Good Day Lords and Ladies
Mood:  hungry
This past weekend was the The Renaissance Festival that Marie and I have been preparing for. I had such a great time. I am not sure if I like it better than the one here in Raleigh. They are both so different

Marie offered to drive since I did most of the driving during our trip to Ocracoke. She picked me up at 7:30 in the morning and we set out on the road. Marie had forgotten the map so we didn't really know where we were going. We just knew it was somewhere off I-85.

We stopped at a rest area to look at a map. You should have seen the looks we got walking into the building. LOL Priceless!!! We glanced at the map, hoping I would recognize the name of the small town the festival was in. No such luck. We set back out on the road and decided to look for a gas station and a place to get some breakfast.

We stopped in Salisbury and decided to hit the Starbucks. It was funny to watch people's reactions as we walked in. They all tried not to stare. Acting like this is something they are used to seeing. We got some coffee cake and sat down at a table and started searching the paper for an ad for the festival hoping that it had the directions on it. A woman sitting close by was kind enough to offer to help us search. She found the ad and gave us the info number to call. Marie called and got the exit number. Turns out we only had about 1/2 hour left to go. *Yea!*

We finally arrived about 10:30 or so and headed into the fair. The weather was cool which was great because my dress weighs like 100 lbs. The area they have the festival in is pretty amazing. It seems to be dedicated solely to the event. All the buildings are "Renaissance" in appearance in an amusement park sort of way. There were some "medieval rides" for kids, lots of places selling some sort of food item on a stick, and several stages with performances. We decided to walk around a bit to get the lay of the land before deciding which shows to attend.

One new show this year was called Hey Nunnie Nunnie. It is a comedy/musical show with these two nuns, Sister Redempta and Sister Philomenia. It was Hysterical!!! I think it was bad to see this show first because it was so well done that the other shows paled in comparison. Walking around the faire we also saw fire and sword dancers, The Green Man (man on stilts dressed as a tree), The Ded Bob Sho (no I sm not missing letters...that was the name of the show), and a Celtic harpist.

My favorite part of the day was when we attended to joust. We sat in the section that was cheering for Sir William de Bracey who just happened to be the Queen's champion. Marie thought he looked like Sting. LOL I guess he did...a little. Anyway...There were three knights one of which was the evil dark knight, Sir Philip of France. At one point in the tournament, Sir Philip was losing and decided to cheat. He injured Sir Jeffery (the other good knight) and insulted the crown prince. Well our Sir William wouldn't stand for this so he challenged Sir Phillip to a Joust TO THE DEATH! *gasp* Which would be held at the hour of 4 and 15 (4:15 for all you non faire folk) We didn't make this last event but from the cheering we heard from the crowd I am assuming Sir William won and all is right with the world again.

Later in the afternoon we st tended a falconry demonstration. I was a little disappointed in this show because it wasn't really about falconry. It was more of a show and tell about birds. At one point they brought out a large albino python. WTF! This is not a bird and it really had no place in this show. Oh well.

The festival came to a close at 5:30 and we headed home. It was such a fun day and our dress were a big hit. People were amazed we made them ourselves. I even had a little girl ask to have her picture taken with me. She apparently thought I was Cinderella. LOL

I have attached a slide show to this entry but if you don't have the time to watch the show you can also look at the picture here.