It was that time of year, again!!! Columbus Day and time to go to the Renaissance Festival! With my duties at Worlds of Fun, this is the only day I can use to go. And it marks another autumn.
I love autumn, truly I do. The sights and the smells. The colors! This year, at this time, it has been cold, so my wife and I bundled up for the day.
I love to browse at the Ren Fest. One of the first places we found was a "stone" shop with stone from the Holy Land. The lady at the counter was surprised I could read a little Hebrew, as they had a stone plaque with the "hand washing" blessing on it. My wife got a necklace with a Star of David etched on it, and had her "Hebrew" name etched on the other side. She also found out her Hebrew name is "Rivkeh." Here's the shop...
What I love about the festival is that there are so many different costumes, and everyone I talked to had no problem with having a picture taken. Here's a guy I just called the "featherman"...
"Renaissance" has become a bit of a general term, as the costumes range in time period, sometimes well into the 1700s. Here's a guy striking a bit of a "Captain Morgan" pose...
This guy was a hoot! That orange was very obnoxious. He is a magician, and did a great act...
It wasn't all shopping. Last year I rode the elephant with my son-in-law. I tried to get Becky, my wife, to ride but she was chicken. But she did take pictures of me riding a camel...
I keep thinking I heard her making comments to passersby about the camel with 2 butt-holes, but when I got off I only saw one. The camel's name is "Sultan," and he didn't look too happy having to haul my largeness around...
We got pooped fairly easy. They had a viking/celtic/tribal "throne" at one of the locations, so we took a break. Here's my queen looking regal...
It was made out of metal, so it was cold. Here I am...
There were regular processions of royalty and dignitaries...
Here's some pictures I found interesting...
We had the "soup in a bread bowl" for lunch, and "the queen" graced us with her presence...
We also had some costumed high school kids who kept squealing about a bee that kept buzzing around. Oy Vey!
There were a lot of pets around the place. Becky made me get a picture of this "purple poodle"...
And you never know what you'll find at one of the booths...
I've been toying with the idea of doing something with the fantasy princesses I drew earlier this year, so I took a lot of pictures for reference. We found a quiet area along a path and found this at one of the vendors...
We found the petting zoo, and Becky thought about petting the llamas...
...but decided against it...
We concluded our all-too-short visit to this year's Renaissance Festival by taking in "The Jolly Rogers." They always put on a good show, and one of them, Kurt, used to work for me many years ago when we were both much younger. Well...I was younger. He hasn't changed much except to shave his head. He's the one in the middle of this photo...
There were some "acts" that I didn't see this year. The "Limey Birds" weren't there, and another band whose name escapes me. They do a rendition of Hank Williams "Jambalaya" that I really like.
I talked to some of the vendors, and they told me that sales were down this year. Not surprising. Been there, done that, doing that! But I like going to this event. I like finding craftsman and stuff that is hand made. (Incidently, I finally got a wooden mug! I'll post pictures in a future post.) Maybe we've lost the excitement of "the circus coming to town," or the state fairs, and the like. Malls, Wal-Mart, machines, and third world labor have really done a lot to rid us of "magic." The kind that happens when there is a sense of wonder. A suspension of disbelief. In my studies of the Feast of Tabernacles from ancient Jewish times, going to Jerusalem was a joyous time of year, complete with vendors from all over, light, dancing, and even juggling rabbis. So to conclude this post, I raise my wooden mug and whisper a bittersweet, "Huzzah!"
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