Renfaire 2012, Part 1
So, as mentioned, back in September I attended the Des Moines Renaissance Faire for the second time. I had much fun, and managed to do almost everything there was to do at the faire over the course of several weekends. (The exception was riding a pony, as they did not have sidesaddle and I was wearing a dress for the express purpose of pretty pictures.)
I'd been planning my dress since last year, though I only really worked out the design at the end of July. Here's what (some of) the mess on my floor looked like by the end. Ribbon everywhere for a belt that didn't seem to be working, sleeves made at the last minute, scraps and scraps... such effort.
The day before I went down (it ran the first three weekends of September, and I missed the first day to finish my dress), I turned my sewing table into a craft table. I made hair clips out of some flowers Robyn generously sent me, and "sunshine" favors to go with my costume.
To explain favors, think of pin trading at Disneyland. (This explanation assumes you know pins are kind of a major deal at Disney parks.) Now imagine that all of the pins are homemade, aren't necessarily pins, and you just give them to people you like or who do something nice for you or whatever random criteria you want to use.
Favors are big at some faires and less so at others, depending on culture, and a common accessory for Very Serious Rennies is a "favor rag," which is basically a piece of cloth looped on a belt or something to which you pin all the favors you get because you are just that popular. They're not huge at DMRF, but I heard about them on the forums I was lurking on for garb tips and thought they sounded like fun.
Anyway, mine were just a yellow craft foam star stuck on an orange star, to make a sun, with yellow and orange ribbon to represent the rays, and I put them on pins and hairclips. They went over really well, and I loved being able to have something tangible to give to the people who were super-nice to me (which was a lot of people). It was also fun when, by the end of the faire, I handed one to someone and they were like "So that's where these have been coming from!" They were really recognizable and easy to spot, you see. :)
By the way, if anyone needs a supply of red, green, blue, or purple craft foam stars, I can hook you up.
The faire! Also, my birthday. :) The sleeves weren't right, so I left them off. That turned out to be just as well since it was crazy hot that day. Even the queen was like "We didn't wear our sleeves, either!" My belt also hadn't happened.
One of the first people I met as I wandered in was Robin Hood! He wasn't there last year, unfortunately, but I took about a million pictures of him this time to make up for it. Robin Hood is one of my favorite stories, you see, and he and Marion (his wife - they also had a couple kids running around, one a fairy and one a satyr, because why not) were absolutely wonderful. Robin had riddles, and I totally knew every single one. :)
Because it was so hot, I ended up buying a fan at one of the booths, and followed it up with some chocolate-covered cheesecake. Combined with my facepaint sun, aren't I just the picture of elegance here?
Speaking of, it was so hot, the facepainters wouldn't do big, full-face designs because it melted right off. It was hot.
Throwing knives and shurikens at the Ace of Blades. I am terribly bad at it. This picture is included mostly to show how I did my hair that day. I got quite a few compliments on the flowers.
[Most of] the royal court. That's Queen Catherine in the middle. She has a jewelry box that she lets young children raid after she knights or... I don't know, "ladies" them? They're a really great group called Have Court, Will Travel, and Lynne (Queen Catherine) is also in charge of entertainment and stuff at the faire.
This is Lady Addilay, of the RenFest forums, and her husband Sir Gauwyn of Bracknell. They recognized me as "Sunshine" right off (I used that as my forum handle, since I already knew it was going to be my costume theme) and pleasantly pointed out a few others from the forums.
Then I went to watch the joust, always a highlight. I don't have any pictures of the ponies here, because it looks just like the pictures from last year (though they added a new pre-show of sorts with some squires fighting, and some new fight choreography for the on-foot battle), but here is a picture of me avidly watching.
The "dress" is three parts: a white chemise, orange skirt, and yellow overdress. If anyone is interested in garb ("garb" is how rennies say "cosplay"), I can now give some pretty decent pointers, especially on eyelets and drawstrings.
A clan of menacing Scots walking my way.
