Welcome back Ya'll!

Howdy folks! It's hard to believe an entire year has gone by since we've blogged...or is it? All I know is that we've been busy bees! Or should I say busy Texas bees. Yeah, let's stick with Texas bees since we do love all things Texan...

After a long week of set up, it's official, the Food and Fiber Pavilion is open and ready for business!

Technically speaking, the Pavilion opened yesterday evening at 6:00 p.m. for a special "Fair Food and Fine Wine" event hosted by TDA and Texas Monthly honoring all of the Pavilion sponsors, exhibitors, GO TEXAN participants and press.

Speaking of press, FOX news showed up at the party with a camera crew to shoot all the fun! It seems that Chef Joseph Poon-a professional watermelon carver that also makes fresh salsa out of delicious Texas watermelons-made quite an impression because the TV crew said he was the best interviewee all night! I believe it. Mr. Poon is quite endearing. Anyhow, I'm going to try my hardest to get my little paws on a copy of the video from Fox news, so be sure to check back for that. Trust me, it's worth the wait. For now, this picture will have to do.

Some additional party highlights include: Chowing down on some good 'ol Salt Lick Texas BBQ; Elsie the cow mooing in chorus with Will Harrell and the Hounds; and of course seeing friends and co-workers take old-time western photos dressed as a showgirls and sheriffs. Overall, it was great fun & nice to be around so many familiar faces.

Before I sign off, I want to bring my first entry back to what I planned on blogging about in the first place; Pavilion set-up. I want to sincerely thank, from the bottom of my heart, all of the talented and dedicated TDA staff that work so hard to pull the Food and Fiber Pavilion together in such a short amount of time. If you've ever watched the reality TV show "Extreme Home Make Over" you'll know what I mean. It's like that show, but I like to call it the "Extreme Pavilion Makeover" because that's exactly what's going on. There are literally a crew of us who come into an empty 25,000 square foot Pavilion and in a matter of 10 days turn it in to Disneyland. OK not quite Disneyland, but maybe a more accurate word would be Agriland. Welcome to Agriland! We hope you'll visit soon!