The Great Minnesota Get-Together started last Thursday, signaling the end of summer. I have always enjoyed going to the state fair. 

My dad started taking my twin sister and I to the state fair when we were around 10 years old. We would leave the farm (eight miles north of Becker) before 6 a.m. and arrive on the fairgrounds by 7:30 a.m. 

The first stop for my dad was Machinery Hill, without question. Most of my siblings really enjoy attending  the state fair. We all attended 4-H from elementary school through high school and many of my siblings and I earned state fair trips on 4-H projects, as well as a one act play competition called ’Share The Fun’ in 1981. 

My twin sister Terri and I served as Sherburne County 4-H Ambassadors and spent a week in the summers of 1983 and 1984 in the 4-H building dormitories on the state fairgrounds learning about leadership two summers in a row. My twin sister and I have attended the state fair almost every year for over 40 years. 

My husband and one of my older sisters attended this year on day two of the fair. The weather was warm, but not unbearable. Our to-do list included checking out my great nephew Nicholas’ state fair exhibit on rocketry, as well as my great niece Eleanor’s state fair exhibit about Natural Resources/Exploring the Environment. 

We made a point to go in the horse and goat buildings. We also saw the biggest pig near the Oink Booth in the Robert A. Christensen Pavilion. We meandered through the livestock building and found a Sherburne County teenager (Anthony Berning) who earned a State Fair trip with his Holstein.

As always, we had our share of fair food, including cheese curds, pronto pups, a malt in the dairy building and a bucket of Sweet Martha’s cookies, to name a few. According to the Explore Minnesota website, Minnesota boasts the largest state fair in the United States by average daily attendance. 

I’m struggling to accept that summer will soon come to a close and fall is on the horizon. I saw a couple of trees with leaves that have started to change color near Santiago last week. I gasped. The changing of the seasons is inevitable. 

It has been a wonderful summer!