This is Kim, who runs a shop called The Masked Fairy. I met her last year when she did my hair then, and this year I picked up a flower lantern and more hairstyles (featured further on).
The quality on this one is terrible because it's a still taken from a video (not sure why my video came out so choppy - I'll have to check my settings). This is me getting "forked" by the Forking Queen, which is rather like being knighted except you get a gold-painted plastic fork and a certificate with your new rank on it at the end.
While touring the dungeon (a social obligation, since Allen does the sound and effects for it), I happened to meet these two guys. This is Rob (left) and Grant (right). Both were volunteering, and Rob was showing Grant around the faire as it was Grant's first time. Grant does theater and chose to be a mime of fans, or something like that. Anyway, he didn't talk, which rather frustrated some of the little kids he'd interact with.
They were (say it with me!) very nice, and since I was working on the treasure hunt went around with me as I finished off the clues.
In the forest area behind the main buildings, this dog had decided to take a nap in the shade. There were also ducklings, bunnies, and a goat, for some reason.
Finished the treasure hunt! I'm holding my prize, a medallion from the potter's shop. On my bag you can see the flower lantern. It has an inverted tealight in the top, and it looked very pretty in the dark dungeon.
This is Sir... Francis? Maybe? I can't quite remember. But anyway, he's with JoustEvolution, and he was the marshal/master of ceremonies at the joust this year. Last year, he was but a lowly squire, but since he's the son of the Fairie Queen I suppose he has some connections. :)
Anyway, he was very flouncy in this character, and when Grant met him they immediately had a flounce off.
For week two, I wanted to make a crown of flowers. There were these beautiful yellow flowers blooming all over the roadsides, and I thought they'd go great with my dress. So, Friday after work I took a bucket over to a trail and cut some flowers, which I soaked in water (the internet suggested this would help get rid of bugs).
Unfortunately, when I tried to make the crown in the morning, the stems had grown stiff and kept snapping on me. Getting frustrated, I finally gave up and went with the same hairstyle as before.
Day two! Which was actually day four of the faire, being the next Saturday, but the second day of my attending. It was Scots/Celts/Etc week, so of course I had to stop by the McCracken brother's insulting golf challenge. (They insult you while you try to sink a putt.)
Notice that a) I am wearing my sleeves and b) they are totally falling off my shoulders. This is because when I fitted the yellow dress to myself, I made the top part without the skirt first, and just tugged it down to see if the neckline was the right height. This did not take into account where things would fall once I laced myself in, causing the actual waistline to be higher than I'd thought. As a consequence, the straps are a bit too long, and when they meet their greatest foe, gravity, I end up looking a bit droopy.
The belt, however, came out great, even though I ran out of one of my ribbons and had to swap in another. I used an eight-strand braid to make it.
This couple looked straight out of a Ghibli film. I have no idea why they decided to wear big noses and old people make up, but they certainly looked good in it.
To Kim for braiding! I was trying to describe how I wanted my hair ("like a crown made of a braid, but kind of sideways"), and eventually was like "...do you have a smart phone? Okay, cool. Just google image search 'Ukrainian Prime Minister.' That's what I want!"
She not only obliged, she put the flowers around so I had my crown of flowers after all. :)
She also helped me safety pin my strap and chemise so they would not fall down so much, a practice I employed for the rest of the faire.
Over on the children's stage, William and Blackjack were performing. (Blackjack is the dragon on William's shoulder.) This is him telling the story of how he got Midnight the Dancing Stick, which bears a suspicious similarity to Going on a Lion Hunt. The fact that he is a kindergarten teacher when not at the faire may have something to do with that.
I did not actually manage to sink these axes. Indeed, I failed miserably at the ax throw, though I at least managed to hit the wood a couple times. But the very nice (and shirtless) Viking guys running it insisted that I pose with my "accomplishment," so I had little choice but to oblige.
"Robin Hood and Marion! Ooh, can you pose by this tree? And look like you like each other? Perfect!"
