Livonia Says No To Teen Takeover

Summer is here, and the hoodrats are out and about,trying their best to ruin the fun for law abiding citizens.

A bunch of "Teens " decided to put on Facebook a pronouncement that they would be taking over Livonia's Spree fair.

 

The City of Livonia PD and The City have stated clearly that it is not going to happen.

The Detroit News:  Livonia Spree tries fee, rule to limit crowds. Takeover threat blasted

 The Detroit Free Press: Livonia police warn of zero tolerance at Spree ahead of teen takeover

"Teens" like these are why we can't have nice things.

This area has already lost the Saint Mary's Polish Country Fair (after it lasted for 50 years) due to "Teens" running wild and causing problems, before these actions were fashionably and disarmingly called a Teen Takeover.

Good on the Livonia and the Livonia PD for proactively not putting up with a "teen takeover" threat. 

St. Mary's Fair Preview

Orchard Lake St. MAry's The largest annual school fair in the country, again opens tonight for a Memorial Day weekend of fun, rides, food, fund raising and tradition.

So yesterday at dusk we did a preview walk through the fair grounds. It was rather deserted, which is a contrast to how it will be teeming with people starting tonight and through the weekend.

There was no problem getting in we were allowed to wander around the grounds and it was interesting walking by all the rides that sat silently waiting for their time to entertain the masses to come.

It was neat to walk around without the hustle and bustle and being surrounded by tons of people. After walking around the grounds, we walked on back out, and I expect the Fair will be a great success when it opens this year as it was in all prior years.

Yesterday At St. Mary's Fair

For the ninth year in a row, we took the kids to St. Mary's Polish Fair - the largest high school fair in the nation.

We met up with some of their friends and started doing the rides.   It's fun to see how they've grown over the years.  They can go on rides now on their own unaccompanied by an adult.

First there was the sedate balloon ride:


Then it was off to the slide:

Now they've gotten bigger they can handle more exciting rides like my favorite, the Hang Glider fun of the Cliff Hanger:

I went on that one with Leah and enjoyed the ride.   She stated it was less scary when I was talking to her as it spun us up, up, and around.


The kids still enjoyed the classic airplane ride, flying of course in a classic biplane in the colors of the United States' hat-in-the-ring squadron, the storied 94th Aero Squadron:

But they also rode the Tilt-A-Whirl for the first time:

They could almost walk in a straight line after they got off.

They also did roller coasters both with and without me, and many other rides.

As a harbinger of the future, they also drove bumper cars on their own.  I can see my insurance rates rising steeply in the next few years.....

It was a great time and after a tasty Polish combo lunch and a few more rides we headed home.

At home we prepared for our friends to come over for a feast, which was then highly enjoyed by all.

Memorial Day - St. Mary's Fair

Every year we go to St. Mary's fair, which is held every Memorial Day weekend. The largest high school fair in the country, its a great event indeed.

As usual, we got there just before the gates opened so it wasn't as crowded as it would become as the day went on. This meant less lines, more rides and less rowdiness.

The fair provides an interesting yardstick to watch the kids grow. From what feels like just last year when they could only do the little baby rides, they're now off and doing the bigger kid rides like Cliffhanger and Pharoah's Fury and Vertigo. It won't be long until they're doing the seriously major rides.

They did the dragon coaster on their own:

The kids would even go on these big rides alone, repeatedly. Just yesterday they were either too short to ride or if they were of size, you couldn't get them on the rides for love or money.

Amazing how time flies.

Both kids loved the Cliff Hanger

Last year Leah was too small to ride it, but this year she made the height cut-off and came with me and Abby so we had a whole hang glider just for us, and went on the ride twice.

They also loved Pharoah's Fury, and this was the first year for both of them:

That ride swings back and forth going higher and higher until it feels like you're 90 degrees away from where you started. Lots of funa nd they went again, and again, and again, and even put their hands up in the air while the ride went back and forth.

The view from the top of the ferris wheel gave a nice overview of some of the fair's attractions.

For lunch at the fair we had the by now traditional Polish Combo - Kielbasa, stuffed cabage, saukraut, pickle and rye bread and three pierogies. I also had a nice cold glass of Tyske beer to accompany the meal. It was a decent Polish lager, not a great beer, but cold and refreshing.

As every year, it was a great time and a nice tradition continued.

Sunday At The Oakland County Fair Redux

Since we had so much fun last week at the fair, we decided to go again today. Natasha had a friend in town so it was just me and the girls.

It was a lot less crowded than the 4th of July weekend which allowed for both more exploration and a lot more ride time.

Since it was less crowded, we got to explore more of the barns and saw a lot more exhibits including:

Future Steak of America:

Bacon Bits:

The rare Alpaca-doodle:

And, a very cute baby camel:

Then we did multiple rides multiple times - the Ferris wheel at least five times, the kiddie roller coaster at least that many, multiple trips through fun-houses and lots of other rides. Happily, they had my favorite ride, the Cliff Hanger.

