Maui County Fair

The Maui County Fair was this weekend and of course we had to go. I'm hoping we can find some way to bribe Dean not to go next year, because even though Dean had a blast, Joel and I were in agreement that the Fair is not at the top of our list of things we enjoy. It's always HOT and dirty and super crowded. I am not a fan of crowds. Especially hot, sweaty, dirty crowds. And we never seem to make it away from the fair without spending at least $80, which just seems absolutely CRAZY. I mean really - the only thing we had to show for our day at the fair were dirty feet, a Subway coupon on our ticket stubs, a belly ache from the funnel cake and cotton candy OD, a gigantic inflatable baseball bat that Dean instinctively decided would best be used as a weapon (even though we don't allow him to watch ANY type of violent programs and he's never in his life seen people hitting each other with any type of weapon that I know of), a tiny stuffed Smurf toy, too much sun, and an extremely cranky 4-yr-old. Definitely not worth $80!! Although I must admit the memories of Dean's hysterical laughter going down the Super Slide and how he wanted to go through the Traffic Jam about a gazillion times were pretty priceless. But still....


So I thought I'd share some pictures of our day at the fair. Last year we ventured to the Fair on opening night. It was cool to be there at night and see the rides and attractions all lit up, but it was WAY crowded. This year we decided to go first thing Saturday morning. We knew it would be hotter, but less crowded. We opted for less crowded and decided to just stay for a shorter length of time. I'm undecided which was the better option.


The first thing Dean wanted to do was the Super Slide. There aren't too many Fair rides that I can go on because of my annoying motion sickness, but the Super Slide I can handle. So I trudged up the steep stairs to the top and Dean and I slide down. He laughed the whole way.


Joel was a pretty good sport about the rides that I can't go on. It was highly amusing seeing him stuff all 6'3" of himself into the tiny helicopter so Dean could ride around in a small circle for a few minutes. What a guy.


Of course we had to eat lunch at the fair. I had dry mein and funnel cake. Joel had a pasteles plate from the Puerto Rican club, and Dean had corn on the cob and powdered sugar leftover from my funnel cake. It was all super ono!


Dean thoroughly enjoyed getting ripped off by the carnies in the game tent. He was unsuccessful at multiple ball toss games (toss a ball into a glass; knock over a stack of blocks with a ball; toss a ball into a creepy clown mouth; etc etc) as well as some race car game he really wanted to play. However, he was a winner at the fishing game and the plinko-style ball drop game, with a little help from Dad (that may or may not have been cheating, but what the carnies don't know, don't hurt 'em!).


Dean's favorite of the day was the Traffic Jam, which was a Fun House type of attraction that cost a ridiculous amount of tickets ($4 worth per person!). Dean LOVED it. He said it was just like at the carnival at the end of Grease! ha! And yes, my child knows WAY too much about musicals for a 4-yr-old. Whatever.


And that concludes the Tapler's Maui County Fair Day. We left dragging a crying and screaming 4-yr-old with dirt-stained tears on his face, upset because we wouldn't buy him a gigantic knubby ball from some vendor right at the exit. That or a bubble gun, when he knows perfectly well there are no guns allowed in the Tapler Ohana, bubble or otherwise. Someone had a little too much Fair Fun for one year. We may or may not have told him we'd come back "later" in order to get him to walk out on his own two feet instead of kicking and screaming. We did not necessarily define "later".