Though unfortunately it signifies the coming of the end (of summer, that is), the Chelsea Community Fair has been one of our favorite August destinations since our introduction to the festivities four years ago. Of course four years ago the purpose of our visit was to take in the Figure Eight (Demolition) Derby, while this year it was to visit the cows. And the pigs, and the sheep, and the chickens, and the goats, and all the other 4-H animals Calvin's heart could desire. The sheep are always some of our favorites - they are usually the 
noisiest of the barn animals and that makes them more interesting - but this year we also got the chance to pet a day old chick, and to watch an egg actually in the process of hatching (I say in the process because, unlike in the books we read, a real live egg hatching can take quite some time and this one made no real progress in the 10 minutes we watched it). Calvin also eyed such rides as the Merry-Go-Round and the Ferris Wheel with a reserved interest, but we left before he could get any real ideas and headed for downtown Chelsea where dinner would be l
ess expensie and less dusty. That's when we really lucked out, since apparently summer Thursday nights are music nights in downtown Chelsea and there were performers of every kind on nearly every corner. We enjoyed some fiddling, some rocking, some barbershop, and some zydeko all within a block or so. Calvin also enjoyed crossing and recrossing the train tracks, and we stopped for some dinner at the new Mexican restaruant, Las Fuentes (which we can't really recommend unless it's for the impeccable service, but the food and 
margaritas left much to be desired and nobody goes to a Mexican restaurant for the service. The next time we want Mexican we'll head back to Ypsi Township to La Fuente, which we highly recommend. Apparently one fountain is better than many any day). As with Independence Lake, our only sadness is that we did not discover Thursday Nights in Chelsea earlier in the season.
More pictures in the August 2008 album.