Tiny Sputniks

I don't know about your states but come summer there are county fairs and Catholic school festivals almost every weekend. While I'm not a county girl (country music is the worst and cowboy boots look good on no one), I do like the nostalgia of a county fair. Also, what's more American than a county fair? This summer happened to be my cousin's first time in 4H, so he had animals to be shown. My grandma invited me on one of the days to join her. I had just gotten back from Russia and was all for doing ALL THINGS AMERICAN. Also, I really wanted an elephant ear.

As you can tell from my photos, I'm really into the food stands. They're colorful, obnoxious, and remind me of olden day traveling circuses and side shows. I still don't know why I'm drawn to that kind of thing. Maybe I was a bearded lady in my past life? I really just wanted to take pictures of every single food stand but I felt awkward doing so. Towards the end of the night I sucked it up though and tried to take as many as I could because I knew I'd be mad at myself if I didn't. Of course that's when it was busier. Guess I learned my lesson for next year.

We spent the day walking around, petting animals, and eating lots of greasy fair food. My cousin had ducks and chickens he raised for the fair, and ended up getting a nice sum of money for them at the end. His ducks placed third (out of 3), but that's just a minor detail. At one point I lost my phone and literally was the most relaxed I've ever been about losing something because I kind of needed a new one anyways. My cousin was smart enough to remember about find my iPhone, and we found it on a table in the bird bard. I'm pretty sure it fell out of my pocket when I stood up and someone was nice enough to pick it up and put it to the side for me. We finished the night watching the horse pull (which I do not support) and eating elephant ears and kettle corn, both of which made me feel like I was about to explode.

Have you ever been to a county fair? What's your favorite thing to do?

Haley is literally the BEST at finding places to explore. She knows I love to look at graffiti and street art so she suggested this graffiti spot as a place to visit. This area was near where she previously lived, and while I had seen it from the road I never actually stopped to walk it. I actually thought it would be a lot creepier and smaller than it turned out to be. It was really hot the day we explored the area, and Cora was not having it. I felt bad because Haley was doing so much to entertain me while bringing her two young daughters everywhere we went. She's an awesome friend!

There isn't much to say about this area except that when I looked up the location I noticed that there were different pieces that I didn't see on this visit. The pieces must be constantly changing, which is pretty cool because it'll be like exploring a new place if I ever go back. The constant addition of new pieces also looks amazing up close when you can see the textured layers of previous works. You do need to be careful of the river too because it looks slimy. I accidentally walked into a puddle and got slime water on my leg. I couldn't wait to get back to the car and wipe it off!

How to get there
The artwork is along the Duck River on Rosslyn Drive between Brotherton Road and Erie Avenue. Street parking is available and a path leads down to the river.