ok, now that that's over......let's continue with our story.
after the the debacle that was the beginning of vrock's birthday, we definitely needed a low key day at the fair.
the salem fair is just like the local fair we have here in seattle. it did have some "oregon touches" to it, but for the most part, it has what you'll find at any fair on the planet: animals, rides, games, exhibits and FOOD. (and let's face it. unless you have a child in 4h or ffa OR there's a band you're just dying to see, you go to the fair primarily for the food.) i've lived in the seattle area for 22 of my 37 years and therefore am VERY familiar with the layout of my local fairgrounds. it's not like it changes much from year to year. the salem fair? no IDEA where anything is. so once we got there, we picked up the little book they were handing out at the gate so we could look at the map. neither one of us was super hungry yet, so we looked up the most important thing to us at the moment: where was POISON playing that night?
once we had determined where the venue was, we started taking in the sights. now, i've been to a lot of fairs but i'd never been to one that boasted the "world's largest pig" (or something along those lines). so we paid the 50 cents per person to climb the stairs of the trailer to see this "big pig". i'll let you be the judge of if this is, in fact, the world's largest pig:
it's definitely A LOT of bacon standing there!! this was taken with absolutely no zoom on my camera and while i couldn't get very far away from him due to the size of the trailer, i couldn't get ALL of him in the frame. crazy!
then of course, i had to take the picture that my husband wanted. feel free to avert your eyes.
after the pig, we went looking for something to eat. vrock has been going ON & ON about the food at the texas state fair and all that so i was happily surprised that he found what he wanted to eat at the salem fair. of course he went for food on a stick. (at least i THINK it was on a stick. i didn't really look closely.) he was overjoyed to find out that they had fire roasted corn on the cob and wasted NO time at all in getting himself an ear. i wasn't hungry yet so we wandered around some more.
it was his birthday and he wanted to go on some rides, so we did. we went on an octopus type ride, a flying type of ride and the ever so scary haunted house ride. other than a little boy sitting behind us, we were the only ones on the ride. so i pulled out my camera and took some photos. they turned out pretty well, if i do say so myself.
after the rides i was finally hungry. so we wandered around the "food court" area and looked at our choices. i'm not sure why we did that since everyone knows that the absolute FIRST thing you must eat at the fair is a corn dog! which of course, is why there was a HUGE line at the ONLY corn dog cart in the place. (who plans these things??) so while we're waiting in line, we notice the signage the have sitting outside this cart. and we promptly did what anyone would have done. we took a picture of it. then? we took pictures WITH it. (i've looked at these photos again and again and i'm sorry. this sign is just SO WRONG in so many different ways! i suppose that's what makes it hysterically funny to me.)
after we were done eating we went to look at the animals. we still had a lot of time to kill before the concert so i figured that would eat up some time. we were on our way to look at the horses when we walked through this little section that had "things indigenous to oregon" in it. among those things? a waterfall with a stuffed bear. of course, we had to take a photo. (what? you expected less? i think this is my favorite photo of vrock from that day, although the ones from the concert run a close second.)
then it was on to the stables. we wandered around looking at all sorts of farm life, ending up with the horses. where, of course, my husband just started reaching into the stables and petting the horses. 
finally it was concert time.
we went in right when the doors opened at 7 since i wanted to look and see if they had tshirts and stuff for sale. (they did.) once we got our shirts & shot glass, we went to find our seats. we'd been walking around for 6 -7 hours and i was glad to sit down for a stretch. we were enjoying the people watching (we had pretty good seats) and listening to the music they had playing to pump the crowd up. (i know that they do this at all concerts, but i found it WAY amusing that they had guns'n'roses and bon jovi playing before the poison concert.) finally it was time for the show to start. let me say, having never seen poison before, that i was impressed with the show they put on. i was not, however, impressed with the length of said show. it was a $40 ticket (and we weren't even on the floor) and they played for 90 minutes. hell. i got a longer show from weird al earlier in the week at my local fair. other than that, the show was great. it mostly consisted of their big hits, which was to be expected. we did take some pictures, but it was so dark in there that none of them really came out of the stage. maybe if we'd been on the floor they would have, but oh well. the photos of us came out just fine. even if i do look sorta zombie like:
so there you have it. the story of our trip in 3 parts. the trip home was delayed (stupid fire on the train tracks!) and we were both exhausted. but overall we had a great time. and? my husband TOTALLY owes me an awesome birthday next year. hopefully i won't get in a fight.
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