While we were at the Renaissance Festival we were surprised at all of the different kinds of costumes we saw people wearing.
There were the dresses and cloaks that we expected to see but there were also a lot of Fairies. All kinds of Fairies.
But there was one Fairy that seemed to catch a lot of eyes. She was stunning in pink and as we were standing across the walk looking at her my Dad asked me about Fairies.
"What's up with the Fairies? Are they a Renaissance thing? I thought they were a Grateful Dead thing."
I told him that I had no idea and before I knew it my Dad walked up to the Fairy we'd been watching and started asking questions.
I followed and we learned that apparently the Fairies, being known from the Medieval Times, hang with the Renaissance people and that she'd never been to a Grateful Dead concert so she had no idea about that.
But she did explain that there are good Fairies and Goth Fairies. Goth Fairies are more like Pixies, who are mean and will bite if you pick them up.
She pointed to this girl and said "That's a Goth Fairy."
There was a tiny curl of her lip when she said it, making me think that good Fairies and Goth Fairies don't get along so well.
Meanwhile, my Dad has moved on from Fairy questions and they're talking about her. She probably between 18 and 20 and she lives in Tennessee, and travels with this Fair.
She gladly let me take their picture
and if I had any self control at all this picture would make excellent blackmail material but I couldn't stop myself and sent it to my Mom that night LOL
The Island King walked up just as I was taking Dad's picture and immediately said "Me too, me too!"
While I was taking their picture my Dad told her to watch the Island King's hand and she just laughed and said "I'm not worried about that - I've got the controlling hand."
Notice in the picture her hand is below his and would be able to stop any grabbing or groping that might happen.
Smart girl. She's got that figured out and I'll be using that technique the next time we go to a Chamber event.
While we were talking to her I started watching the Troll that had a display set up next to her.
Topak the Troll had to be the most jaw dropping thing I saw the entire day.
Just in case his purple face didn't disturb you enough, he had on a little pair of black shorts under his pelts, which left nothing regarding his extremely hairy legs to the imagination.
He'd lured people up to his seat to have their picture taken with him and it wasn't long before he had a taker.
This poor woman thought she was going to sit next to him on the bench and have her picture taken.
Wrong.
She sat down and he threw his leg over the top of hers and snuggled up close.
She thought that was funny.
But then he whispered something in her ear that she must have found quite disturbing.
Because she couldn't get him off of her fast enough.
As we're talking to the Fairie she tells me that I should have my picture taken with the Troll. "He's my Daddy and he knows all about Trollin. But you do have to be 21."
Uh, no thanks. I saw his idea of Trollin and I'll pass on this one.
And after I learned that you have to be 21 to have your picture taken with him I realized that opened a whole new door of what he might have whispered to that poor woman LOL
The flier we'd seen for the festival said there would be camels there to ride and I can't tell you how excited I was about that.
I've never ridden a camel and since I don't have any trips to camel country planned I knew this might be my only chance to ever ride one.
The Island King laughed at me, but seriously, how often does a girl from the beach get to ride a camel? Not very often.
The kids and I climbed on
And we rode a camel!
It was a really cool experience but let me tell you - the back of a camel is not a comfortable place to sit!
They say you learn something every day and that day I learned that riding on a camel's back is NOT the way to go.
There was an elephant there as well and all three of the kids really wanted to ride him too. Sounded like fun to me. I rode an elephant years ago at a circus when the Island Girl was a baby but she didn't remember and wanted me to go with her again.
It's not like I do a lot of elephant riding so I agreed.
While we were waiting our turn the Island King kept whispering in my ear "Elephants gone wild. You see it all of the time. They just snap one day, stomp the man leading them around and then run off."
I told him to shut up and happily followed the kids onto the elephant.
Let me tell you there is a HUGE difference between riding an elephant versus riding a camel. On the elephant you seem to float along comfortably, almost like riding in a luxury car.
Even though I tried not to I started thinking about what the Island King said about elephants gone wild.
We'd walked about halfway around the circle and the elephant stopped.
The man gave her a gentle poke with his stick but the elephant wouldn't move.
I could feel a little panic start to seep in and I thought what if he pokes her again and she freaks out? The kids and I will be the tragedy leading the evening news!
By now, it's clear the elephant isn't going to move.
I decided it might be time for us to just get off now but one look down convinced me that was a bad idea. Getting off of an elephant means a long drop to the ground!
The kids started asking me what was happening and I told them I didn't know but that Dad and Pop-Pop were standing over there watching and didn't seem concerned so I was sure everything was fine.
And then the smell hit us, leaving no doubt as to why we were stopped.
I can say that fresh elephant poop is by far the worst thing I've ever smelled!
And all feelings of riding in a luxury car were gone.
We made it safely back to the stand and I have to say that we were all more than ready to get off the elephant.
And then came the best ride of all.
A ride on a War Horse.
These horses are huge and beautiful and the idea of riding one was as appealing as the idea of riding the camel was.
The Youngest Island Boy went first and loved it.
Next went the Oldest Island Boy and for some reason he was a little nervous
He says he liked riding the camel better.
Then it was my turn.
And as you can see I thoroughly enjoyed myself.
I even got brave and rode with no hands for a minute.
As fun as that was though I will admit that hugging a Knight was pretty cool too.
He smelled so good that I didn't want to let go.
I told the Island King that he could go back and hang out with the Fairy but that I wanted to stay and hang with the Knight LOL
We had so much fun and did so many things that we normally don't get to do.
I'm ready to go back.Labels: Done
