It’s the last day of the Iowa State Fair, and you still need to try two last dishes before the sun sets on Fair Fever. Head all the way up to Grandfather’s Barn for gorgeous views of the State Capitol and downtown Des Moines skyline at Bubbly Bar & Bistro.

First order the deep-fried bubblegum. It’s such a fun dish made with a vanilla marshmallow in the sent, flavored with bubblegum, and then deep fried in a funnel cake coating. Yes, it tastes just like bubblegum, without the crunchy fried bits mucking up the gum. This dish goes for $10.

Then get bubblegum soda to go with it for $6. You’ll feel like a kid again.

What to order at Bubbly Bar & Bistro

Owners Jennie and Bryan Enloe come up with the novelty dishes at this new stand. You can find waffles made with puppy chow and drizzled with chocolate and peanut butter, pork belly corn dog bites served with maple syrup or Mike’s hot honey, and deep-fried pepperoni chips, which are just what they sound like.

Find the Tipsy Peach as well, one of the Top 11 Best New Dishes at the Iowa State Fair. The pearl waffle comes topped with peaches soaked in sangria and dolloped with mascarpone cheese that is whipped with cream, thyme and lemon. The dish goes for $13. Grant Gillon, the Altoona chef who won “MasterChef” last season, worked with Bubbly Bar to create the dish.

More: These top three dishes compete for Best New Food at the Iowa State Fair in 2024

And the cocktails here even scream novelty. Try a Cotton Candy Bubble Trouble with sparkling wine poured over cotton candy, the Grumpy Old Manhattan that includes a bubbly and smoky surprise, or a Lavender Lemontini with a wine-based vodka.

Bubbly also won Best New Drink (Alcohol Free) for the Abracadabra Color-Changing Butterfly Lemonade, a drink that starts a vibrant blue and then changes to a pretty magenta. The drink contains an essence of cucumber as well as butterfly pea flower. The drink goes for $12. You can add a wine-based vodka too.

And the vineyard-like setting earned the outpost the Best of Show Award from the Iowa State Fair as well.

Where to find Bubbly Bar & Bistro

Location: Next to Grandfather’s Barn at the Iowa State Fair

Contact: bubblybarisf.com

Susan Stapleton is the entertainment editor and dining reporter at The Des Moines Register. You can reach out to her on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram, or drop her a line at sstapleton@gannett.com.

Tusk me, this is a big deal.

Archeologists unearthed an ancient mastodon skull from an Iowa creek this month — marking the first ever discovered in the state.

It took 12 days for excavators to slowly recover the massive fossil, which was so well preserved that it still had a significant section of its once-curved tusk.

“This is the first-ever well-preserved mastodon (primarily the skull) that has been excavated in Iowa,” said the state Office of the State Archaeologist.

Radiocarbon dating shows that the mastodon died in the Paleoindian period — and had been buried undetected for 13,600 years.

Mastodons — a 6-ton distant cousin to modern-day elephants — went extinct in North America around 10,500 years ago, likely due to climate change and hunting.

Though other remains of the mastodon were recovered, the skull was the most well-preserved piece of the skeleton, with archeologists calling the 2-foot section of tusk a “goldmine.”

“Apparently there are techniques now to determine how many calves a female mastodon had that get recorded as a chemical signature because of the changes in the body chemistry during the pregnancy and the birth. And that gets recorded in the tusks,” State Archeologist John Doershuk told Iowa Public Radio.

Scientists also hope that the remains can help answer burning questions about human history as well, including how involved our ancestors were in the mastodon’s demise.

The age of the fossil lines up with the time Native Americans would have migrated into south-central Iowa.

“The last glaciation probably still had the northern part of Iowa under ice. But the southern part was ice-free at the time and was starting to vegetate. Animals like mastodons were coming in to browse and human hunters would have also found that a hospitable place, as well,” Doershuk said.

The OSA did not find any stone tools near the bones, but scientists will analyze whether any human-made cut marks were left on the skeleton.

Although the bones were only excavated this month, the eroding site was brought to the OSA’s attention in 2022.

Once the mastodon bones are thoroughly studied and analyzed, the bones will become part of a new exhibit at the nearby Prairie Trails Museum.

Wayne County is located along Iowa’s southern border with Missouri and is 80 miles south of Des Moines.

Fair skies and lower August temperatures keep attendance at the Iowa State Fair on a course to surpass the all-time record set in 2019, when 1,170,375 people attended the 11-day spectacle. So far, 956,142 have passed through the gates for 2024 through Friday.

How many people attended the Iowa State Fair on Day 9?

A total of 111,591 people went to the ninth day of the Iowa State Fair on Friday.

How does attendance at the 2024 Iowa State Fair compare to 2023?

Attendance in 2024 was down from 2023 when 112,048 people attended the ninth day. That’s 457 fewer people walking the Fairgrounds this year.

• Day: 2024 (2023)
• Thursday: 90,822 (87,380)
• Friday: 109,854 (101,177)
• Saturday: 128,732 (118,286)
• Sunday:  115,048 (114,937)
• Monday: 92,920 (100,214)
• Tuesday: 105,384 (101,244)
• Wednesday: 99,281 (98,751)
• Thursday: 102,510 (101,475)
• Friday: 111,591 (112,048)
• Saturday: (112,732)
• Sunday: (85,714)
• Total: (1,133,938)

How many people attended The Avett Brothers concert at the Iowa State Fair Grandstand?

The Avett Brothers with special guests G. Love and Special Sauce brought out 5,068 people to the Iowa State Fair Grandstand Friday evening.

Here’s the attendance from the other Grandstand acts this year:

• Lauren Daigle: 9,726
• Foreigner: 11,141
• Jelly Roll: 16,001
• Greta Van Fleet: 9,075
• Brett Young: 4,887
• Thomas Rhett: 12,475
• Mötley Crüe: 11,681
• Gabriel “Fluffy” Iglesias: 9,312
• The Avett Brothers: 5,068

What were the big moments at the Iowa State Fair on Friday?

The annual Husband Calling Contest was the star of the Iowa State Fair on Friday with the winner working “Ice Ice Baby” into her call.

The fair also crowned its top new fair food — a bacon cheeseburger egg roll — on Friday.

Iowa State Fair attendance: 15 biggest fairs

• 2019: 1,170,375
• 2023: 1,133,938
• 2018: 1,130,260
• 2017: 1,130,071
• 2022: 1,118,763
• 2015: 1,117,398
• 2008: 1,109,150
• 2012: 1,097,142
• 2021: 1,094,480
• 2011: 1,080,959
• 2004: 1,053,978
• 2013: 1,047,246
• 2016: 1,031,278
• 2014: 1,015,902
• 2006: 1,013,557
• 2003: 1,012,309

Victoria Reyna-Rodriguez is a general assignment reporter for the Register. Reach her at vreynarodriguez@registermedia.com or follow her on Twitter @VictoriaReynaR.