mmm-yoso!!! A food blog with variety, not templates. Kirk is catching up with his jet lag and Ed (from Yuma) is doing his 'research' so as to write some more interesting posts. The post today is written by Cathy.
The 2015 San Diego County Fair, with the theme of "A Fair to Remember" opened on June 5. (It will close July 5 and will be closed on all Mondays.) I wrote a post about some of what to expect before it opened.
The Mister and I dropped in last week and here's a peek at *some* of a lot of activities (and only two food items) going on at this 2015 County Fair. There will be a part 3.
Parking in the free lots means you are dropped off at the front entrance gate. You get this viewpoint if you were lucky to ride on the top level of one of the Double Decker buses that are used for the free transportation. 
Stepping into the first building to the right of the entrance, you'll see the Theme Exhibit with displays and education of County and World's Fairs and Balboa Park, where the Panama-California Exhibition was held in 1915, celebrating the opening of the Panama Canal and touting San Diego as the first port of call in the USA for ships going North after transversing the Canal in the Westward direction. 
Walking to the left from the main gate entrance is the Paul Ecke, Jr. Flower and Garden Show, with displays centered around the theme of "A Walk in the Park". (Keep this area in mind when I begin to speak about the food at the fair, below.)
The Floral Specimen Contest inside the Sleep Train O'Brien Hall (first building on your left after entering) has amazing displays of varied beautiful stems as well as other floral and design contests. 
Design in Wood Competition this year has a Fair Theme Division and this beautiful bench is so much more than just seating.
The Photography and Art competitions, Home and Hobby, Gems and Minerals are all to the right after the entrance (past the Theme Exhibit building).
There are, of course, carnival rides, games of skill (or chance) and animal judging (animal auction is July 4).
I suppose you are more interested in the food items here. There were several things we wanted to try, but it came down to only two meals. First, a decent shared snack.
Inside the Paul Ecke, Jr. Flower and Garden Show area, cornered by Bing Crosby Hall and the O'Brien building, you will find this setting. 
Where for $10, you can purchase this meat and cheese box or a fruit and cheese box. (The beverage shared was a very nice Sangria).
There were two salamis (one fennel, the other more of a hard salami) two cheeses (smoked Gouda and Provolone) fresh baguette slices, peppers, artichokes, olives and capers and some very fresh sweet cantaloupe. This was an excellent find and we will stop in again on one of our next visits to try the fruit/cheese box and some wine…
But it just wouldn't be the Fair if we didn't turn at the first right from the Midway… 
Yep. We did. $12.75 with tax. Low carbs! Enough for two and it counted as dinner. 
This was easily one pound. Great, smoky pulled pork lightly mixed with a spicy-sweet BBQ sauce; really good. That was placed on top of chili beans (slightly spicy) which were placed on top of crunchy, large, spiced with dry rub pork rinds (the rinds that did get 'wet' from the chili beans were tasty and another texture) all topped with a very nice, fresh slaw. This was an excellent meal.
There is so much to see and comprehend as well as taste that one day just doesn't do it. The daily contests, the competition entries, the skills and hard work all year have been preparing displays.
With an average daily attendance of more than 60,000 in 2014, the San Diego County Fair is the fourth largest fair in North America, surpassed in attendance only by the State Fair of Texas, Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo, and the Minnesota State Fair. Here is a wikipedia link to a history of Our Fair.
We are so fortunate to live right here and be able to experience such a part of history. I hope you can go and enjoy it!
The fair. So awesome. Can’t resist returning year after year. Thanks for the great photos!
Looking forward to the Fair this week! Thanks for the preview. I am one of those people that actually enjoy the exhibits and competitions, etc.
Too bad I’m going to miss the fair this year.
Thanks, Soo. I took a lot of photos and it’s so difficult to describe the thousands of things to see and do at this event…you just have to go.
The exhibits this year are extremely educational, cc. It is the first time the City and Fair collaborated and the result is amazing. I’ve learned so much.
Oh, so sad, Bill…the Fairs mean ‘Summer’ as well as ‘America’ and are just a great tradition.
Haha, we saw that hipster bar in the garden area. $17 for a custom cocktail? Uh….pass.
The hipster space, Sprigs & Spirits, was just too non-Fair of an offshoot for us, without considering the prices. I’m glad we walked over to that Wine Bar area just to look at the “menu” and found the meat and cheese tray…it was just nice and normal…not fried or crazy food, when we wanted a time out from the overwhelming activities