Medieval Faire 2006

"Take what ya Can!...Give Nothing Back!"...

Well we finally made it to the Medieval Faire yesterday and I have to say that that was the hottest, muggiest, most uncomfortable Faire I have ever been to. Usually this faire is pretty nice as far as that goes, because it is in a woods, but it had rained all week and though it was sunny on Saturday, the entire place had been turned into a mud bog swamp. I think they would have to come up with a new scale to describe the kind of humidity that pervaded the entire area. Though everyone I talked to said "it was better than the previous Saturday when it poured down rain for most of the day", I think I would have rather had the rain. Wearing heavy layers of medieval clothing certainly didn't help it any.

It was a good Faire though, with seemingly many more people attending than any other Faire I had gone to before. We figured that many of the people that were there had planned on going last weekend when the rains came and probably came this weekend instead, effectively doubling the crowd.

My son "Z" and I didn't sit through as many of the shows as we had at previous Medieval Faires, opting instead to stay in the shade, because most of the seating is out in the sun. There are many different pathways that snake through the woods at this place, and it's sad when you choose which ones to take by how well they are shaded by the trees.

We watched the "Joust" from the side that is lined by trees, though you have to stand, we figured it would be better than the side with all the benches that are out in the direct sunlight. We also watched the "Human Chess Tournament" from a position fairly far away, once again, standing in the shade of the trees. The Chess Tournament's seating area does have a suspended canopy, but by the time we got there all the benches under the canopy were taken. The Tournament this year was Robin Hoods Merry Men versus the Sheriff of Nottingham's Men.

I really wish they could hold this event in the fall when it is much cooler, but you take what you can get. They surely sold a lot of beer, wine and lemonade yesterday, but it seemed I couldn't down lemonades as fast I sweated them out. Later on in the evening as the sun was lower in the sky we watched the "Falcon" show and it was actually reasonably comfortable, making us wish we hadn't gone quite so early.

I promised pictures and these are about as good as my old 2.1 mega pixel digital camera can do. I could have set the quality higher but I don't have a very large flashcard, and wouldn't have been able to take very many pictures. I really need to get a better camera. I also promised pictures of myself, and I wouldn't want to go back on my word...."Pirate!"...."Drink up me hearty's, Yo Ho!"...

(Yarg! If ye want me "Dead Man's Chest" you'll be diggin for it, but don't say I didn't warn ye!)...

(And yes, I was soaked to the bone, as I said it was really, really hot, and today I'm doing laundy to wash all the white salt marks out of my medieval garb.)...