Renaissance Festival - October 2011

*Note: at some point pretty soon these posts might end up out of chronological order as I try to assimilate the recent photos from all 3 of our cameras and Kris's multiple hard drives he's gone through recently so bear with me.*

This year we headed back to the Renaissance Festival held down near Annapolis (actually on the same road as our church!). We had gone two years ago and really enjoyed it. At that time we also found these beautiful etched glasses (we got ones etched with Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring). Not so surprisingly in the two years hence I have managed to break one (but only one...that's pretty good for me!) so this year we were on the hunt to replace the broken one and maybe get the matching pitcher that we saw last time.

We were happily joined this year by Kris's sister, Kourtney who happened to be in town to work with the color guard of the high school marching band Kris was helping.

We attended some of the small theatrical shows (including one on law and justice in the Tudor period). It was neat for me because I had recently finished reading a bunch of books set in the Tudor Period in England/Scotland so it was nice to attend a festival set in the same time period. I also decided to try my hand at a climbing wall. I went with the "medium" difficulty and almost backed out as I watched almost everyone in front of me make it halfway then quit. Despite my lack of upper body strength I really didn't find it very difficult at all. Actually Kris missed taking a picture of me ringing the bell at the top because I managed to scramble up there so quickly.

Of course my favorite part of any renaissance festival is the jousting/horse games. At this point (nearly 6 months later!) I can't remember which one was our knight or if he won but I still enjoy looking at the picture of the horses :)

The King and Queen (I believe this year it was King Henry the VIII and one of his later wives)

The Royal Court

Two knights dueling it out

Sadly we had to leave the festival without the new glass we were looking for since we couldn't find the booth that had been there last time. Overall though it was another fun outing especially since we got to have Kourtney along!