The Ohio State Fair 2010

2010 Dublin Irish Festival

The Ohio State Fair IV

We were able to stop and see some shows! An Indian dance competition, a chainsaw carving exhibit, pig racing, and we were able to watch a speech by Senator Voinovich. We later saw Senator Voinovich with his family next to us at the rides.

Did you know? According to Wiki...

The Ohio State Fair is one of the largest state fairs in the United States. From the very first 3-day fair in 1850 in Cincinnati to the 11-day exposition of today (At one time the fair lasted 17 days)
There are many milestones listed but one really interesting one is the renowned John Philip Sousa Band performed twice daily at the 1928 Fair.
One of the coolest milestone listed on wikipedia is the fact that in 2007 Saving Jane played there. They are a local band that we used to hang out with and saw in it's infancy.

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The Ohio State Fair III

Next we went to the pony rides!

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The Ohio State Fair II

The feeding area did have some our normal farm animals such as goats, cows, and llamas. However they had some other exotic animals as well... Camel, kangaroos, emus, zebras, and an old tortoise.
My observations: The camel was sleeping, kangaroos were so very soft, zebras we were not alloud to touch or feed, and the emu that wanted to eat... Wow is it a surprise when it takes it out of your hand. The beek is really hard and almost sharp. The tortoise was over 160 years old and over 650 lbs! They said it will live to about 300.

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Ohio State Fair

Today we sent most of the day at the Ohio State Fair. We had a great time. We started with looking at all of the award winning small animals and the feeding area. Isabella was a little surprised what a rooster really sounds like and both of the girls weren't to fond of the large turkeys. They loved the bunnies and the feeding area.

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And ... And the Santa Maria

While on the Santa Maria we were able to learn a lot of things. Above are a few pictures... On top you can see a picture of Isabella listening to the speech about navigation in the 15th century. Which was very interesting that they could really only tell where they were North and South. East and West was completely a guess based on half-hour speed and compass readings. You will also see a picture of Isabella "fixing a leak". They informed us that it was one persons duty to fix leaks all day long. They did that by hammering in a tar covered piece of rope into the leaky area. (tar not included in presentation)

One bit of information that I thought was very interesting was that there were pirates when they sailed but they were not the "Pirates of the Caribbean" like we all think. They were viking long ships and that is one of the reasons why the Spanish made their ships very tall, then it was that much harder to board.

On the original Santa Maria there were over 40 people on board this small nao or carrack, only about 70 feet long. There wasn't a "below deck" for sleeping either, you were pretty much on deck at all times, night and day.

Food was dried and hung, while water was kept in barrels/kegs. Water was mixed with wine for taste. Unknowingly they actually killed off most of the bacteria with the wine mixture.

Santa Maria in Columbus, Ohio Did you know:

- World's most authentic, museum-quality replica of Christopher Columbus' flagship
- Originally it was sea worthy however with the lack of money the repairs have been been kept up to date

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... And the Santa Maria

Today we supported a local museum dedicated to the founder of "The New World" Christopher Columbus. This replica that has been docked in downtown Columbus is the most authentic replica of the ship that Columbus sailed. What a great learning experience! More to come but I would encourage any local resident to take a look!

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