Traveling Fool

Blueberry Basil Lemonade The last deep fried pickle, modeled by TB2 It's not the longest tradition going, but for me and my friend, TB2, going to the Minnesota State Fair for a few hours, eating deep fried pickles and trying a few random foods, AND visiting the baby piglets, is our tradition. This is the first (and last) time that we'll go on the opening day (more on that in a bit). I long resisted, and resented, going to the Great Minnesota Get Together because of: the people, the heat, the price, the people, etc., but TB2 and I have a method, she tolerates me when I'm a raving bitch, and navigates and I go with her to the Grandstand AND the baby barn where we can look at piglets; we share some foods, others we tackle on our own, and we only go for a few hours. It's a wonderful thing. The night we went was perfect weather-wise, almost autumnal; we discovered some new things, including food and also that if you want to see a lot of piglets and other baby animal...

The Aoife Scott Band, 2017 It was our second year at the Irish Fair, and this time my friend and I went Saturday and Sunday; Saturday was a beautiful warm, sunny day. A grand day for listening to The Aoife (ay-fuh) Scott Band. Aoife is a member of one of the first families of Irish music, the Black Family (her mother is Frances Black; Mary Black, her aunt, and Roisin O, her cousin), but she totally stands on her own. She is relatively new, at least as far as recordings, having one album ("Carry the Day") under her belt, but she engaged the audience right from the beginning, and it seemed there was quite a good crowd at the main stage. There were covers, but also original tunes, and she told the stories behind their inspiration or creation. Her band was fabulous, including a guitarist (her 'fella'), a fiddler/bouzouki player, bodrhan/flute player (the bodrhan is a hand held Irish drum), who also wowed us with some crazy leg Irish dancing at the end of the set. ...