Our visit to North Carolina wouldn't be complete without a fair visit. We were pleased to attend the Western Mountain Fair. This is a subset of the State Fair, so it wasn't gigantic, but it was choice. Every fair I've been to has something which sets it apart from any other fair - remember New Hampshire and maple cotton candy? Well, this is apple country, so I wasn't surprised to see this booth on the midway.
Another unusual part of this fair was the staggering number of North Carolina products which you could buy. There was even an 'apple store' where you could buy several different types of locally grown apples. I have to confess we bought fudge instead. There was also an interesting exhibit about the North Carolina State Forests. I spent some time visiting with two forest rangers. One's specialty was trees and the other fish. I learned that hemlocks (which take 40 years to mature) shade the trout streams which makes the trout healthy. Appalachian Mountain trout are as finnicky as they come. Shaded streams keep them healthy. It was an interesting anecdote about the interconnectivity in nature.
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| This is the tree forest ranger |
As usual, my favorite part of any fair is the crafts. There were some great ones at this fair, and I took pictures of about 10% of what we saw. Here's my favorite craft:
This hummingbird as well as the morning glory flower was carved out of basswood by the 'bird man'. This is the nickname his other carver friends have dubbed him. Here are three more examples of his work:
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| Yes, that feather is carved wood |
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| This is a lady slipper, a type of pitcher plant |
Finally, the big draw on a Tuesday was the Youth Llama Show. It was fun. The picture is of the 'senior' who won the competition in her division. The animals were beautiful, and each one was so different. There was every color, variable size, and one was even shaved like a poodle!
I could have spent more time at this fair. It has the best midway we've seen. It had not only blood curdling rides, but also little people rides. The ferris wheel was lovely. We rode the aerial tram which went over the entire fair. I was able to take my best picture of the Blue Mountains from the tram.
As always, if you want to see my pictures, click on the link.
