There’s a very nice renaissance festival local to me. I’ve gone to it the past couple years and throughly enjoyed it. I was totally ready to go again this year.
But then.
There’s the big Ren Fest. It’s on the opposite side of the state and about 4x the size of the local one. It’s fantastic!
But is it fantastic enough for me to want to drive across the state for? I wasn’t convinced about that.
My sister-in-law and my best friend however? They were completely, 100% convinced it was worth it.
We picked a weekend, made the plans, our group grew from 3 to 6. It sounded like so much fun.
But all the way across the state! I was still kind of on the fence.
Until my sister-in-law told me how excited my niece was and how much she was looking forward to seeing me.
That was it. I was going.
Whether she’s aware of it or not, that child has me wrapped around her finger, and if she was going, so was I. I was not going to disappoint her.
I picked a costume from my closet. I woke up early Saturday morning. And I drove across the state.
It was worth it!
As soon as I walking into my sister-in-law’s hotel room that morning to get dressed for the festival, my niece gave me the biggest hug! That was worth driving over 3 hours for!
Thanks to us all living in different parts of the state now, we were each pretty much left to our own devices to figure out costumes this year, rather than having fun sewing get together a ahead of time as we’ve done in years past.
I dressed rather historically, although a couple centuries too late for the target era of “Renaissance”.
And my niece wore the Princess Merida inspired dress I made her for her first birthday.
I’m amazed it still fit!
She was certainly the princess of the day.
It started pouring down rain as soon as we got into the festival grounds. All 6 of us grown ups were soaking wet.
The toddler? Snug and dry under the canopy in her wagon, enjoying the scenery.
Once the rain passed, I did some quick last minute alterations to costumes in an attempt to keep muddy hems from dragging us down, then we were off to enjoy the festival!
My niece got her face painted.
We watched a fiery performance. My niece and I spent half the show watching,
And the other half spinning and dancing to the beat of the drum.
(Well, as close to the best of the drum as possible. My rhythm is awful, lol, but my niece didn’t mind! We just had fun!)
I got extremely excited when I found someone else dressed up in 18th century!
My gown is circa 1720’s-30’s (and I’ll go into more details on that in a future blog post) and her’s was 1780’s, but it was just exciting to find someone else from the same century!
The Ren Fest is an excellent excuse to wear random costumes that need outings.
We visited a dragon. . .
And a mermaid.
We wandered through different vendors stalls, admiring the wares.
3D printed dragons (I wonder if my brother can make me one??)
Cloaks!
I never buy costumes since I have a very well stocked fabric collection and can make just about anything I want, but I enjoy seeing what there is, and what the prices are. Gives me ideas for future projects and such. . .
The one thing I did buy was the beautiful pair of glass hummingbird earrings. I certainly couldn’t make those myself! And earrings are my weak spot. . .
As shopping can become quite monotonous for both me and the toddler, after a bit we found a welcome distraction - the petting zoo!
There were less goats than last time. . .
But there were sheep!
And a pony - probably my niece’s favorite thing!
There were a couple goats as well, a rare breed called Golden Guenseys, native to Britain. I failed to get any pictures, but the goats were very pretty, and, well, golden.
Following the petting zoo, it was about time for the one special event most of our group had signed up for - the mead and chocolate tasting!
After a quick picture, the kiddo went off with her other aunts to see the jousting, and her mommy and I enjoyed our mead and snacks!
The Ren Fest several years ago gave me my first taste of mead - and now I consider it to be a Ren Fest tradition that can’t be missed! The tasting was delicious- and well worth the ticket price!
Once we had our fill of mead (and then some).
We enjoyed a last pass around the Faire.
And discovered an abandoned loom in a pretty garden area.
My best friend, a weaver, mourned over the abandoned loom, and told us what type it was.
The upsides, and the pitfalls.
I sympathized, and also found it to be a beautiful photo location.
The lighting was lovely at that time of the afternoon.
Worn out from the fun, full, day, my niece fell asleep in her princess carriage (aka wagon), and the rest of us enjoyed the closing ceremony for the day, before heading our separate ways.
Half headed homeward with the sleeping child, and the other half of us hung out in the bed of the truck to play cards until dark.
The sunset was lovely!
The whole day was lovely for that matter (other than the downpour at the beginning I suppose), and I was indeed happy I’d decided to drive all the way across the the state for the day.
Getting to take my niece to her very first Renaissance Festival was awesome!
Loved the pictures and of course she would react that way to an abandoned loom.
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