Saturday, May 15, 2010

Renaissance Faire!

I have never been to a Renaissance Faire. I have always wanted to go. So I googled and found one in CT. Dee has never been to a Renaissance Faire either- so she came along. Usually we do these things without Marc- but even he came along! woo hoo! The 5 of us headed out today to the Connecticut Renaissance Faire. The weather was beautiful today. [A little too beautiful- totally forgot sunscreen and we are all a little cherry red tonight.]

Jessica is in a bit of an in between stage right now. She would really want to do some things but was afraid of appearing foolish or being embarrassed. It began with this sign. Justin loves these signs (Jessica used to be so into them too). So Dee got in the picture with Justin.


Then Jessica acquiesced and joined in the fun.

When you arrive at the Faire you are immediately greeted by MANY people in costume. This was a little off putting (mostly to Dee and Jessica). This is a guy in a dragon costume giving a long spiel about being a princess which ends with Jessica getting a beaded necklace. As we walked away Jessica said, "That guy really freaked me out".

But fairly quickly we got into the swing of the day. The theme for these weekends is Robin Hood, they spent the entire day telling the story of Robin Hood. We would watch part of the story on one stage and then later go to a different stage to see the next part. Soon after they ended Jessica would say, "When is the next one??".

All of us really enjoyed the jousting. They were funny and pretty cool to watch. Marc's favorite part: When one jouster yelled, "Dude you sucketh!". Justin's favorite part: when the guy we were routing for pointed to his opponent and said, "Boo this man!" Justin happily boo-ed him every time. One of the horses got spooked at one point and that was a little upsetting. Of course when one of the knights was cut with a sword and blood was spurting out- Jessica dashed over to me to confirm it was fake. We did not stay until the end of the day when they were jousting to the death- man I hope that was fake.

Here is Jessica watching the Joust...



They had some games too that the kids could play. Justin was quite excited to battle the Scotsman with a sword.

Justin's sword skills in action...


Jessica totally wanted to do it too- but then panicked and backed out. I don't know if she got embarrassed or was nervous after she saw Justin getting smacked around. After some careful thought and a little coaxing she stepped in the ring.

a video of her performance...



Trying out the hammocks...

The characters would walk around the fairgrounds in between the shows. This is Robin Hood and his mate Much (no idea how to spell that). I was impressed with Robin Hood- every time we ran into him he would immediately get down on his knee to talk to the kids. He asked if we had seen the sheriff since they were hiding out from him. After this Jessica was always on guard to know where the sheriff was so that we could warn Robin if we saw him again. Of course she refused to pose with him...

This was Justin's favorite area- the juggling area. They let you try out all sorts of juggling toys- we spent a lot of time here.



In the end we had a great time. Almost everyone I told about the faire would roll their eyes or laugh in a mocking way (Mike Dewey!). They would then begin to describe the faire and what kinds of things happen there and then about half way through they would go, "huh- well yeah I think your kids would probably like it". Well they did like it. Jessica said it was a great day and she was bummed that we left before the end. She admitted later that she thought we were going to an amusement park so that might have been some of her hesitation at the beginning.

I thought all of the performers were so nice and friendly- going out of there way to talk to the kids and answer any questions (yes this is the part that might be off putting to some). I did keep wondering about the other people. You know, the ones that just have appropriate Renaissance wear in the closet for these occasions. There was a band of mauraders- in fur with a viking look- the gang of the faire I think. Who are these people?

That being said, younger me would have loved to have played a role for a few weekends a year- slipping back in time and escaping. So folks- I think we might even go to another one- but not in costume, not yet.


{Dee's favorite part might have been right at the end as we were leaving when Prince John said, in a British accent, "Oh don't go, we will be killing Robin Hood soon" and then Justin kept repeating it- in a British accent.}

4 comments:

michelled said...

What fun! My kids had a blast looking at this blog and especially the videos. They got a big hoot out of Justin juggling. Also now they are repeating, "It's a rubber sword, Dude!"

Heather said...

I am glad you went. It is one of those thing you have to do at least once! Remember my roommate Kate? Her husband Tom works in one every summer. He has the kilt and everything. He works at the forge. He takes it sort of seriously and Kate just rolls her eyes.

We've been to the one down here and it seems a little more adult. How do I put this? If you are a boob man, you are in heaven. It is almost like the women in costume are trying to outdo each other.

But you can't beat the food and it is a fun way to spend a day.

Deb Hanna said...

oh yes the boob thing was killing Dee :)

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