Wisconsin State Fair

Last weekend we went to the state fair with Scott and Amber.  We had heard things about the fair, specifically about the food and the people, so we were curious to see what everyone was talking about. It didn't disappoint!

I have never seen so much fried food in my life.  Seriously.  There were deep fried fruits and vegetables, as well as a variety of deep fried desserts, such as oreos, snickers, and s'mores! I think some of the people in Wisconsin must be crazy -- how else would they think to take s'mores and deep fry them? I guess I can't complain too much though, considering the results.  We decided to try a fried snickers bar, which was surprisingly delicious! They sprinkled powdered sugar on top and then added some chocolate sauce, which made it even better :-)

Deep fried snickers

After the snickers bar, we ate some deep fried cheddar cheese curds. These are a big deal in Wisconsin!  We had all tried some earlier this summer, but they are too tasty to pass by! The cheese curds at the fair were really good.

Deep fried cheddar cheese curds...and a photobomb by Scott!

While wandering around the fair in search of more treats, we stumbled upon two guys who were starting a comedy routine.  I'm really glad that we stuck around to watch the routine because it was one of my favorite parts of the fair! The two guys were really funny, and they involved the audience a lot.  At the end of the show, one of the guys sat on an extremely high unicycle and the other was standing on the top rung of a latter, and then they tossed flaming torches back and forth -- it was both impressive and hilarious!

The comedy routine

Following the comedy show, we took a quick stop at a cream puff shop.  I can admit that cream puffs aren't my favorite treat, but we had heard that these were decent.

Our main goal for the fair was to find the infamous pizza cones, but we hadn't had any luck.  I was starting to lose hope.  Luckily, we decided to walk down one more aisle of food tents, and we finally saw the sign for pizza cones!  Imagine a slice of pizza that gets folded into the shape of an ice cream cone, with the crust on the outside and all of the toppings inside.  They were delicious!! They were also really funny to eat because the cheese was so stringy. We got some fun pictures, and it was definitely a highlight of our fair experience :-)

PIzza Cone!

Did I mention they were really cheesy and stringy?

On our way out of the fair, we stopped and got some jumbo cups of old fashioned lemonade, which was easily the best lemonade I've ever had! They squeezed real lemons right before our eyes. I wanted to take the whole lemonade stand home with me!

Best Lemonade EVER

All in all, we had a lot of fun at the state fair and we tried some funny foods. I would definitely go again because we didn't manage to find all of the things we'd been told about, like the root-beer milk or the pig races. Still, it was a fun memory to make!

Chicago (Part One)

Last weekend Steve and I met up with our friends Tyler and Rachel for a day in Chicago, and we had a blast!  We took so many pictures that I've decided to split the day into a couple of different posts, so check back for more later.

The beginning of our day was spent doing a tour at the World of Whirlpool.  As a side note, Tyler and Rachel are interning at Whirlpool this summer and the company scheduled a day for the interns to visit Chicago.  There were a few extra spots on the tour, so Steve and I were able to RSVP!  The World of Whirlpool is such a cool experience.  It's basically a building that has lots of working Whirlpool appliances set up in real kitchens. My favorite part was having the chance to walk around and interact with all of the appliances!  The picture below shows one of the several kitchens.

 

Whirlpool uses these kitchens for training.  According to our guide, "We realize that people learn best by interacting with the product.  This also helps because the employee can then personally recommend a product." It was so funny to walk through the kitchens and find food in the fridges and cupboards.  Steve and I definitely found some awesome appliances for a dream house someday!

As much as I loved wandering through the kitchens, my favorite part of the tour came at the very end.  Part of the building is an old clock tower, and we got to go inside!  Not only was the clock tower cool, but we also had an amazing view of the city. 

Here's the building from the outside

One of the four walls in the clock tower. It was huge!

This is my attempt at capturing more than one wall in the picture.

I fell in love with the city of Chicago! I loved the tall buildings, the river, the people, the sounds and smells, and especially the food :)  I feel like I could spend a week exploring Chicago and still not see everything.

The view from the clock tower

We love Chicago!!

Like I said earlier, this was only the beginning of our adventure in Chicago.  Check back for posts on the cool buildings we saw and the special food experience we had!

Greek Festival

One weekend we had the chance to go to a Greek Festival, which was put on by a church group in the area.  Our amazing landlord Fred and his wife Kathy met up with us at the festival, and they recommended some really tasty food: gyros and honey puffs!  I have to admit that the honey puffs were my favorite, but who could blame me?  For those of you who don't know what honey puffs are, they're basically bite-size scones with honey and cinnamon poured on top -- a.k.a DELICIOUS!!

Look how much meat they prepared. It was insane!

Gyros! (Scott, Amber, Steve)

I love honey puffs!

So does Steve :)

The meat preparation from the other end. Did I mention there was a ton of meat?

I would definitely recommend trying some Greek food in the future if you get the chance!  I can't wait to see what other kinds of adventures are waiting for us in Milwaukee.