Dollar Day at Del Mar

Today we attended "Dollar Day at the Del Mar Fair." I was congratulating myself for my frugality until we got a couple miles south of our freeway exit and the traffic stopped. All the other lanes were flying, but the exit for the fair was at a stand still. We had left early and Graton was watching Alyssa during her nap, but it became apparent that at this rate, we wouldn't even get to the fair until long after her nap was over. The crazy thing was, as I'm looking at the cars in front of me, they weren't minivans full of kids. The lady in front of me was middle-aged, driving a fancy Lexxus. And everyone else driving past me were either single, or couples, of working age, no kids. I'm thinking, "Why aren't these people at work? And if they can afford a Lexxus, why come on the dollar day?"

Once we finally exited the freeway, we had two options, go to the expensive parking close to the fair (I would have done this, had I any cash on me), or go to the free parking but spend 2 hours snaking our way there and being shuttled back. Audrey was hot and tired and wanted out of the car, so neither of those options sounded appealing. Instead we parked on the street, and walked.

We were pretty much the only pedestrians, but I felt so free as I passed the myriads of cars, enjoying the breeze, and smells of nature all around me. It was good exercise and only took about 20 minutes. Audrey enjoyed riding in the stroller, and it turned out to be a fun adventure. Walking down the street made me realize how much we Americans are in love with our cars, and made me miss Paris, where it seems everything is just a 15 minute walk away, and the streets are always teeming with pedestrians.

Once inside, our previous frustration was forgotten and we had a great time petting animals, watching the horse show, and playing in "Kiddieland. "

A major highlight for Audrey was taking a REAL pony ride!!

She was really looking forward to riding a ferris wheel, ever since reading about it in "Charlotte's Web."She wasn't disappointed, and even said it was more fun than she had imagined.


Audrey even won a stuffed hedgehog (which she likes to pretend is a porcupine named "Ella Bella")

Although we were only there a couple of hours, I felt like we really had the "fair experience,"and it was so fun to see the excitement in Audrey's eyes as she experienced so many things for the first time.

The goose was right when she said, "The fair is a veritable smorgasbord, smorgasbord, smorgasbord." Not just of food, but of laughter and family fun!!