Marc Valdez Weblog: California State Fair 2009

Wild, Wacky, Wonderful California was the theme at this year's California State Fair.

The California bear is put to work for this year's State Fair theme.

View of Cal Expo from the monorail.

Morning view of the midway from the monorail. John, Keith and myself rode three rides at the midway: Pole Position, Tilt-A-Whirl, and Viper (located in the lower-right of this picture). We didn't ride any of the four rides at the State Fair that hailed from Michael Jackson's Neverland, but we all thought those rides looked excellent, and reflected well on Michael Jackson's taste.

Riding through a plume of fair-food grease smoke churning out from the rectangular stack exit in the lower right of this photo.

Left: The Cal Expo monorail path, from below.

Below: Chef Tyler Stone prepared peach crepes on behalf of Del Monte Foods at the California State Fair.

Candy Mountain.

Don't neglect your candy ration! Don't worry, I won't!

Left: I instantly recognized this amiable-looking parrot as being a galah, after seeing flocks of them sitting on fences and telephone wires near Brisbane, AU, in 2006.

Below: Fanciful giraffe.

Detail of the 100,000-toothpick, San-Francisco-themed, toothpick sculpture.

Three tenors.

Dress parade.

At the County Exhibits, the California Department of Water Resources, in the conjunction with one of the counties (Stanislaus? San Joaquin?) assembled this rather-frightening looking (but wild and wacky themed)robot to sell their Delta Corridors concept to help solve water-quality issues in the Delta.