Oh yes, the title should give a clue as to what we have been up to! Kevin’s new HP job meant canceling the family trip this summer, as he will not have enough accrued vacation time for a trip until next year. We decided that a bunch of mini-trips were in order so that he could feel like he had some kind of vacation fun! With that in mind, we went up to the Bristol Renaissance Faire this past weekend. It was a really good time, with all there is to see and do, especially the people who go all out. It was “steampunk weekend”, so we saw some truly strange costumes.
We walked in the gates and Kayla was spotted by several employees due to the Ravenclaw shirt she wore. One “roving entertainer” chucked a large stuffed fish and small stuffed dog at the girls. They returned the critters, and the man offered them a stone from his treasure chest as a reward. Ashley picked a pretty emerald stone, and Kayla picked a blue fish. The entertainer said it was Bob the Magic Fish, and sang its theme song (to the tune of “Puff the Magic Dragon”):
“Bob the Magic Fish lived in the sea. He was eaten by a hungry shark and now he is…..fish poop.”
Here is Bob, and the girls with the roving entertainer. (Psst….Tiffanie….see the lizard purse?)
It would not be a trip to the Faire if we didn’t sit in the sky chairs! There was even a sky chair carousel that Kevin and Ashley rode.
All of this hard work means time to eat while we watched the Dirk & Guido Swordsmen Show. The girls had sea themed chicken patties and fries.
But that’s not all! Each girl had a specialty item at the Faire. Kayla HAD to have a giant pickle on a stick. This was all that she had left by the time I got there with the camera.
Ashley ate a “Monkey Tail”.
They ate these treats while watching the falconry show. Here are two of the hawks that we got to see in flight.
We also watched some aerial acrobats perform. Here one of them is on the ground working a Chinese dragon. Her partner is dangling up above, working the tail cables.
Then it was time to do stuff! Both girls and Kevin tried some archery, Kevin threw some knives, and the roving entertainer caught Kayla later on for a game of human Tic-Tac-Toe (using random people as X’s and O’s) which she played to a tie. Ashley found a giant hula hoop…
did some bungee jumping…
climbed a rock wall…
and then both girls decided to “hatch” dragon eggs for a souvenir.
Kayla found a nifty “garbage” dragon hanging out in a tree.
We watched the joust and by then were pretty tired. It was a long but really fun day!