In contrast to St. Mary's fair, and possibly due to the lesser crowds of the day, it seemed that each ride went on for longer than a similar ride did at the St. Mary's fair - for example, the kiddie coaster went around 9 times each ride here compared to about 5 at St. Mary's. For the Cliff Hanger, not only did it go around much longer, it went measurably faster - I wasn't dizzy getting off the ride at St. Mary's but certainly was for this go-round - still a heckuva lot of fun indeed being stirred but not shaken.

It was a hot day though, so the girls got their money's worth out of the bottomless cups of chocolate milk that was cleverly hosted in an air-conditioned building, and each received multiple re-applications of sun screen.

We took a lunch break - Abby and I shared a Texas BBQ Chopped Beef in sauce sandwich that was awesome, and Leah had a corn dog.

The BBQ was excellent, smoked on the premises with a scent that reached the top of the Ferris wheel and drew us to it like moths to a flame. The corn dog - well what more can you say than it is a perfect hot dog - on a stick! It doesn't get much better than that, especially with its corn shell perfectly cooked and not over or underdone in the least.

Then we went to see a demo by the Jumpin' All-Stars competitive jump-rope team. They were pretty darn awesome - doing a cartwheel without missing a beat while skipping, skipping across a line of five other jumpers, stuff like that. Then the team let the audience come up and Abby and Leah both gave double-rope jumping a try and had a lot of fun.

A few more rides and another cooling break and some more chocolate milk and then we headed off to swim at a friend's beach lot. Then, once we were totally wiped we headed home and another great day was done.

Independence Day Doings

After the kids let us sleep in for once, we awoke made coffee and I made an omelet so we would all have energy for the day.

We then got in the car and headed to the Oakland County Fair.

The fair featured a real circus complete with elephants.

Considering that elephants are Abby's favorite animal, she was thrilled.

There were also Lions and Tigers, but no bears.

But they did have camels:

There were also some acrobatics as well.

After the show, Abby was more thrilled when we paid for her to take a ride on an elephant. Leah, for her part, took a ride on a pony.

Next we saw a farm animal show that included a goat miking demonstration, baby lambs and pigs and a border collie that could flip around in the air and catch freebees with joy.

Next, we went into the miracle of birth exhibit and in addition to baby pigs, chicks, and goats, we saw some Obama voters:

Then we went to the exhibit hall to see all the county fair winners. There were lots of interesting crafts on display from canned goods to quilts and fabric art as well as 4H student science experiments:

When you have an award-winning exhibit titled "Bacon vs. Bacon", everybody wins.

After the fair we came home, and Abby and Leah worked hard to make appropriately themed desserts for our Independence Day BBQ. While I was grilling chicken and vegetable kabobs, they made these:

Now we're waiting for dusk and some fireworks. A great day.

To The St. Mary’s Polish Country Fair

The largest High School Country Fair is held in my neck of the woods in Michigan, at St. Mary's Prepatory School on Orchard Lake Rd, and is well worth a visit if you're in the area this Memorial Day weekend.

So we took the kids yesterday and had a great time, this has become part of our annual Memorial Day weekend activities and its fun to watch the kids grow and be able to try new rides as they get bigger. Parking was $7, an all-day wristband for all rides for Abby was $22, a sheet of tickets for the little one and the adults for occasional accompaniment was another $20. A bottle of good Polish beer was $5, a plate of Polish delectables $10, and then the obligatory cotton candy and other sweets added up. The results: An absolutely perfect day, with Abby saying it was the best day EVER - which is worth it no matter how you slice it.

Abby went up the huge fun slide all by herself, which was quite an accomplishment.


She also went up a very high ride with rope ladders, rickety bridges and a large slide aptly called Raiders - watching her make her determined way up was quite heartstopping at times for the parents.


She also went on both Carousels multiple times, and on the Kid Model T ride, and she took her sister on it and the train ride, so she definetly used her wristband for all it was worth.

She did not go on this ride however:


Or this one:


Here's a few more pics from the fair


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There were plenty of arts, crafts, and products on display for sale or mere browsing, and lots of live entertainment.

Among the many live acts listed, there was one curious act featured:

Here's a close up:


Polish Muslims? How does that work?

Is it like: "Hates Jews, but can't remember why"?
Or is it: "Ready to charge American Tanks on horseback?"
Or is it: "Communism wasn't bad enough, lets try Islam?"
For entertainment do they blow up backwards?

Actually the Polish Muslims are a pretty funny music group out of Hamtramck, with a darn curious name.

St Marys Polish Country Fair is a great Country Fair and if you in the area, go to it, you'll have a great time, the kids if you have them will have a great time, and the fair acts as a fundraiser for the school so you're helping out a worthy cause while having a great time.