Robin Hood was very bemused by me, and usually pretty serious looking, but was always game for a new photoshoot. I ended up sending him copies of all the pictures.
Swinging back up to the village (the faire is not especially large, but it can be hard to get anywhere when you get distracted every five feet), I finally located Allen, who was literally singing for his supper snack - that is, playing his guitar outside the Two Wenches coffee shop to attract business, and getting "paid" in pastries.
Over by the Forking Queen's tent, I met Rowen, a super-helpful lady from the aforementioned forums. She and her husband were wearing plaid in honor of the week. She seemed to know everyone at the faire, and every single remotely medieval event happening within a 500-mile radius, including a caber toss. I was all "uh, I like just going to this faire..." But man, if you ever want a guide to rennie society, Rowen's your person.
That bit of yellow on her tartan is one of my sunshine favors. :)
Day three! (I am obviously not recounting quite everything I did each day, because this entry is quite long enough already.) The Fairie Queen was hiding by the bridge this morning.
The joust. I always end up taking a few pictures each time I see it, and they always end up looking about the same, so here is a symbolic one to cover the whole faire.
The pickle pirate was carting his wares around the lanes.
Is it just me, or does that girl on the side look just like Ariel on her date with Eric in the town? Let's assume The Little Mermaid was filming that day.
Side note: I just googled that to make sure I was thinking of the right dress, and discovered that putting together outfits based on movie characters with clothes you can't afford is apparently a thing. A silly thing, to be sure, but so help me I kind of like the Flynn one.
Shopping for a sword.
It's funny. While I was cramming a ton of research about renaissance garb into a couple weeks this summer, I got a little worried about being historically accurate. Even if you know that no one at the Des Moines faire is going to care what you wear, online all the best guides and FAQs are written by SCA-type people, who go on about looking at portraits from the era to analyze clothes and what kind of thread they would have used back then and stuff like that. Seeing this guy, who looks like he's from the crusades, was a little jarring after all that focus on 1500-1650, but he looks great so who cares?
I may have made a point of stopping by the Viking ax throw each day. Just, you know, to improve my skills.
This is the "Whack-a-Knight" booth. They were all "so, which one of us do you want to fight?" I was apparently the first customer to pick based on whose outfit would look best with mine. (The other options were a scrawny guy in red and a big guy in black. I went with medium and green.)
Fight!
At The Masked Fairy I had gotten a flower wreath with ribbons for the day, just to vary things up.
A visitor from the east.
The Scots insulting the blacksmith.
...Actually, they were just talking with him 'cause they're friends, or at least acquaintances, but they obliged with the pose.
For whatever reason, they had a bunch of piglets you could pay a dollar to feed. I had no interest in feeding them, only posing with them, but when I bent down to pick one up it was like two magnets of the same polarity nearing each other. The pigs had just no interest.
Fine. I got a little cup of pig food and lured a likely-looking fellow over, and gingerly picked him up. It would have been a better picture if I had been willing to let it touch my dress, but ah well.
I still had food in the cup, so I figured I'd feed the rest of the pigs since my hands were already dirty.
Uh oh...
Ahh!!! Too many pigs!
In fact, the shoot ended when one of them bit my finger. Fortunately, it was just a baby pig, so it didn't break the skin (they let toddlers in there, after all), but I still spent the rest of the faire complaining "a pig bit me!"
This is one of the adult beverage areas, the others being a tavern and the winery booth. This one was basically rennie Cheers, and a lot of the faire workers and old-timers tended to hang out here.
From left to right, we have Grant, Rob, Allen, and Killian. Killian had been hanging around with Allen as he worked the lanes, helping entertain patrons, but I guess got bored with that because he spent most of the rest of the day walking around with me and taking photos of me (with my camera - the pigs shots were him). So as not to feel like I was taking too much advantage of what was clearly some early-stage Nice Guy, I did buy him a chocolate-covered cheesecake, which he had never had but wanted to try.
