L.A Locals Love: The Orange County Fair

Welcome to the first post of my new series: L.A Locals Love… I’m lucky enough to live in a city where millions of people travel to as a vacation destination. I get asked for recommendations all the time regarding what to do, where to go, where to eat, etc – in Los Angeles or surrounding areas. That’s why I decided to start this series to introduce places, eats and events throughout the L.A vicinity in hopes to inspire future visitors. I hope you love it!

I’ve lived in L.A for almost 3 years now and sad to admit I’ve never been to the L.A County Fair or the Orange County Fair. So naturally, this year has been full of changes and was determined to make it to the Fair! Some Fair-Freak-Friends told me that the Orange County Fair was a lot better, so off I went this past weekend!

I was acting like a child the second we entered the gates. When I was growing up in Tokyo, we had our own kind of summer fairs with good food, games and prizes – loved it when I was little, still love it now! I think the last time I was at a fair was back in college. The first thing that caught my eye and was shocked about was the quality of the prizes! Is that weird? I mean, do you see those Pikachus and Minions? I was so determined to win a few of them to take home! 

Of course you can’t forget the ‘Fair Food’, right? Everything is fried, insanely caloric but for some reason really tempting! Pictured above are the Jumbo Corn-dog with a 1/2 lb of sausage and fried Oreos! The Corn-dog was so heavy, unfortunately I couldn’t finish it (I guess I should be happy about that) but let it be known it was very tasty! As for the Oreos,  it was kind of like eating Oreo cake, I would imagine? Yum!

The pictures above; Charlie’s Chicken and Ricco’s were probably the two most popular stands. I was this close to ordering the “Triple Decker Cheeseburger” – look closely, it’s 3 burger patties sandwiched between 2 Krispy Kreme donuts! I know, so disgusting yet so intriguing! There were some other interesting things on that menu; Fried Cookie Dough, Fried Slim Fast Bar (what’s the point?!), Fried Twinkies, Fried Klondike Bar – all ridiculous! 

Since I skipped paying $14 for the Krispy Kreme Triple Decker Cheeseburger, I spent it on playing games instead. I discovered that I’m very much talented at the Squirt game. 4 out of the 6 large stuffed animals I ended up taking home were from beating 19 other people at the Squirt game….4 times. Below, I’m celebrating my first 2 Minion prizes of the day and the one below that, all my prizes minus a Despicable Me Unicorn (“It’s so flufffyyyyyy”) and a Pokemon. 

We ended up winning so many stuffed animals that it restricted our ability to enjoy certain rides. I really think they should have lockers available at these fairs (business opportunity?)! When we first walked in, I knew the ferris wheel was going to be the highlight of my day but I was totally wrong! The below photo was my favorite ride for sure. Gondola? Ski lift? Whatever it’s officially called, I rode it 4 times. 

The above picture is a partial aerial view of the fairground atop the ferris wheel. I had so much fun at the fair, I’m angry at myself for missing out on this the past 3 years. We ended up staying there for 9 hours and spent almost $200 per person (the fair is not cheap!) but totally worth it. I’m tempted to go one more time before it ends on the 16th and before my next trip to Seattle but if I don’t, I’ll definitely be back again next year! 

Have any of you been to the OC or LA Fair? Are there other or better fairs out there I should be visiting next summer? Please let me know, I would love to experience fairs from other states (or countries!) as well!

Linking up with the amazing Monday Escapes ladies today!

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