olde english faire

Yesterday we took the kids to the Olde English Faire, the annual renaissance festival at Jubilee College State Park. While I'm not personally into it, I LOVE to go and people watch. The fact that so many people enjoy dressing up and playing sword fight with PVC pipes and shields made from old stop signs makes me really, really happy. All of the performers speak with terrible fake accents and most of them are hilarious. My favorite thing is to get to the festival right at opening and watch the "freak parade" as all of the participants parade past, led by bagpipes and ending with the jousters on horseback.

It amazes me that certain acts (jousting and fencing come to mind) return year after year so the people are familiar and you actually miss the individuals who don't return. I once worked with a guy who's family was into renaissance festivals and they had a regular lineup they attended year after year. That was how they spent their weekends every summer and how his parents spent all their vacation time from work. Strange, but I'm glad people do this :) At lunch we sat with a couple and their two-month-old baby. They were dressed in period clothes and were tent camping with the rest of the "freaks." That's dedication!

New to us this year were the acrobat and the magician. The acrobat appeared to be this dumpy, bald guy in his late 40s. He was amazing!!! Balancing on his head on top of a board on top of five metal tubes. He juggled fire and hats and did ladder tricks. He was also really funny. The magician was also great. His performance was hilarious, leaving several kid volunteers gasping in amazement after making large, solid objects disappear from their hands.

It was a lot of fun for a $7 parking fee. We also had lunch (hot dog, chips, lemonade) for $12 total for all four of us. We each had a large ice cream cone for dessert for a total of $8 and bought a small pack of cinnamon roasted almonds for $3. I thought $30 was a really cheap day out! That's about the same as we'd spend on a trip to Chuck E. Cheese or a dinner at Cheddars! It would have been a perfect day except the (aargh) neighbors also went so we kept bumping into them during my shoulda been neighbor kid free outing. LOL!

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I was sitting on a chair at the pool, waiting for Logan to come out of the men's locker room for his swimming lesson when a little boy who happens to be in both Logan's daycare and swim class came out. He noticed me and asked "Aren't you Logan's grandma?" I was all "NO!!! I'm his MOM!!!" He looked at me really funny, said "Oh." and ran off to his lesson. Later I was telling Gene the "grandma story" and his reply was "Maybe it's all your gray hair." SERIOUSLY, GENE???? Did you seriously just say that?????????