less disappointed by that than I thought I would be.
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