And also, a (short) break from the watercolor challenge! After our lovely dinner in downtown Pleasanton a little while ago when returning from Yosemite, we thought it would be fun to go up there for the Alameda County Fair. We figured it would be a lot like the Dutchess County Fair in upstate New York, and we weren't wrong.

Livestock, racing pigs, quaint competition classes of crochet, jams, and more? Check, check, and check! But we're in the West with a capital W out here, and not surprisingly there were reminders of that everywhere. Lots of Texas-size meat wrapped in other meat, on and off a stick, et cetera.

I stuck to my cheap Muji notebook and pen for quick captures of the activities. First there was team cattle roping (I get that these events evolved from ranching tasks, but honestly it doesn't really look so fun for the cattle or the ropers). The object, it appeared, was for a pair of competitors to get the steer on the ground with its front and hind hooves roped in a set amount of time.







After the cattle left the field, the motorcycles roared in. The stunts performed by the motocross riders (at least one of whom was an X Games medalist) were unreal.



The whole time I was at the fair, that song featuring Templeton in Charlotte's Web kept running through my head:

"A fair is a veritable smorgasbord-orgasbord-orgasbord/After the crowds have ceased.
Each night, when the lights go out, it can be found, on the ground, all around,/Oh! What a rat-ly feast!"