Visiting Big Tex

State Fair of Texas

http://www.bigtex.com

They say that everything is bigger and better in Texas.  And for over 125 years, people have enjoyed the super-sized fun that is found at the State Fair. Under the watchful eye of the 52-ft tall mascot Big Tex, 3 million people attend the State Fair of Texas each year.  Team Baird decided that it was time to see what all the excitement is about.

Lodging

http://www.marriott.com/hotels/hotel-information/travel/daldt-dallas-marriott-city-center/

The official State Fair website recommends several nearby hotels in the Dallas area. We went with the Marriott Dallas City Center and couldn’t have been more pleased. This was a great hotel located in downtown Dallas, right on the light rail route to the Fair. And using our AAA discount, we didn’t pay any more than you would for a motel.  As an added bonus, the hotel is connected to the Plaza of the Americas which has a food court and ice skating rink.

DART light rail

You can drive to the Fair Park and pay $15 to park, and hope that you find a parking space within walking distance. Or you can ride the light rail. An all-day pass is $4 per person.  Our hotel was just 3 stops away from the fairgrounds, so this was a great option for us. And the kids really enjoyed it.

Tickets

As soon as we knew we were going to fair, I pre-purchased our admission tickets online.  You can wait in line and purchase tickets at the gate for $16, or order them in advance for just $13.95. 

You can also purchase your food and ride coupons in advance.  A sheet of 20 tickets is $10 or 50 cents per ticket.  There are no arm bands that let you ride all the rides.  Nor are there any discounts for purchasing large amounts of tickets. It’s a flat rate of $0.50 per ticket whether purchased in advance or onsite.

Midway

I thought that the $40 in tickets that I pre-purchased would get us through the first day. WRONG! Especially once the kids hit the Midway.

Most rides are 10 tickets each.  Yep, that’s $5 per person per ride.  So, with two kids, we quickly went through those $40 worth of tickets the first hour!

Old school entertainment -- the Fun House was as popular as ever.

Food

Let’s face it … the State Fair of Texas is all about fried foods.  If it can be battered and fried, then you’re bound to find it at the state Fair.  This year’s winner in the food competition was Fried Jambalaya and Fried Cookie Dough.

We tried the fried cookie dough and thought it was delicious. 

We also sampled the Fried Snickers, which tasted just like it looks.
Ummm ...yeah. A melted Snickers bar. 

Another popular item was the Chicken Fried Bacon.

We stopped by the State Fair of Texas Wine Garden to sample some Texas wines and craft beers. It was a nice place to sit and rest our feet for awhile while sipping wine and enjoying a cheese platter.

All food and drinks at the State Fair are purchased with tickets.  Water and sodas are typically 8 tickets each. Beers and Wines are about 12-15 tickets.  And most foods are between 10-15 tickets. To give you an idea of what things cost, we got 2 corndogs and an order of french fries for 33 tickets.  You do the math.

Fletchers Corny Dogs are a State Fair staple, so expect long lines.

Exhibits and Shows

I admit we didn’t spend as much time exploring this part of the fair as we did the food and the Midway. But we did walk through several exhibit halls and saw a few demonstrations with cooking knives and cleaning products.  And there was one exhibit hall where you could sample tastes of Texas --  salsa, pecans, nachos – but the lines for these freebies were so long that we kept on walking.

There is also children’s petting zoo in one exhibit hall and livestock in another.  We peeked in and saw this huge pig! Kind of makes you think twice about eating that bacon.

We also stopped and watched horse trainer Robert Liner in his show Spirit of the Horse. And guys and girls alike enjoyed the auto show which is so big that it's held in two separate exhibit halls.

Tucked away in the back of the fairgrounds is my favorite exhibit -- the Greenhouse on the Midway. Here you’ll find beautiful gardens, as well as various Southern Living guest speakers.

This is also where you’ll find the Texas Railway, a collection of model trains, winding its way throughout the greenhouse.

And we enjoyed watching the fascinating Farmer Mike, aka the Picasso of Pumpkin Carvers!

After touring the Greenhouse, we decided to hop on the Texas Skyway to get an aerial view of the fairgrounds. (And to rest our feet!) The gondolas will carry you 1800 ft from one end of the midway to the other. 

Getting off the Skyway, we found ourselves near the Beers from the World beer garden. So Freddie stopped to grab a pint, although he was confused by the name since they only offered domestic beers.

Also near the Skyway is the Chinese Lantern Festival.  Admission to this exhibit is an additional 10 tickets. Unfortunately we were on our way out and had used all our tickets, so we didn’t get to visit this exhibit.

And if that's not enough to keep you busy, there are lots of different bands, dancers, singers, and other entertainers performing throughout the fairgrounds.  A highlight for us was watching the United State Marine Drum and Bugle Corp straight from Washington DC.

We spent two half-days at the fair which I felt was plenty to see and do everything that we wanted to do.  You could probably do it all in one day if you arrived early and stayed all day.  But the fairgrounds are so big, that we were exhausted from all the walking after just 3 or 4 hours each day.