Fun fact: you can see him in the background of the Link picture from last year.
Killian was not the only of Allen's helpers I purloined. The next weekend I borrowed Chloe, who at 14 was just learning the ropes and doing that teenager thing of hoping everyone else will give her money to buy stuff because she can't figure out how to earn it herself. A very nice girl, just very 14.
Dude, just let me golf!
A running gag at the faire was that "crabs" were going around. Basically, there were a few necklaces with little crabs in a cube of clear plastic, and one person would give them to another via a complicated set of rules that consisted mostly of "tricking them somehow." The whole court was on guard, but as Grant performed his mime act he disarmed them enough to eventually slip the crabs to the King, much to his dismay.
Thanks to the Hunger Games, archery was super popular. I would walk past and, if there happened to be no line (usually during the joust or towards the end of the day), take a few shots.
Killian experimenting with camera angles.
I could hit the middle target reliably, but this far-away one gave me trouble.
I met some young girls with these awesome 3D butterfly stickers, and asked where they got them. They said the belly dancers. Well. When I found them, they were hanging out by a shop and said the stickers were for people who got up to try the dances on stage. But! If I wanted to try learning the dance now, they would let me have one.
Cue the dance!
I was actually not very good at the hip moves, but game enough that they not only gave me a sticker, they let me pick which one I wanted.
The merchant in charge of the treasure dig from last year wasn't here this year, but kids still took advantage of the sand box. There were a few "treasures" (colored rocks) from last year still in the sand that I saw a young boy dig out, and these kids were having a great time fighting each other.
Pie fight!
No, we're not together (so don't ask, Mom :P), but what's the point in knowing a flirtatious pirate if you can't make him pose? I didn't dress up for nothing, after all.
The guy who took this one was Doug, who is deaf and [mostly] dumb but still communicated pretty well and has quite an interest in photography. I know because he told me so and because his camera was way bigger than mine. He, Allen, and the lady at the hat shop who knows sign language are friends.
I've got a bunch more pictures covering the last weekend (which was pirate weekend), but this is already long and I should go to bed. More pictures eventually! Possibly even soon, since they're already formatted, but I don't want to make any promises.
I'd been planning my dress since last year, though I only really worked out the design at the end of July. Here's what (some of) the mess on my floor looked like by the end. Ribbon everywhere for a belt that didn't seem to be working, sleeves made at the last minute, scraps and scraps... such effort.
The day before I went down (it ran the first three weekends of September, and I missed the first day to finish my dress), I turned my sewing table into a craft table. I made hair clips out of some flowers Robyn generously sent me, and "sunshine" favors to go with my costume.
To explain favors, think of pin trading at Disneyland. (This explanation assumes you know pins are kind of a major deal at Disney parks.) Now imagine that all of the pins are homemade, aren't necessarily pins, and you just give them to people you like or who do something nice for you or whatever random criteria you want to use.
Favors are big at some faires and less so at others, depending on culture, and a common accessory for Very Serious Rennies is a "favor rag," which is basically a piece of cloth looped on a belt or something to which you pin all the favors you get because you are just that popular. They're not huge at DMRF, but I heard about them on the forums I was lurking on for garb tips and thought they sounded like fun.
Anyway, mine were just a yellow craft foam star stuck on an orange star, to make a sun, with yellow and orange ribbon to represent the rays, and I put them on pins and hairclips. They went over really well, and I loved being able to have something tangible to give to the people who were super-nice to me (which was a lot of people). It was also fun when, by the end of the faire, I handed one to someone and they were like "So that's where these have been coming from!" They were really recognizable and easy to spot, you see. :)
By the way, if anyone needs a supply of red, green, blue, or purple craft foam stars, I can hook you up.
The faire! Also, my birthday. :) The sleeves weren't right, so I left them off. That turned out to be just as well since it was crazy hot that day. Even the queen was like "We didn't wear our sleeves, either!" My belt also hadn't happened.
