Fair Quality Fairs

From the view of a 3 year old if you say "We are going to a fair" they get excited. Things go through their minds like "rides, food, clowns, prizes" They never think about what we as parents churn over, "are the rides safe, are all of the bolts tight, will she get sick from too much junk food, not to mention how much is this gunna cost me..." (Ok, this is making me sound like an overprotective Mother so I'll make the list short). Well, when we lived in MD we saw a traveling fair in the parking lot of the mall we went to almost daily. I am not a fan of traveling fairs and my previous sentence states. I think they are just accidents waiting to happen. We drove in and out of that parking lot 3 different days before her incessant begging turned my "No" into a "Yes" and she got to go on 2 rides; a little roller coaster with a chain to buckle her (phew) and the dino-tilt-a-whirl (which I went on with her). I was more scared than she was! That was it, she was hooked. She loves the 'rickety rides', because she doesn't know they are rickety. I love fair rides and roller coasters don't get me wrong, I grew up going to Valley Fair and rode everything. But those rides were stationary and up to code, with the occasional minor break down. But these traveling fairs just don't even look safe. The stories on the news of kids flying... oh man I can't even finish the statement. And now I've come to find out these American rides don't even compare to the scrap metal, high flyin, shaky screw, wire showing contraptions we've seen here in Mexico! Our church is close to a large park with a 'stationary scrap metal' fair, no less nerve racking. But I let her go on rides that go in a circle and not up in the air. She loves it. Boring and a waste of money but cheap enough fun for her. Last week we were told by our Internet cafe guy that there was a celebration of San Lucas on the Street San Lucas during the weekend. There would be food vendors and a fair. A traveling fair. Ooo goodie. We ventured out on Saturday night to the festivities. It was a fun cultural experience. We walked to the side street that had vendors on each side of the road. Breads, Tacos, Gorditas (fried tacos), Corn with lime juice and chiles, Corn dogs (that tasted nasty) and french fries, potatoes and a few others. It was more or less a block of street. Some people had their gates open and were selling goods or serving food from their courtyards, one had a sign up for you to use their 'bathroom' for 4 pesos. Of course Sally used this opportunity to have to pee. So we payed the nice people, walked through their narrow outdoor hallway past an apartment and we were directed to a tool shed looking thing, it was dark and musty and had junk in it including a sideways treadmill (always a great place for that) and there was a toilet, no flusher, no seat and shaky. Ok, here we go. Sally DO NOT TOUCH THE SEAT. She balanced while holding onto me and then we left (without flushing, I later remembered a bucket of water next to the toilet that was probably to flush, oh well). We washed our hands from a trickling pipe in the courtyard. It was an experience. My friend in D.C. would have rather walked the mile to the nearest Starbucks than to go in that bathroom. But eh, nothin a little soap can't tackle. We then proceeded down the street of vendors. We bought some adorable canvas paintings for Sally's room. With the vendors we noticed common theme, egg shells with paper mashay on one end. I finally asked what they were for and a lady said they are for smashing someone else's head and then proceeded to smash one on Sally. It was filled with confetti! Sally loved it so we bought 10 of them and smashed them on each other throughout the night. We watched a big band play in the San Lucas Catholic Church and then got some food. We ate the Corn with Chile and lime with cheese on top. We also sat at a small table and at some street tacos. Yum. We went back to hear the band who were all playing on a stage outside of the church now. Then once it was good and dark we went to the adjacent street to where the fair was. Or more, the recycled trashy rides that used be fair rides were. These things were hilarious. So ghetto. And Sally wanted to go on every ride. They are about $1.10 for each ride. She went on 4 I think. She had fun but I was all freaked out when she got on the little kid roller coaster that had no seat belt. It was slow enough that I wasn't nervous once it started. The last ride she went on was a princess train and near the end of it Doug cracked up at the fact the the first car of the train was connected by a wire going up to the light pole in the center of the track. The wire was taped up and shorted every once in a while. Lol. We smashed a few more eggs and laughed a lot. We stopped at the Internet cafe and found out his hard drive was almost done and he was happy, we told the guy we had gone to the festivities and that we enjoyed it. Even the rickety rides.