The Real Update

We went to the Renaissance Festival last weekend. It was SSSOOOOO much fun!!!! Way more fun than I expected. I figured there would be a lot of weirdo's there, way more than I encounter at the carnival. Okay, the carnival isn't so much weirdo's as more of your fun loving white trash who like to ride greasy rides and eat terrible overpriced food and win ridiculous prizes at games that are designed to make them lose. Sorry, got carried away with the carnival weirdo's. The Renaissance weirdo's are more of your geeky gamers and those with a flair for the dramatic. There were people in crazy costumes from the Queens to squires and trolls and fairies and knights and pirates and elves and ogres and gypsies and of course the token geisha. The geisha was strange since it doesn't seem Renaissance-ish but it was a great costume. :) There was knife throwing and axe throwing and ninja star throwing, there was a pirate maze, there was archery, and there was a mug slide - you slide an old fashioned pewter mug down a bar. There were two rides that were manually operated since they wouldn't have gas powered items back then. There were of course vendor booths with wood working and blacksmith items and leather works. I was extremely tempted to buy a set of Elf Ears! We saw some great shows too! I went to a comedy show by a drunken tattoo-less pirate. Very funny! They did a live chess match and they would sword fight as a challenge. Of course the sword fights were choreographed so it definitely looked fake, not as much as professional wrestling, but it was still entertaining to watch plus their costumes were way better than pro wrestlers and even though it was hot out and they were wearing corsets, there wasn't nearly as much sweat!







The highlight of the day -- JOUSTING!!!!!!!!!!!! Jousting is amazing! It's so exciting and a little bit scary. I found myself getting scared for the guys as they were starting each joust. They ride Clydesdale's which are so big anyway so when they fall, it's a hard fall! Plus they have a full suit of armor so the added weight makes the fall that much harder.

I have a bunch of pictures cuz it was seriously so much fun~
















Full suits of armor.
How can they see?!?!?!?!?




They get points for a hit, breaking the tip, shattering the pole, and knocking the opponent off. I think they should get extra points just for showing up in those heavy looking suits of armor!


Major points for the other guy (our assigned team to cheer for) - he knocked him off! Yay for our team, bad for the guy on the ground! It was such a hard hit that it dented his armor! It took him a while to get up and not just because you need help getting up when your wearing a suit of armor!!! Ouch!

The Renaissance Festival in Oregon isn't til September but I highly recommend it to anyone who likes to people watch or likes to get out and wander among the crowd of crazies! You will have the time of your life! And if you dress up - you better send me pics!!!!!