The Puyallup Fair

While in Seattle, I discovered that my friend Brandon, whom I met in Berlin many years ago, just happened to be visiting his family 45 mins south of Seattle in Puyallup (not pull-you-up, which is how I keep wanting to say it, but pu-aaah-lup). And the famous Puyallup fair was on.
So I headed down there to experience another bit of America. I was quite excited to be going to a proper fair, complete with rides and 'cotton candy' and cows and prizewinning quilts and vegetables and giant pumpkins! I really wanted to see a giant pumpkin, and I wasn't disappointed!
There were also these Produce Dioramas, which I found rather amusing:
Brandon's a film maker and does some photography, so his motivation in going to the fair was to get stock footage he could use later, and to take photos. And, of course, for the nostalgia of it all. As I was also there as an observer, and am always doing the photography thing, we both felt a little disconnected and outside it all, I think. We didn't go on any rides, or play any sideshow games or anything like that. But we did eat some crappy fair food. I can't believe that a sausage covered in batter here is called a Krusty Pup. I thought the Australian Dagwood Dog was a bad name!

And, of course, we took lots of photos!
I had a fantastic time. It was great to hang out with someone I'd known more than a month!
And, as Antonia had decided to head straight for Vancouver instead of coming with me, it was also the first time I'd been travelling in my van on my own, which was initially daunting, but actually really nice. It does effectively double my fuel costs, of course, but Puyallup to Vancouver isn't far, so it wasn't too bad.

Many more pics on flickr, as per usual.