The Rat Race

The weekend's scenic views consisted mostly of blue painters tape and varying shades of white.  The array of colors to choose from at Sherwin Williams is only overwhelming until you've been painting for two days straight and realize you have an unseemingly never ending parade of corners and wall faces still to go; that's truly overwhelming.

Luckily we were able to take a break from all the hard stuff to enjoy the opening weekend of college football.  We visited a local dive called the Peanut Farm to attend the Oklahoma State watch party.  The attendance was smaller than the Houston viewing groups but the screen was bigger so that was a plus.  There weren't any door prizes but they did have a Cowboy cookie cake and fun was had by all (until the final minutes of the game.)

  

On Sunday, we did some additional painting and drove about an hour north of town to visit the Alaska State Fair.  It had a refreshing small town fair feel even with a large crowd. There were lots of unique sights to take in.

The giant vegetables are more impressive than the livestock at this fair. That's more than 117 pounds of cabbage.

I asked the person scanning tickets what the can't miss part of the fair was and she recommended the  dinosaur exhibit.

There were probably 8 species of dinosaurs replicas which were all animated.

The dinosaur replicas were interesting but the lumberjack show we watched would get my can't miss vote.  

Three lumberjacks competed in all sorts of events from log rolling to axe throwing.  They boasted some impressive skills and the emcee Timber Tina had some great one liners.

After the lumberjack show we stumbled upon something I hadn't ever seen before.  A literal rat race.  This version was significantly more entertaining than the horrendous movie of the same name and was more action packed than the turtle races that occur in Houston. 

Quarters were bet on what color hole the rat would enter.

We picked yellow and came away winners.  We spent the winnings on a dipped ice cream bar. So delicious!

This might be the first time I needed a jacket in August.

It was really nice to be able to walk around all afternoon without being drenched.  Alaska certainly has beautiful scenery and good temperatures going for it.  At least for now :)

The drive to Palmer and back had some wonderful views.  Part of the highway is considered a Moose crash area as 24 accidents have happened since the beginning of July.  I was ironically disappointed not to see a moose but I am thankful our car didn't meet one.