All in all, it was a great experience and fun for the whole family. Definitely something that everyone needs to do at least once.

A few final tips

• The best advice I can give is to wear the most comfortable shoes you own!  The fairgrounds cover 277 acres.
• Arrive early.  If you go on a weekend, try to get to the fairgrounds during the first hour of the day. After lunch, the crowds are thick and the lines are long.
• Bring your own drinks and snacks.  You are allowed to bring in your food and drinks. So I carried a tote bag instead of a purse and put several water bottles in it.  And you can also carry snacks like peanuts or goldfish for the kids.

Pioneer Farms

http://www.pioneerfarms.org

A visit to Pioneer Farms, located in northeast Austin, is like stepping back in time. It is an interactive living history museum where you can explore restored log cabins, farmhouses, a Little House on the Prairie type village and even an Indian settlement. So when my daughter Kaitlyn was assigned a school project on German settlers in Texas, we decided to spend an afternoon at Pioneer Farms to see firsthand how these immigrant settlers lived. 

The 90-acre Pioneer Farms has "five themed historic areas to explore: an 1841 Tonkawa Encampment, an 1868 German Immigrant Farm, an 1873 Texian Farm, an 1887 Cotton Planter's Farm and an 1899 Sprinle Corner rural village."  So put on your comfortable walking shoes and follow the trail to explore each of these historic sites.

Volunteers, dressed in period costumes, are stationed at the different sites to bring history to life.  They give you tours of the houses and farms, demonstrate skills such as woodworking, blacksmithing, & candlemaking, and answer any questions you have.

Jackson watching a blacksmithing demonstration

Summer Camp at Pioneer Farms

I first visited Pioneer Farms in the early 1990s when my younger cousins went to summer camp there.  The little girls would arrive each morning and pick out a dress and bonnet to wear.  Then they'd step back in time and spend the day learning how pioneer settlers lived . . . baking, churning butter, feeding pigs, milking cows, and cooking over an outdoor fire. Pioneer Farms still offers various classes and programs for children and adults throughout the year.

German Immigrant Farm

The first stop on our self-guided tour was at the Kruger Farm. This real pioneer family immigrated to Texas from Dessau, Germany, in the 1850s. They built this one-room log cabin around 1867.  "The cabin's single room was the center of family life: a parlor, a dining room, and a bedroom for the parents.  The children slept in a loft upstairs or in the barn"

In addition to Kaitlyn's school project, we were particularly interested in seeing the German family farm because their story is so similar to that of our German ancestors, the Kanetzsky's.  My great, great-grandmother Fredericka Stolle Kanetsky came to Travis County, Texas, from Dessau, Germany in 1870.

Kruger Family Farm

A typical open-bay barn which had open sides
and a room at one end for storing feed.

The family's one-room log cabin built from cedar
trees that were cut into logs at a Bastrop sawmill.

The parents slept in this bed downstairs

The dining room, across from the bed

 All cooking was done outside due
to a fear of fire inside a cabin

The outhouse

Some outhouses were "two-holers"

Tonkawa Indian Camp

The next stop was my son's favorite ... the Indian teepees! Located on the banks of Walnut Creek, under giant oak trees, this campsite makes it easy to imagine the life of Tonakawa Indians in Central Texas. They were hunter-gatherers and frequently moved from camp to camp, following game for hunting.

As a side note, I highly recommend the book The Boy Captives by Clinton L. Smith.  It tells the true story of two young brothers, aged 10 & 8, who lived in Texas in the 1800s. They were kidnapped by Indians near San Antonio in 1871 and lived with them for five years before making their escape and returning to their family.

Texian Farm

This middle class farmhouse built by the Jourdan family in 1858 is surrounded by a barn, chicken house, outhouse, smokehouse, and cellar.  "Texians" is a term that was given to white, migrant settlers from Eastern states. A typical Texian farm was 250 acres.

The Jourdan family lived in this house, along with their eight children. They also had nine slaves. The original cabin, built in the traditional dog-trot style, was later expanded as the family grew to include 12 children.  The dog-trot style was very common in Texas during the mid-19th Century and refers to the open breezeway down the middle of the house. Pets were often found lounging in the area, hence the name "dog trot".  This design created a wind tunnel that would lower the temperatures of house nearly 10 degrees in the hot summer months.

The Jourdan log cabin built in the typical dog-trot style.

This side view of the Jourdan home shows
the addition built onto the original log cabin.

The family living room

The kitchen

The dining room

Children's bedroom

Parent's bedroom

Cotton Planter's Farm

The Bell Family Plantation was built in 1859 along Brushy Creek in Round Rock. It was moved to Pioneer Farms in the 1990's. The Bell family raised five children in this home. The home's living room and bedroom are built around a central hallway. The kitchen was located in a separate building behind the house.

Bell Family Plantation Home

Living Room

Dining Room

Bedroom

Central Hallway

Sprinklers Corner Village

Our tour came full circle and ends where we began ... at the Sprinklers Corner Village.  This recreated village includes a functioning general store, some houses and an exhibit of old carriages and wagons.