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OC Fair 2014 – Orange County, CA

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The 2014 Orange County Fair opened on July 11th and runs until August 10th. We spent the day at the OC Fair today.

Scroll down for our visual tour.

We took advantage of the early admission price of $3 per ticket, which saved us a total of $36, or $9 per ticket off the regular $12 price.

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With the Pacific Amphitheatre right next door, the OC Fair usually has some good concerts. We might come back to see Bad Religion (one of my favorite bands) on Thursday.

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We started off our day by walking through Centennial Farm.

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This is Butterscotch, a 2-year-old Yorkshire mix (the piglets were born on July 3rd):

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In addition to animals, there are many plants, flowers, trees, fruits and vegetables growing at the farm.

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This is for my wife, since sunflowers are her favorite:

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Just in case you forgot how to do this:

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The OC Fair is pretty big, so you might want to get a map.

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Chicken Charlie’s is one of the places to go if you are looking for the latest fried concoctions.

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We tried the Totally Fried Doritos, which were OK. I would rather just have some plain Doritos.

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We also tried the Totally Fried Chicken Skins, but one bite was too much.

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As far as I’m concerned, Dogsville has the best fair food.

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This is a chili cheese dog on steroids:

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This is my favorite, the awesome jalapeno and cheese corn dog:

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More choices, all covered in bacon:

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Red velvet funnel cake:

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The OC Brew Hee Haw:

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My favorite wood carving of the day:

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Cowabunga.

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We took advantage of the early admission prices, but the games and rides are still expensive. Every game we tried was between 6 and 10 tickets, so even the $100 ticket card probably won’t go too far for a family.

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I save the thrill rides for amusement parks, so my favorite ride at the fair is the sky ride. Here are some pictures from our ride across the fairgrounds:

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For more information, visit http://ocfair.com/.

2012 OC Fair – Costa Mesa, CA

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OC Fair - Home Sweet Home

We made our annual trip to the Orange County Fair over the weekend.

As usual, you can find crazy food at the Fair, including deep fried cereal, bacon wrapped everything, tons of meat, and my favorite, the jalapeno and cheese corn dog at Dogzilla.

Bacon A Fair
Charlie's - Fried Cereal
Juicy's
Dogsville

Have you ever been on a ski lift? If not, you can ride one at the Fair… minus the skis, the snow and the mountain. The SkyRide takes you from one end of the fairground to the other:

SkyRide

Once you are on the SkyRide, you get some nice views of the Fair:

OC Fair - Carnival
Action Sports Arena
Main Mall
Main Mall
Family Fair Way
Family Fair - Kid's Rides
Looking toward Centennial Farm
Let Freedom Ring: Steel beam sections from the World Trade Center

Although Budweiser is one of my least favorite beers, I love the Clydesdales:

Budweiser Clydesdales Truck
Dixon

The Fair reopens on Wednesday and runs until Sunday, August 12. There are some pretty big events happening in the Fair’s last week, including the following concerts at the Pacific Amphitheatre:

August 08: All-American Rejects
August 09: Heart
August 10: Martina McBride
August 11: Duran Duran
August 12: “Weird Al” Yankovic

To find out more about the Fair, including upcoming events, visit www.ocfair.com.

We’ll be back next year.

2011 Orange County Fair

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Are you planning to go to the 2011 Orange County Fair? We went on a Sunday this year, and ended up getting $2 tickets since we arrived before 11 a.m. By the afternoon, the place was packed.

We started our day by walking through a giant freezer to view the ice carving exhibit, which I’m sure is packed later in the day when it gets hot. My personal favorite was the Poseidon (or Neptune) ice sculpture.

When you go to the fair, you should expect to see some crazy food. We skipped past the stands that fry pretty much everything from candy bars to sticks of butter, and opted for some tri-tip and pulled pork sandwiches.

I would assume that once someone has figured out how to deep fry a stick of butter that the art of deep frying food has reached its pinnacle. I’m sure I’ll be proven wrong.

We spent the most time walking through the art exhibit building. My kids even enjoyed seeing all of the paintings, photos and other artwork.

We rounded out the day by letting the kids play some games and walk around the livestock exhibits.

If you go to the fair this year, make sure you bring your money. It seems like the fair would be an inexpensive place to take the family, but if you plan to eat, play games or go on rides, you might be surprised at how much you spend.

The Orange County Fair runs through August 14.

Orange County Fair
88 Fair Drive
Costa Mesa, CA 92626
www.ocfair.com

CA Rejects Bids for OC Fairgrounds

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Today, in a letter to Governor Schwarzenegger, the Acting Director of California’s Department of General Services announced that he has rejected all bids for the Orange County Fairgrounds.  An excerpt from his letter:

Please be advised that after careful consideration, today I have decided to reject all of the bids.  The offers contained in those bids are not in the best interest of the citizens of California because they do not obtain the highest and most certain return for the state.  I continue to fully share your commitment to selling the fairgrounds and the department will go forward to explore alternative means to promptly achieve that goal.

Obviously, this is not a rejection of a sale, but hopefully it’s a start.

In case you don’t know what I’m writing about, the State of California issued a Request for Proposals last year inviting potential buyers to bid on the Orange County Fairgrounds.  The State’s estimated value of the Fairgrounds is $96 million to $180 million, but the highest bidder offered $56.5 million.

The highest bidder was Craig Realty Group, a real estate development company that is “a leader in the development and management of income producing upscale factory outlet centers.”

The Governor actually proposed selling seven state owned properties in his budget revision last year.  The seven properties are:

  • Cal Expo
  • San Quentin State Prison
  • Cow Palace
  • Del Mar Fairgrounds
  • Orange County Fairgrounds
  • Ventura County Fair Grounds
  • Los Angeles Coliseum

I believe that the Orange County Fairgrounds property is the only one that has been put up for sale so far.

Although I live in Riverside, I grew up in Costa Mesa just a few miles away from the Orange County Fairgrounds.  In fact, my high school graduation was held at the Pacific Amphitheatre, which is part of the Fairgrounds.  I also take my kids to the OC Fair each summer.

Hopefully, the OC Fairgrounds will not become the OC Outlets.

http://www.dgs.ca.gov/OCFair.htm