What could be more wholesome?

... than going to church, a baseball game, and the state fair?

Sunday qualified as one of the wholesom-est days in a long time. :)

After church, it was a quick change of clothes and off to the ballpark with some old California and Wisconsin friends who happen to live here, now. Wow. Small world. He's on his final tour before retirement but will be here a couple more years. Nice - people we know! :)



The ballpark is nice, the weather was hot, but tolerable in the shade. And it's a scenic place, with nice views from the mezzanine concourse.



From there, back home for a clean dry shirt, and then off to the fair again. This time we knew where the air conditioning was! One of the prime spots is the livestock pavilion where they happened to have dog agility contests going on.



One of the coolest parts was seeing the dogs weave through the pylons. Dogs' bodies are kind of hinged in the middle anyway, and some of them could really snap that butt through one way while the paws went another. Fun to watch. :)



But we were really there for the grandstand show. Final night and a good headliner - Sheryl Crow. So after another pork chop and one last twinkie log, it was time to head to our seats.



What a gorgeous old facade, built in 1909.



Like the grandstand at Wisconsin's state fair, it overlooks a racetrack. But this is a dirt track, so no NASCAR events here.



Big stage, though, and really a huge grandstand. It was pretty hard to see the performer, but the jumbotrons helped.



Colbie Caillat was the opener and she did a nice job. Except here songs have a sameness to them, as do her dynamics.



Unlike Sheryl Crow, who is pretty darned versatile.




Her efforts ranged from country to pop to straight rock to singer/songwriter piano ballads to Jamaican grooves to 60's funk. Really, one talented girl, that Sheryl. She even covered Michael Jackson, and pulled it off. Great backing band.



Later a nice breeze came wafting in from the back of the stands and people started hanging out up there. Nice view of the food stands below, plus all the fistfights and arrests (which made the national news this week... race related. :( Apparently cops said it was "Beat Whitey" night at the fair, with marauding bands of youth preying on older people and single moms.)



But isolated trouble aside, it was otherwise very fair-like.



I think it's a true statement - go to the public festivals if you want to get to know a place. You do get a sense that way, for good or ill. And I think, here... it's mostly good.