Malcolm's Can-Am Trip: Whidbey Island Fair

After a fairly dull border crossing in which the border agent tried his best to seem important, as they typically do (we paid $6 to have him staple some piece of card into our passport), we made our way south towards Whidbey Island. This is the largest of the islands that sit off the Washington coast around 30 miles north of Seattle.

There are two ways to reach it: a ferry from Mukilteo or the more scenic but longer drive over Deception Pass, which was the route we went for and we're glad we did. It gave us a lovely view.

The fair located in the city of Langley at the southern end of the island is fairly young having only been running for 9 years or so. I loved the entrance which is the typical US farmstead design.

This fair was noticeably busier than Abbortsford which we put down to the time of day.

Elephant Ears are something that stuck with us for the entire trip as they seemed to be for sale in every park and at every fair that we came across. The idea of poachers hunting the majestic pachyderms for their ears was a silly one when we realised it was just fried dough. I did wonder if when asking what size you'd like if "African" and "Indian" were acceptable answers.

Another Chance Zipper. Like the elephant ears we were to realise that these are pretty prevalent on the fair scene.

Other rides were the staples that you'd see at any other fair.

One of the indoor areas housed a selection of award winning animals. Farming is clearly a big thing in the community here and formed the corner stone of most of the fairs that we visited.

A rather cute inflatable that we were a bit too large for.

Onto the coasters, and the good news was that they had one, the bad news however was that it was a Dragon Wagon, and here in Whidbey Island the max-height rule was in effect.

Not wanting to draw a complete blank we bought tickets for the ghost train which did consist of a lift hill and a ride where the car coasted back to the station. It was no coaster-experience - just look how thrilled Tal was.

A rather patriotic grave stone to the left

The showmen at this fair were these guys.

A public toilet with a sign warning of no public dumping. It was too confusing with what I could and couldn't do here.

Shishkaberry is fruit on a stick. Americans like to put food on sticks and sell them as things. My favourite was "Chick on a stick" where the menu consisted only of chicken skewers.