This weekend I had an opportunity to experience a cultural phenomenon that I had never seen before: the county fair.
I had always wanted to attend a county fair, and visions of endless amounts of fried food, farm animals and fun carnival rides flooded my mind. Luckily, the Dutchess County Fair did not disappoint.
Fried dough? Sometimes Healthy? You bet ya!
Before we ate our weight in fried food, Cole got to participate in his favorite activity: dock jumping. Sometimes, the BF jumps Cole in what are called “dock diving competitions.” I had never seen this “sport” before meeting the BF, but after seeing it for the first time, I must say, it’s a whole lotta fun!
Jump, Cole Jump!
This was Cole’s “practice jump,” but for the real competition, the stands were actually packed full! There were a lot of small children in the crowd, who obviously enjoyed watching the dogs “fly.”
And, even though Cole was out of practice, he still walked away with a 3rd place medal. What a dog!
Proud puppy!
I had bought some fried pickles before the show, so the BF said we could reward him with a couple of bits of delicious fried pickles.
Fried pickles, topped with nacho cheese. #bam!
This was my second time eating fried pickles (the first time was in Nashville), and it seems like they taste better every time!
If you think the adventures in fried food ended there…you’re wrong
In lieu of dinner, I decided to order a funnel cake, topped with copious amounts of cherries and powdered sugar.
Come to mama!
The only nutritious part of this meal was possibly the fruit…but it was covered in sugar, so I doubt it. Then, just to prove that I was a true fried food connoisseur, I finished off my day of healthy foods with these yummy fried sweet potatoes.
It’s potato time!
If I told you this was one potato, would you believe me? They just take a single potato, slice it, spin it and fry it. It is truly amazing cuisine, and I feel my palette has been forever changed by the county fair.
After stuffing our faces, we roamed around to play some games and stare at goats.
Can I take you home with me?
We also saw pigs, cows and sheep, but the goats were my favorite. They were just so lovable and cuddly! I am going to beg the BF to get a goat to keep Cole company during the day.
Eli Young Band was playing for the evening show, and since I love county music, we decided to stick around. It was a small venue, so it was nice to get up close and personal with the band.
Oh hello, Eli!
It was no Backstreet Boys concert, but we still had a very good time. The last song that they performed was “Crazy Girl” and the crowd went wild! Then, at the end of the night, when the band threw a bunch of things into the audience, the BF snagged a drumstick for me!
We caught the drumstick!
Apparently, it was a hot commodity, because I had several girls giving me the evil eye ;-).
The rest of the weekend included a variety of Sometimes Healthy activities.
Healthy: 7 mile run
After eating all of that fried food, I couldn’t wait to hit the treadmill. Although I only averaged 9 min/mile, there were a few intervals along the way, and I was one hot, sweaty mess by the end.
Sometimes Healthy: Fried Turkey and Dirt Cake
Now, that’s a turkey!
We travelled to New Jersey on Saturday night for a BBQ with some of the BF’s friends and to see their new house. They also have a new baby, who I was very excited to meet! However, I was almost as excited when they told me we would be eating a fried turkey. It was surprisingly delicious – moist and not greasy at all. Plus, it takes a fraction of the time that it takes in the oven.
After the fried turkey, the night got even better with one of my favorites, Dirt Cake.
I heart dirt cake.
I am trying to decide which I like better: Dirt Cake or Sand Cake. But it’s hard to choose. I think Sand Cake may “take the cake” but only because it has Swedish Fish.
Healthy: Tabata Superset Workout
As I’ve started studying for my NASM certification, I’m becoming even more interested in learning new workouts, which muscles they work, and the reasoning behind the format.
One of my favorite workouts are tabata workouts: high intensity interval training that follows a specific format of 20 seconds on, 10 seconds off for 4 minutes.
This particular workout mixes tabata with supersets, a strength training method in which you do two exercises, one after the other, with no rest in between. The mix of tabata and supersets results in one heck of a burn!
The workout takes 21 minutes, and I promise you’ll be drenched in sweat by the end.
Well, given all the fried food upfront, I think it would be great to end this post on a HEALTHY note.
So, with that, I’m off to run the pup! Hope you had a great weekend!
QUESTION:
Favorite fair food?
Give me on “Healthy” and one “Sometimes Healthy” part of your weekend.
I LOVE fried pickles!! I have never tried them dipped in cheese, but that sounds amazing!
It just takes an already delicious food and makes it so much better 🙂
Hahaha I love the pic with Cole wearing a medal! What a stud muffin :D. And all that food looks delicious! You can count on fairs to make the most delicious fried food possible!
I’m so jealous that you got to see the Eli Young Band! Crazy Girl is one of my favorite country songs (I’m obsessed with country music) and would have loved to have gotten the drumstick!
Have a great weekend 🙂
I told Cole you called him a stud muffin. and, he totally blushed. He loves getting fans! (especially the ladies…such a charmer.)
Yay, so glad to find another country music lover!
Great workout! In high school we had to compete at a county fair every year for cheerleading- to this day I find it the most random place to have a cheerleading competition.. that’s the south for you!
hahahah love it. One of the many reasons I heart the south.
yum – all that food looks so delicious!
I LOVE country music too!
yeah for the visit to NJ you had this weekend! 🙂
Love meeting more country music fans – yes, we like to visit NJ. It is the BF’s place of birth after all. You can take the boy out of jersey…
That is the perfect definition of healthy and not so healthy- fairs are so intriguing for some of their deep fried concoctions! when I visited the NY state fair when I was studying over there, they had deep fried butter!
Healthy- a decent workout on sunday.
Sometimes healthy- lathering butter liberally on my toast. I know it gets hounded for being saturated fat blah blah blah but damn, I eat butter everyday and love it!
You gotta have a little something special in every day, and if that’s butter for you, then I call that Sometimes Healthy!
Who doesn’t love some greasy fair food!? We actually went to an Italian fair over the weekend and I was so excited simply for the zeppoles- by far my fav fair food!
ohhh yeah, zeppoles are yummy!