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Alameda County Fair. Missing a Day.
Jun. 25th, 2026 10:16 amYesterday I missed a day of posting to my blog. I'd gotten my streak of posting every day up to 50 days in a row. Dangit! Now I'm back to 1. At least the skip didn't happen because I was stuck with the I-don't-wannas. It wasn't also for lack of anything to share. That's because yesterday Hawk and I went to the Alameda County Fair. When we got back I was so tired I basically just forgot about writing.
So, yeah, the Alameda County Fair! It was at the fairgrounds in Pleasanton. In case you're like "Where?" to both of those place names, Alameda County is on the east side of the San Francisco Bay. Its larger cities include Oakland, Berkeley, Fremont, and Hayward. Pleasanton is over the mountains to the east, in the Tri-Valley region that also includes cities like Dublin and Livermore.
It's been years since I've been to a county fair. When I was a kid it was an annual event for my family. Of course, back then (a) there were a lot fewer things to do the whole rest of the year, so the week of the fair was huge. And (b) this was in a different location, across the country, where our county fair was recognized as the best county fair in the whole state. I think part of that was, at the time, we were at the suburban-rural divide outside a burgeoning metro area, so we had enough agricultural stakeholders to still put on a really big farm & livestock show, plus enough fair-goers overall to make it worthwhile bringing in great rides and shows.
We chose yesterday to visit the fair because Wednesdays are $1 ride days! And we went at the fair's opening of noon because there were a couple of animal shows we thought would be interesting and because we wanted to avoid the after-work crowds. At the same time I worried if the crowds would be so sparse that half the rides would be shut down. Thankfully that wasn't the case. The fair had a pretty good crowd for a weekday afternoon.
The first show we sat for was a sheep show. We though it might be like when we visited the Lambtown fair in Dixon last fall, where they had demonstrations of sheep shearing and sheep dogs. Alas, no. This was strictly farm show judging. It was done by 4H — which Hawk and I are both familiar with because of where we grew up though neither of us were members. But, wow! 4H today gives off massive Stepford Wives vibes.
The kids in the competition were all dressed the same, in white pants and white button-up shirts, and all struck the same pose— both themselves and their sheep. It was weird. And since there was no announcer explaining what all the pod people in the pen were doing, Hawk and I sat in the bleachers like Statler and Waldorf, providing our own (sarcastic) commentary.
After the Stepford Sheep we went over to a hawk show. They showed a couple of owls, a Sacher Falcon, and a Harris Hawk. All the birds except the Harris Hawk were either young or still new to being educational animals so didn't respond well to being asked to do tricks in front of a crowd. Or maybe they were woozy from the warm, sunny weather. Except the Harris Hawk, who was probably like, "Bitch, I come from a desert. 82° feels like vacation!"
Harris Hawks are nimble flyers. Every time we've seen one at a falconry show it's done a number of tricks. One common trick, which is probably more of a raptor attitude thing than a taught "trick", is they buzz people in the audience just to show they can. Like, if you have big hair, or you're standing up when everyone else is sitting down, they'll clip you with a wingtip or the back of a talon when they fly past. I was wearing a broad-brim hat, so my hat got clipped.
After the two animal shows we went for riding some rides. Mostly it was Hawk riding the rides. I feel like I'm too old now for most of them. But I did really enjoy going on the log flume together. Yes, this county fair had a log flume! It wasn't as big as the rides at permanent amusement parks but it was still a lot of fun— especially on a warm, sunny day.
So, yeah, the Alameda County Fair! It was at the fairgrounds in Pleasanton. In case you're like "Where?" to both of those place names, Alameda County is on the east side of the San Francisco Bay. Its larger cities include Oakland, Berkeley, Fremont, and Hayward. Pleasanton is over the mountains to the east, in the Tri-Valley region that also includes cities like Dublin and Livermore.
It's been years since I've been to a county fair. When I was a kid it was an annual event for my family. Of course, back then (a) there were a lot fewer things to do the whole rest of the year, so the week of the fair was huge. And (b) this was in a different location, across the country, where our county fair was recognized as the best county fair in the whole state. I think part of that was, at the time, we were at the suburban-rural divide outside a burgeoning metro area, so we had enough agricultural stakeholders to still put on a really big farm & livestock show, plus enough fair-goers overall to make it worthwhile bringing in great rides and shows.
We chose yesterday to visit the fair because Wednesdays are $1 ride days! And we went at the fair's opening of noon because there were a couple of animal shows we thought would be interesting and because we wanted to avoid the after-work crowds. At the same time I worried if the crowds would be so sparse that half the rides would be shut down. Thankfully that wasn't the case. The fair had a pretty good crowd for a weekday afternoon.
The first show we sat for was a sheep show. We though it might be like when we visited the Lambtown fair in Dixon last fall, where they had demonstrations of sheep shearing and sheep dogs. Alas, no. This was strictly farm show judging. It was done by 4H — which Hawk and I are both familiar with because of where we grew up though neither of us were members. But, wow! 4H today gives off massive Stepford Wives vibes.
The kids in the competition were all dressed the same, in white pants and white button-up shirts, and all struck the same pose— both themselves and their sheep. It was weird. And since there was no announcer explaining what all the pod people in the pen were doing, Hawk and I sat in the bleachers like Statler and Waldorf, providing our own (sarcastic) commentary.After the Stepford Sheep we went over to a hawk show. They showed a couple of owls, a Sacher Falcon, and a Harris Hawk. All the birds except the Harris Hawk were either young or still new to being educational animals so didn't respond well to being asked to do tricks in front of a crowd. Or maybe they were woozy from the warm, sunny weather. Except the Harris Hawk, who was probably like, "Bitch, I come from a desert. 82° feels like vacation!"
Harris Hawks are nimble flyers. Every time we've seen one at a falconry show it's done a number of tricks. One common trick, which is probably more of a raptor attitude thing than a taught "trick", is they buzz people in the audience just to show they can. Like, if you have big hair, or you're standing up when everyone else is sitting down, they'll clip you with a wingtip or the back of a talon when they fly past. I was wearing a broad-brim hat, so my hat got clipped.
After the two animal shows we went for riding some rides. Mostly it was Hawk riding the rides. I feel like I'm too old now for most of them. But I did really enjoy going on the log flume together. Yes, this county fair had a log flume! It wasn't as big as the rides at permanent amusement parks but it was still a lot of fun— especially on a warm, sunny day.