One of the first people I met as I wandered in was Robin Hood! He wasn't there last year, unfortunately, but I took about a million pictures of him this time to make up for it. Robin Hood is one of my favorite stories, you see, and he and Marion (his wife - they also had a couple kids running around, one a fairy and one a satyr, because why not) were absolutely wonderful. Robin had riddles, and I totally knew every single one. :)
Because it was so hot, I ended up buying a fan at one of the booths, and followed it up with some chocolate-covered cheesecake. Combined with my facepaint sun, aren't I just the picture of elegance here?
Speaking of, it was so hot, the facepainters wouldn't do big, full-face designs because it melted right off. It was hot.
Throwing knives and shurikens at the Ace of Blades. I am terribly bad at it. This picture is included mostly to show how I did my hair that day. I got quite a few compliments on the flowers.
[Most of] the royal court. That's Queen Catherine in the middle. She has a jewelry box that she lets young children raid after she knights or... I don't know, "ladies" them? They're a really great group called Have Court, Will Travel, and Lynne (Queen Catherine) is also in charge of entertainment and stuff at the faire.
This is Lady Addilay, of the RenFest forums, and her husband Sir Gauwyn of Bracknell. They recognized me as "Sunshine" right off (I used that as my forum handle, since I already knew it was going to be my costume theme) and pleasantly pointed out a few others from the forums.
Then I went to watch the joust, always a highlight. I don't have any pictures of the ponies here, because it looks just like the pictures from last year (though they added a new pre-show of sorts with some squires fighting, and some new fight choreography for the on-foot battle), but here is a picture of me avidly watching.
The "dress" is three parts: a white chemise, orange skirt, and yellow overdress. If anyone is interested in garb ("garb" is how rennies say "cosplay"), I can now give some pretty decent pointers, especially on eyelets and drawstrings.
A clan of menacing Scots walking my way.
This is Kim, who runs a shop called The Masked Fairy. I met her last year when she did my hair then, and this year I picked up a flower lantern and more hairstyles (featured further on).
The quality on this one is terrible because it's a still taken from a video (not sure why my video came out so choppy - I'll have to check my settings). This is me getting "forked" by the Forking Queen, which is rather like being knighted except you get a gold-painted plastic fork and a certificate with your new rank on it at the end.
While touring the dungeon (a social obligation, since Allen does the sound and effects for it), I happened to meet these two guys. This is Rob (left) and Grant (right). Both were volunteering, and Rob was showing Grant around the faire as it was Grant's first time. Grant does theater and chose to be a mime of fans, or something like that. Anyway, he didn't talk, which rather frustrated some of the little kids he'd interact with.
They were (say it with me!) very nice, and since I was working on the treasure hunt went around with me as I finished off the clues.
In the forest area behind the main buildings, this dog had decided to take a nap in the shade. There were also ducklings, bunnies, and a goat, for some reason.
Finished the treasure hunt! I'm holding my prize, a medallion from the potter's shop. On my bag you can see the flower lantern. It has an inverted tealight in the top, and it looked very pretty in the dark dungeon.
This is Sir... Francis? Maybe? I can't quite remember. But anyway, he's with JoustEvolution, and he was the marshal/master of ceremonies at the joust this year. Last year, he was but a lowly squire, but since he's the son of the Fairie Queen I suppose he has some connections. :)
Anyway, he was very flouncy in this character, and when Grant met him they immediately had a flounce off.
For week two, I wanted to make a crown of flowers. There were these beautiful yellow flowers blooming all over the roadsides, and I thought they'd go great with my dress. So, Friday after work I took a bucket over to a trail and cut some flowers, which I soaked in water (the internet suggested this would help get rid of bugs).
Unfortunately, when I tried to make the crown in the morning, the stems had grown stiff and kept snapping on me. Getting frustrated, I finally gave up and went with the same hairstyle as before.
Day two! Which was actually day four of the faire, being the next Saturday, but the second day of my attending. It was Scots/Celts/Etc week, so of course I had to stop by the McCracken brother's insulting golf challenge. (They insult you while you try to sink a putt.)
