We went to races last week, and it was quite the experience. I’d never been to anything like it. To get there, we drove for over three hours, over extremely bumpy dirt roads (I’m short, and was wearing a seatbelt, yet I kept hitting my head on the ceiling as we went over ruts). Anyhow, eventually we reached the middle of nowhere, and there it was: the Oak Park races. Hundreds of people were milling around in their very best clothes.

We spent the weekend camped out there, living in tents, sleeping 'swags' (bedrolls) and cooking our meals over an open fire.



You know the song Waltzing Matilda? "And he sang as he waltzed and he waited while his billy boiled..." That tin can off to the side of the fire is a billy.

In our two days at the races tracks, I caught exactly one horse race:



Jet bet on Like a God, and I bet on Gellato. Neither of us made any money.

It quickly became clear to me that the races, though, are more about dressing up than they are about horses. In fact, in between races they have something called 'Fashions of the Field' wherein people compete for best dressed awards.

Getting dressed all fancy-like in a tent that you can't stand upright in took some doing, but somehow I managed. Jet's sister Kat made me a lovely 'fascinator' to go on my head.

Here I am, with my future sister-in-law and mother-in-law.



I got engaged at races, too!