OC Fair

2Aug07 | 0 comments

The OC Fair is great fun for the whole family. There is so much to do. There are rows and rows of food booths and shopping booths. Several stages with music and other acts like the peking acrobats, a comedy juggler, or local kid
groups performing dance and song. As you walk in, there is a small petting zoo with some cute little animals to pet or feed. We saw a couple very tiny piglets, a dwarf goat, two baby camels, two small calves, a dwarf donkey, two very small ponies, and more.

However it's important to plan your outing carefully because it is very expensive in my opinion. First off it costs about $5 to park. Then $8 ot get in but luckily kids 5 and under were free. The best option is to go on Wednesdays where you can buy a ride all day wrist band (actually I believe it is only until 8:00pm) for $20. That's a big help because many of the big kid rides require 8 tickets which works out to $4 a ride. Even the little kid rides in KidLand require 4-5 tickets which works out to $2-$2.50 per ride.



I didn't count them, but I'd estimate there were about 10-12 big kid rides and another 8-10 kiddie rides. Many of the big kid rides fell into the thrillseekers category with either long free falls or hovering upside down as their main thrill. Personally, I don't get the desire to hang upside down, but to each their own.

The smell of mesquite grilled chicken filled the air near kidland and took every ounce of energy to bypass. We were on a tight budget and the food there was way over our budget. But it smelled delicious! And so much variety. That is what really sets it apart from other carnival type events. This place had so many different options that it would be impossible not to find something you like.



And what would a fair be without tons of games to play? But, unfortunately those were even more expensive. We could spend $3 to throw one dart or toss one ball. And if you win, you get this tiny little stuffed animal, stuffed with polyester that cost maybe 30 cents to make. The only game that came close to fun was the frisbee ring toss on the ducks game. Not because my daughter had any chance of winning, but because she got to toss the ring 4 times. That was nice.

For kids that age, it is more about playing the game than winning. The other good one of course is the fishing game which can take as long as it takes to hook a fish and the water pistol games. All of those can be found in Kidland and are geard to the kids. It would be nice if there were more kiddie games but kiddie games aren't going to make them a ton of money and this is all about profit.



We didn't stay for the nightly concert but they have some big names playing at the fair in recent years. So for the older crowd, that definitely adds to the attraction. We did however catch some of the acts at the various stages. One
act consisted of kdis from Kids Are Music group from Mission Viejo. They were very cute!.



There were three exhibits that we got to see that we really enjoyed. One was art by kids, many of which amazed me how talented they could be at such a young age. The other was done by prehistoric pets which I've talked about before. It is always a kid favorite. And right next to the was the CSUF biology department exhibit of some really icky creepy crawleys. Silkworms, spitting cockroaches, black widow, tarantula, scorpions and more.

Definitely alot of fun and even worth just spending an afternoon there like we did, though if money is no object, you'll want to make the day of it.