Notice that a) I am wearing my sleeves and b) they are totally falling off my shoulders. This is because when I fitted the yellow dress to myself, I made the top part without the skirt first, and just tugged it down to see if the neckline was the right height. This did not take into account where things would fall once I laced myself in, causing the actual waistline to be higher than I'd thought. As a consequence, the straps are a bit too long, and when they meet their greatest foe, gravity, I end up looking a bit droopy.
The belt, however, came out great, even though I ran out of one of my ribbons and had to swap in another. I used an eight-strand braid to make it.
This couple looked straight out of a Ghibli film. I have no idea why they decided to wear big noses and old people make up, but they certainly looked good in it.
To Kim for braiding! I was trying to describe how I wanted my hair ("like a crown made of a braid, but kind of sideways"), and eventually was like "...do you have a smart phone? Okay, cool. Just google image search 'Ukrainian Prime Minister.' That's what I want!"
She not only obliged, she put the flowers around so I had my crown of flowers after all. :)
She also helped me safety pin my strap and chemise so they would not fall down so much, a practice I employed for the rest of the faire.
Over on the children's stage, William and Blackjack were performing. (Blackjack is the dragon on William's shoulder.) This is him telling the story of how he got Midnight the Dancing Stick, which bears a suspicious similarity to Going on a Lion Hunt. The fact that he is a kindergarten teacher when not at the faire may have something to do with that.
I did not actually manage to sink these axes. Indeed, I failed miserably at the ax throw, though I at least managed to hit the wood a couple times. But the very nice (and shirtless) Viking guys running it insisted that I pose with my "accomplishment," so I had little choice but to oblige.
"Robin Hood and Marion! Ooh, can you pose by this tree? And look like you like each other? Perfect!"
Robin Hood was very bemused by me, and usually pretty serious looking, but was always game for a new photoshoot. I ended up sending him copies of all the pictures.
Swinging back up to the village (the faire is not especially large, but it can be hard to get anywhere when you get distracted every five feet), I finally located Allen, who was literally singing for his supper snack - that is, playing his guitar outside the Two Wenches coffee shop to attract business, and getting "paid" in pastries.
Over by the Forking Queen's tent, I met Rowen, a super-helpful lady from the aforementioned forums. She and her husband were wearing plaid in honor of the week. She seemed to know everyone at the faire, and every single remotely medieval event happening within a 500-mile radius, including a caber toss. I was all "uh, I like just going to this faire..." But man, if you ever want a guide to rennie society, Rowen's your person.
That bit of yellow on her tartan is one of my sunshine favors. :)
Day three! (I am obviously not recounting quite everything I did each day, because this entry is quite long enough already.) The Fairie Queen was hiding by the bridge this morning.
The joust. I always end up taking a few pictures each time I see it, and they always end up looking about the same, so here is a symbolic one to cover the whole faire.
The pickle pirate was carting his wares around the lanes.
Is it just me, or does that girl on the side look just like Ariel on her date with Eric in the town? Let's assume The Little Mermaid was filming that day.
Side note: I just googled that to make sure I was thinking of the right dress, and discovered that putting together outfits based on movie characters with clothes you can't afford is apparently a thing. A silly thing, to be sure, but so help me I kind of like the Flynn one.
Shopping for a sword.
It's funny. While I was cramming a ton of research about renaissance garb into a couple weeks this summer, I got a little worried about being historically accurate. Even if you know that no one at the Des Moines faire is going to care what you wear, online all the best guides and FAQs are written by SCA-type people, who go on about looking at portraits from the era to analyze clothes and what kind of thread they would have used back then and stuff like that. Seeing this guy, who looks like he's from the crusades, was a little jarring after all that focus on 1500-1650, but he looks great so who cares?
I may have made a point of stopping by the Viking ax throw each day. Just, you know, to improve my skills.
