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An Early Arrival at the New York State Fair Brings New Sights

The New York State Fair was never an early endeavor in these decades I've snaked my way through Syracuse to Geddes.

 
My M.O. as music critic for the big daily was to get there in time to snag a good seat at Chevy Court for the afternoon concert. In the past couple summers of blogging here for WAER and at my own place, markbialczak.com, I caught Grace Potter at the court and Train at the Grandstand, night shows both, and wandered through the buildings, too.

Then came Sunday, and my terrific daughter Elisabeth's mission to participate in the Bubble Blast 5K benefit run for ARC Health. She was meeting her friends at 9 a.m.; the race would begin at 9:30 by Chevy Court. My dear wife Karen and I decided to go and take pictures of my grown-up kid and her friends, making our first of two trips to this year's fair a morning affair.

There's no traffic coming in from the east on the highway on a Sunday at that time. We didn't have to park in the Regional Market and take the bus, our usual routine to avoid the congestion. We pulled off in Solvay, passed Crucible Steel and the people waving the 10-buck parking across from it in the Salvation Army lot, and accepted the invitation from fair workers to make a right into the Pink Lot. I handed over five bucks, and we found a spot right near the entrance. I figured we'd spent about 10 minutes traveling from Eastwood.
 
 

Open for coffee at 9 a.m.

 
And we liked the easy foot flow thereafter, too, walking back east along State Fair Boulevard and entering with our Advance tickets I'd bought for $6 each at gate three. There was one person ahead of us.

We even beat the four twentysomething runners we'd come to take pictures of to the main gate. We let them do their thing, mostly. I posted photos on my blog Monday.

Still sculpting a love for New York in the Center of Progress.

When you get to the fair that early, you have to wait for the buildings to open at 10 a.m. It was pretty neat standing outside the Center of Progress and standing with other early arrivers for the National Anthem, my New York Mets hat in my hand and over my heart.

Karen and I had great views of the sand sculpture in that building.
 
 

Admiring the butter form.

 
We crossed all the exhibit buildings from our list right away, in fact. The crowds thickened, sure. But there was no line at Mom's Apple Pie and Dumplings to share a delicious a la mode version of the latter -- just a few tasty spoons for me -- in the Horticulture Building and an easy view of the butter sculpture in the Dairy Building.

I'd never seen the state's aquarium exhibit of fish you find in our waters. Liked that one.
 

Honoring those who've fought cancer.

 
Karen took the time to pay respects to her friend Stacy Huntington, reading her plaque, her story in her own words, hanging among a hundred in the Carol M. Baldwin Breast Cancer Research Fund of CNY, Inc., exhibit. Stacy fought her illness valiantly for years. I remember walking with Karen at a Susan G. Komen fund-raiser at the fairgrounds a decade ago that Stacy also participated in, and also attending a benefit thrown for her by her friends in Solvay two years ago. Stacy passed away this year. 

Then we went to see the animals. Cows. Rabbits. Pigs. A llama. And, our favorites, the goats. Oh, how we love those goats, who my former colleague at The Post-Standard and former State Fair public relations director Fred Pierce famously described to Karen and I as akin to "confused dogs."
 

Kids watching kids parading kids.

 
We were early enough this year to sit under a tent and watch some young folks dressed in white parade their kids around in front of a judge.

Then we retreated to Chevy Court, and, 45 minutes before the 2 p.m. show time, found seats in the shade of the sound board. I ate a Gianelli sausage sandwich with peppers and onions from the Dinosaur Bar-B-Que stand as we waited for country act The Swon Brothers to take the stage.
 

Dancing to the music at Chevy Court.

 
Early was good.

The fair runs through Labor Day. You've still got time.
 

Mark Bialczak has lived in Central New York for 30 years. He's well known for writing about music and entertainment. In 2013, he started his own blog, markbialczak.com, to comment about the many and various things that cross his mind daily.