Clark County Fair opens with free pancakes, lots of anticipation

Ice is a great way to cool down in the heat, and, apparently, a pretty good way to make friends.

At least, that’s how it worked for Jayden Cavazos, 11, of Yacolt Friday morning while he and his family were waiting in line for pancakes on the first day of the Clark County Fair. Jayden, along with his siblings — Kylie, 7, and Camden, 4 — and their mother, Alicia Cavazos, got to the fair around 8 a.m. and waited at the end of a line hundreds deep at the Fred Meyer Free Pancake Breakfast. As the line turned a few corners and the odor changed from petting zoo to pancakes and syrup, the Cavazos reached bins once filled with bottled drinks. By the time they reached them around 9 a.m., they were mostly just ice.

It was already 71 degrees when Jayden grabbed some ice and put it down one sibling’s shirt and then threw more at the feet of the other. The palm-sized ball of ice crashed against the pavement, and a few chips sprayed across the feet of Angel McCoy of Vancouver, who was standing behind the Cavazos.

“If your ice hits me, I get to put it down your back,” McCoy said.

Alicia Cavazos thought it was fair payback, and so McCoy dropped a chunk of ice down the back of Jayden’s shirt. Kylie sprung into action, pressing the bottom of Jayden’s shirt up against him, so the ice couldn’t drop out the back, and, soon enough, a wet spot appeared between the shoulders of Jayden’s royal blue shirt.

“I don’t know them,” McCoy said after. “I never met them before, but when I saw them playing with the ice it looked fun.”

Theresa Anderson of Vancouver and her seven grandkids arrived at the fair around 5:30 a.m. to try to get the first spot in line for the free pancake breakfast, which also allows guests to enter the first day of the fair for free.

Dalton Anderson, 6, was first in line when the breakfast opened a little after 8 a.m. Dalton said he and his grandma try to be first in line every year for the breakfast.

“It’s a tradition at this point,” Anderson said. “It’s just something we try to do.”

Anderson said she’s been coming to the fair for more than 30 years. She likes to look at the exhibits and crafts, and some of her grandchildren even have crafts on display they’ve made with her. She said she’ll be at the fair most days this year, as her grandchildren are involved with 4-H and open entry classes. As for Dalton, his plans for the day were optimistic and food-related.

“I want to eat 10 pancakes and 14 sausages,” he said.

He disappeared into the crowd before The Columbian could follow up to get his final total for the breakfast.

Food is a highlight of the fair, whether it’s free pancakes that have people standing in line for more than an hour, or other fair creations.

“I saw a bacon-wrapped corn dog somewhere,” said Kim Duran of Woodland. “They might’ve just improved my corn dog experience.”

She was there with her friend Terri Cole and Cole’s granddaughter, Rayna Cole, 7, of Woodland. Rayna, who was excited to ride the horses, said her favorite part of breakfast was the drinkable yogurt.

Ellie Bagnas, 5, and her sister Brooklyn, 7, of Vancouver were both big fans of the pancakes. Brooklyn said they were tastier than the pancakes she normally eats. While it was early Friday morning, the two already had their faces painted, Ellie as a pink tiger and Brooklyn as a wolf.

It was their first time at the fair, and Brooklyn was excited to go on the roller coasters while Ellie wanted to ride the Ferris wheel with her sister and see a unicorn. (The fair has a lot of animals, though not that one.)

Jean and Marshall Graves have been going to the fair for more than a decade, but Friday was their first time at the free pancake breakfast.

“They were light and fluffy, and the sausage was cooked well,” Jean Marshall said.

Cooking at the breakfast were volunteers all wearing red Fred Meyer shirts. For some, like Kim Hall, it was a chance to spend time with family. Hall, store manager for the Hazel Dell Fred Meyer, was cooking pancakes with one of her daughters, Ashlynn, 17, while her other daughter, Makenna, 11, volunteered to run supplies around the cooking area.

“It goes quick,” Kim Hall said, adding she has volunteered as a pancake cook for the last seven years. “It’s fun back here. We’re all yelling to each other and singing. You see a lot of friends and neighbors. Some people from the store volunteer and bring their kids out, too.”

Hall said she has no idea how many pancakes they cook for the breakfast, but it could be in the thousands. Ashlynn Hall said they want to keep count of how many they cook, but it gets too frantic to remember.

Hall, who attends Prairie High School, wants to work as a pastry chef after finishing school, and said she also likes cooking pasta and rice dishes.

“It’s fun to help out and give back to the community, and I like to see people’s faces when they get the pancakes,” Ashlynn Hall said. “I am pretty sick of pancakes, though. I probably won’t want to cook another one the rest of the year.”