Renaissance Festival - October 19, 2008

I had the great pleasure to take Alberto to his first ever Renaissance Festival last weekend. The Renaissance Festival that takes place annually in Plantersville, Texas is one of the largest of its kind around the country. It lasts for 6 weeks, and is an annual tradition for Texans everywhere.




During the six years I was in California, I lamented October every year because I knew that everyone I grew up with was having at the RenFaire and I was going to miss it again! I couldn't very well let our first year back home go by without a visit!




We chose the weekend with the theme of 1001 Dreams.



I love the flight and fancy and whimsy of fairies, so I was hoping to see more than the usual amount by going on this particular weekend.





During the day long trip, we did see many beautiful fairies, with very elaborate and iridescent wings and beautiful costumes.

We also got to see the King and Queen's proclomation to open the festivities, and the King's Court dance for the Queen.


We started the day off by listening to a bagpiping band called Tartanic.



They had a great sound, mixing traditional bagpipe melodies with modern rock n roll beats and rhythms.

They were also a bit crazy, so it was a fun way to start the day.









Of course, Alberto had to see the Ded Bob show - no RenFaire virgin can miss out on that!



He really enjoyed it and the show was enhanced by the beautiful mid morning sunlight streaming through the thatched cover over the stage.










We also saw The Other Brothers who were a bunch of goofs that like to play with fire a lot.......




and the oh-so irreverent Mud Show, which really got us laughing our heads off!





















At noon we watched the parade as it wound through the festival grounds, with the entire King's court and representatives from every shop and performance in the line.





In the afternoon we found some games to play, and Alberto won a couple of cute stuffed monkeys for me, which will now hang proudly in the baby's nursery :)




















Jousting was of course a fun event, though we chose to go during the hottest part of the day - full sun in the Arena was not agreeing with me!

We managed to sufficiently cool off afterward though with some drink (water for me, a margarita for him!) and food.

Alberto tried so many things! Steak on a stick, cajun fries, the gigantic turkey leg, grilled corn on the cob.....while I had the crawfish etoufee and then a shrimp poboy later. I must have been in a seafood mood.






The only thing I regret us not getting is something sinfully sweet toward the end of the day! By the way, all of this food was after we'd started the day with two breakfast burritos on the way there! We were quite fat and happy by the end of the day.

It was a lovely trip, and we were fortunate that it wasn't totally packed with the usual droves of people that the RenFaire receives.


This was only the second weekend the Festival was open, and I really wanted to get there before my pregnancy got any further along.





The day was fabulous and Alberto absolutely loved it. By the end of the day he was already talking about how we bring the baby next year, maybe even dressed up in Renaissance gear!
By the way, the photos you see of me here are at the 32 week mark. I am officially 8 months pregnant!