Not quite as glamourous as spending time on a cruise ship, but a day with the family at the Pacific National Exhibition (the good old PNE) is just about as much fun.
Just a touch of background info here about me, in case you don’t already know, I detest “rides”. Things like the Hellevator and the roller coaster and the Spin-til-you-vomitatorium are my own personal purgatory. I don’t like rides. Any of them.
Last year, I managed to wheel my kids through the midway and away from all the rides without too much trouble but now, my kids love them. As soon as we arrived on the fair grounds my kids were saying, “I want to go on THAT!” and pointing at every ride in sight. Ack.
Sweetheart gets in line to gets tickets so the kids can go on a ride or two, at the booth she hands over enough cash to pay for both kids’ first semester of college.
Next thing I know my kids have begun their “ride experience” at the PNE.
As you might have guessed, my favourite part of the PNE is the food. I eat food at the PNE, not for my own selfish pleasures, but in order to understand and be able to report back on what the fairground fast food trends are.
I am pleased to say that one of my favourite PNE foods, the wiggle chips, have been combo-ed with one of Sweetheart’s favs, popcorn shrimp.
Pour on some chipotle sauce and Bob’s your uncle. Best part of this meal? The kids don’t like “spicy food” so I actually had the pleasure of devouring my meal without having to hand over three quarters of it.
And I may have found something else at the PNE; the ceiling on food prices.
Yes, there are people who will pay $25 for a 24″ hotdog and yes, I will pay $3 for a bag of mini-donuts, $8 for wiggle chips and a heap of popcorn shrimp, but judging by the non-line-up at this pizza place, $6 a slice is out of bounds.
When every other food vendor had people three, four, five or more people in line, it seems that $6 for a slice of pizza is out of the price range that people will pay at the PNE.
Overall, it was a great day at the PNE.
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One response to “A Day at the PNE”
I thought the PNE was awesome this year – in particular the activities for tots 5 and under. My family loved the opportunity to visit the Safeway Farm Country orchard and field interactive display!! Kids picked (plastic) produce like apples, carrots; they fed barnyard animals and planted seeds. WONDERFUL opportunity for little ones to learn more about where their food comes from. I was impressed this year.