Friday and the hotel is suddenly much busier as guests arrive for two weddings taking place there the following day. We decide to give Ellen a break from entertaining us and head off for the New York State Fair to sample some real life American entertainment.

Publicity notices describe the 12 day event as the mother of all state fairs with 107 structures and 21 permanent buildings on a 375 acre site next to the Interstate Highway System. The first state fair took place in 1841 for ‘the promotion of agriculture and household manufacturers in the State.’ Todays event is a sort of cross between the Bath & West Show and the Ideal Home Exhibition with Alton Towers thrown in for good measure.

In 1858 two former US presidents, Martin Van Buren and Millard Fillmore made an appearance and daily crowds numbered 20,000. The early New York State Fair had been a moveable feast, hosted by many different cities across New York until the event finally returned permanently to Syracuse in 1890.

On stage entertainment across the years had seen performances from artists as diverse as Frank Sinatra and Britney Spears. This year’s top teen attraction appears to have been Justin Bieber. No, I’d never heard of him either.

In the Progress Building a variety of stall holders clamoured for attention. One man selling mops drew a particularly large crowd. A sand sculpture in homage to the Beatles complete with yellow submarine proved particularly popular but personally I preferred the butter sculpture, a regular feature of the fair, which this year celebrated Dairyville 2020.

The programme of events was extensive and somehow we managed to miss everything we had ear marked for attention, including the duck and pig racing – not against each other, obviously, that would just be stupid - and unfair!

We did get to see the pigs – huge, hybrid sows collapsed under their weight and the heat. Even the squirming piglets - some as young as just two weeks old – were stilled until some silent dinner gong apparently sounded and they all launched themselves at their mothers, scrabbling for the best position at the milk bar.

There were goats of every shape and size, some with short, pricked ears, some with long, floppy ears and some with no ears at all! Weird – we never did discover what all that was about.

With temperatures in the 90s we seemed to get caught is some heat induced labyrinth which sent us round and around the fairground. Nina, having conquered her fear of flying was keen to continue to test her new found confidence with a ride on the Ferris wheel.

I declined the opportunity to view The World’s Largest Rat, which for me was the stuff of nightmares. Nina reliably informed me that it actually looked quite cute with a snub nose, rounded ears and nothing like the home grown variety. I remain unconvinced.

Top of my visit wish list was the Iroquois Indian Village which somehow managed to elude us until the end of the afternoon when temperatures had reached the mid 90s – and that was only ‘im indoors!

We caught the very end of a dance routine and tried to listen to some traditional story telling, but the noise of the crowd made that pretty much impossible. I would have liked to spend longer looking round the craft stalls but by this time family relations were growing fraught.

Official figures for the 2010 event reveal 999,845 visitors passed through the turnstiles, clocking up the 3rd largest attendance on record – and we were there!