The Bloomsburg Fair

It's like a fair, only bigger.

When Holly talked me and Rob into to making the 45-minute drive up to Bloomsburg, I was expecting a handful of rides and maybe two dozen food stands, but I was wrong.  With over 400,000 visitors, 1,200 concession stands, and big-name music acts, the Bloomsburg Fair is one of the biggest fairs in Pennsylvania.  They were offering ten-dollar helicopter rides by the entrance as we walked in.

The fair draws in big acts (which this year included Jeff Dunham, REO Speedwagon, and Lady Antebellum), but it also features some off-the-wall entertainment: an Elvis impersonator, a "Dock Dogs" dog-jumping competition, Cinderella-style carriage rides, and a lawn mower race.

And there's the standard fair stuff: bright-colored rides, farm animals and food.  We pet some sheep, stumbled into a 4H auction, tried (and failed) to win Holly a goldfish, oggled at the giant prize-winning pumpkins, and wandered through the concession stands trying to decide what we wanted.  Funnel cake?  Candy apple?  Apple dumpling?  Frozen banana?  I went for a waffle cone full of Chocolate Pretzel Crunch ice cream from the Penn State Creamery booth.