MARIETTA - The first priority for Belpre couple Bill and Janet Bonnett when they attend the Washington County Fair is always the same - find a shady spot to sit and share a greasy, delicious Bloom'n Onion.

"It's so good," said Janet Bonnett. "We love it."

After that, there's a lot of walking involved in their day, they said.

"We just like to look," said Bill Bonnett. "We look at everything."

And there was plenty to look at over the weekend, from exhibits to animal shows to live musical performances and horse pulls. For the first time there was a Fun Tent in Civitan Park, featuring 15 small-scale musical groups over the course of the fair, said Fair Board President Steve Tornes.

"I think that's been a real success," he said. "Rather than doing grandstand shows you can get a lot of entertainment there from people who otherwise wouldn't get to perform. We've had classic rock, country, bluegrass, a real variety of music."

Tornes said the first two days of the fair seemed to have drawn big crowds, although attendance numbers were not yet available Sunday.

"If the weather stays this good, we should do really well," he said. "We've had a good start."

The fair was a hit Sunday for both Carrie Lucas, of St. Clairsville, who was the 1996 Washington County Fair Queen and a regular attendee, and her 18-month-old daughter Addison, a first-time fairgoer.

"She loves it," Lucas said of her daughter. "We were just watching all the animals and she just kept yelling 'Yea! Moo! Moo!' We're not ride kind of people but we check out the animals."

Lucas's cousin, Katie McClead, 12, of Belpre, was also showing one of the animals, her Sheltie, in a dog show later in the day.

"It takes a lot to get ready for it," McClead said. "I practice with her everyday."

At another kind of show, across the busy fairgrounds, 15-year-old Emily Saari and her father, Bob, both from Rossburg, Wash., entertained the crowd with logrolling and other lumberjack-inspired moves as part of the Great Lakes Timber Show.

There were cheers from the crowd, followed by groans of sympathy, as the two both tried to balance on the same log, rolling it under their feet until one fell in the water first.

"People watch us and they say 'Oh,yeah, I could do that,'" Emily Saari said, after the show. "Then they fall right off. It takes quite a few years to learn how to do it."

The Great Lakes Timber Show will go on again today at 11 a.m., 1 p.m. and 5 p.m.

The father and daughter team weren't the only out-of-towners to enjoy the fair Sunday. Many of those buying funnel cakes, trying to win prizes and exploring the exhibits had traveled hundreds of miles to be there.

Barbara Hughes, of Elm City, N.C., was there with her husband, Alan, and granddaughter, Makayla, 6. The trio were in the area visiting Alan's parents in Mineral Wells, said Hughes, as she snapped photos and waved as the two whirled past her on a ride.

"This was something fun for us to do for the day," she said. "She's ridden the swings, the little motorcycles and now this. I think she's having a great time."