The Renaissance Pleasure Faire

I've been wanting to go to the Renaissance Faire for many years, even bought tickets last year but for one reason or another I wasn't able to go. So this year I made it a priority to go. I've been busy every weekend since it started. When I planned this Movie marathon weekend I didn't intend for one of the days to be used for Ren Fes but when I found out that the Faire ended on Sunday May 20th (today) I had to make it part of the weekend. Luckily for me a bunch of the gang that were coming this weekend wanted to go to the Ren Fes as well.

We got up early around 8am and Kevin and Doug made us breakfast burritos. I wanted to leave the house around 9am but knew we would leave a bit later with so many people. Robert was still not feeling well so he opted out of going to the Faire with us. That left Kevin, Doug, Will, Adam, Jes, Rupert, Aaron, Josh and Myself. We figured out who was going to drive with who as some folks were not coming back to my place after the Faire. Once we decided on that we caravaned down to Irwindale.

When we got there parking was a bit crazy as some of the group got separated from others. It took a bit but we finally got everyone back together. Josh was the only one dressing up. We entered the Faire and the first booth we went to was costume rentals as Aaron planned to rent a costume. Next thing I knew almost everybody, Aaron, Rupert, Jes, Will and Adam were renting costumes. So that left Kevin, Doug and I without. Costumes cost $50 to $60 dollars to rent and I couldn't afford one. Of course I had my Hobbit costumes and debated about wearing it here but several friends say "oh no there are no Hobbits during Renaissance times" and like an idiot I went along with that statement and didn't dress up. Part of me was cool with the idea of not dressing up because only a few of my friends were dressing up.. but when the majority of them dressed up I was kicking myself for not dressing up. This pretty much bummed me out for the rest of the day. It took about a hour for everyone to pick out their outfits and change and I just sat there beating myself up because I did not dress up. :(

But I was at the faire for the first time and it was pretty awesome so I tried to keep my spirits up. Joining us at the faire were Anthony, Jennifer and Ashphord. We also ran into an old friend of mine Jarrett, as well as fellow guildie Jessica. I tried out Archery, which was alot of fun though I wasn't good at it and then a group of us did knife throwing. Again none of my knives stuck but I did hit the target 6 out of 8 times.

I tried mead for the first time. They had two kinds, honey and raspberry, raspberry was my favorite and man does it have a kick, kind of like red wine.We grabbed some food from the food court area.. they had a ton of things to choose from and all of it looked really good.

Though I was bummed about not dressing up I had a pretty great time. Our group didn't stay together much but occasionally would get back together and hang out.

Will came across these crowns and actually purchased one of them and wore it the rest of the today, he looked pretty awesome.

We ended the day by watching Jousting, it was a pretty good show and very realistic with blood squirting everywhere. The only downside to the day beside me not dressing was the heat.. it was to dang hot and it just drained the energy out of you.

Picture a Day in May #20

One of my favorite moments of the day was interacting with the orange fairy. I saw her first thing this morning and took a few pictures but didn't interact with her. She looked beautiful and was so immersed in this character. The way she moved and interacted with people was just amazing. I saw her earlier and then again mid day but never got to interact with her so as we were leaving I saw her again and was determined to get my picture with her. Now she doesn't pose for pictures. When you go up to her she puts out her hands and kind of takes yours and there's this energy... it's hard to put into words but it was just an amazing experience and a great way to end my trip to the Renaissance Pleasure Faire.

So this weekend didn't go as planned, and if you read the last three blogs you would think I didn't have fun at all.. but honestly I did. There were lots of moments that I totally loved, I got to spend some quality time with my bestie Josh, Will kept me entertained at Ren Faire with his very charming and outgoing personality. It was great having Adam part of our group and getting to chat with him on our drive up to Ren Faire. And of course to end the weekend with the Orange Fairy, I couldn't ask for anything better. So overall it was a successful movie marathon/ren faire weekend.

This will be my last movie marathon for a while, I've decided to take a break from these large group weekend parities. I still plan on getting together with friends for weekend events just not as many people, which I'm sure some friends will feel left out when they are not invited, but I just can't manage these large parties and from this past weekend experience I think it's best if I stop...for now.

As a side note while at the faire we got to experience a solar eclipse. It was pretty awesome and some folks had some eclipse viewers so you could actually look at the sun. It started at 5pm and lasted until we were heading home around 6:30. It was kind of ominousness as we left as it wasn't quite light or dark.. just a dimming haze everywhere. Glad I got to experience it with friends and while at the faire.. made the day a little extra special.

You can see more pictures HERE