This is the "Whack-a-Knight" booth. They were all "so, which one of us do you want to fight?" I was apparently the first customer to pick based on whose outfit would look best with mine. (The other options were a scrawny guy in red and a big guy in black. I went with medium and green.)
Fight!
At The Masked Fairy I had gotten a flower wreath with ribbons for the day, just to vary things up.
A visitor from the east.
The Scots insulting the blacksmith.
...Actually, they were just talking with him 'cause they're friends, or at least acquaintances, but they obliged with the pose.
For whatever reason, they had a bunch of piglets you could pay a dollar to feed. I had no interest in feeding them, only posing with them, but when I bent down to pick one up it was like two magnets of the same polarity nearing each other. The pigs had just no interest.
Fine. I got a little cup of pig food and lured a likely-looking fellow over, and gingerly picked him up. It would have been a better picture if I had been willing to let it touch my dress, but ah well.
I still had food in the cup, so I figured I'd feed the rest of the pigs since my hands were already dirty.
Uh oh...
Ahh!!! Too many pigs!
In fact, the shoot ended when one of them bit my finger. Fortunately, it was just a baby pig, so it didn't break the skin (they let toddlers in there, after all), but I still spent the rest of the faire complaining "a pig bit me!"
This is one of the adult beverage areas, the others being a tavern and the winery booth. This one was basically rennie Cheers, and a lot of the faire workers and old-timers tended to hang out here.
From left to right, we have Grant, Rob, Allen, and Killian. Killian had been hanging around with Allen as he worked the lanes, helping entertain patrons, but I guess got bored with that because he spent most of the rest of the day walking around with me and taking photos of me (with my camera - the pigs shots were him). So as not to feel like I was taking too much advantage of what was clearly some early-stage Nice Guy, I did buy him a chocolate-covered cheesecake, which he had never had but wanted to try.
Fun fact: you can see him in the background of the Link picture from last year.
Killian was not the only of Allen's helpers I purloined. The next weekend I borrowed Chloe, who at 14 was just learning the ropes and doing that teenager thing of hoping everyone else will give her money to buy stuff because she can't figure out how to earn it herself. A very nice girl, just very 14.
Dude, just let me golf!
A running gag at the faire was that "crabs" were going around. Basically, there were a few necklaces with little crabs in a cube of clear plastic, and one person would give them to another via a complicated set of rules that consisted mostly of "tricking them somehow." The whole court was on guard, but as Grant performed his mime act he disarmed them enough to eventually slip the crabs to the King, much to his dismay.
Thanks to the Hunger Games, archery was super popular. I would walk past and, if there happened to be no line (usually during the joust or towards the end of the day), take a few shots.
Killian experimenting with camera angles.
I could hit the middle target reliably, but this far-away one gave me trouble.
I met some young girls with these awesome 3D butterfly stickers, and asked where they got them. They said the belly dancers. Well. When I found them, they were hanging out by a shop and said the stickers were for people who got up to try the dances on stage. But! If I wanted to try learning the dance now, they would let me have one.
Cue the dance!
I was actually not very good at the hip moves, but game enough that they not only gave me a sticker, they let me pick which one I wanted.
The merchant in charge of the treasure dig from last year wasn't here this year, but kids still took advantage of the sand box. There were a few "treasures" (colored rocks) from last year still in the sand that I saw a young boy dig out, and these kids were having a great time fighting each other.
Pie fight!
No, we're not together (so don't ask, Mom :P), but what's the point in knowing a flirtatious pirate if you can't make him pose? I didn't dress up for nothing, after all.
The guy who took this one was Doug, who is deaf and [mostly] dumb but still communicated pretty well and has quite an interest in photography. I know because he told me so and because his camera was way bigger than mine. He, Allen, and the lady at the hat shop who knows sign language are friends.
I've got a bunch more pictures covering the last weekend (which was pirate weekend), but this is already long and I should go to bed. More pictures eventually! Possibly even soon, since they're already formatted, but I don't want to make any promises.