World's Most Expensive Free Petting Zoo

If you are in Austin and thinking about going to the Austin "State" Fair - DON'T! It's the biggest rip-off and the reason carnies have a bad name. No offense intended to any of those that have carnies in their families.

Let me back up a little bit. Becca's mother is in town and we were looking at fun stuff to do. Remembering attending the Star of Texas Fair and Rodeo, we had a pretty good time with plenty of free shows, a petting zoo, lots of food, exhibits, etc. We went with some friends a few years back, and spent a few hours there before getting bored and going home.

As we pulled up, parking next to 17 other cars (first bad sign), we paid our $8 entrance fee and started roaming the "grounds". The grounds consisted of a hack stage, carnival rides, and, well, that was pretty much it. We walked about 200 yards and realized we had reached the other end. We asked ourselves, "where is the rest of it". It felt like the biggest scam. Plus, if you wanted a 30 second ride, it was somewhere between $4 and $6 (which most people know - don't ride fair rides - they are a rip-off and may rip off a limb). We went to the petting zoo, which consisted of deer that liked to eat my shirt, 1 llama, and goats that, um, were being naughty. There was a kangaroo, but it was behind a fence. Riley was a little intimidated but had some fun.
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15 minutes later, we were back standing in the sun (no shaded areas and no where to sit) with carnies whistling at us to come on their ride. It was now 10:50 with a musician singing kids songs coming on stage at 12. We definitely weren't staying until 2 to see the sea lion show. We looked around and tried to figure out what to do. We decided to cut our losses and leave. I was pretty embarassed to take anyone there, let alone my mother-in-law. We decided to not talk about it, but our conscience requires us to warn others. Fortunately, it is over tomorrow and the carnie train moves on somewhere else to scam another city. I almost felt crying like the sea lion below. What you see in the picture on the left is pretty much the whole "fair".
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We would recommend the Star of Texas Fair and Rodeo in the spring (March-ish). But as for the Austin State Fair: you have been warned!