Ye Olde Black Friday

Rather than participate in the mass crowd activities of shopping with money we don’t have, this past Black Friday, Joey, Ivy and Jim (who was down for the week, and it was WONDERFUL having him here) went to the Texas Renaissance Festival (the world’s largest fair of its kind, apparently). I used to go somewhat regularly in junior high and high school, but hadn’t been in perhaps 21 years. Mom made us some costumes, and we headed out and had a blast. It was more fun than I remembered, even though it was warm (mid 70s) and humid.

For the uninitiated, the Ren Fest is set in the woods of east Texas, with an entire Renaissance-era village built up, loaded with shops of period stuff, roaming performers, small and large stages for scheduled shows of all kinds (from jousts, to beggars rolling in the mud, to a guy who plays giant carillon brass bells in a mask, with a piano-keyboard like rig, and much more). Festival goers are either average attendees, or costumed like we were, and lemme tell you, some of the costumes were WAY elaborate and impressive. It’s a chance for the SCA types to really let loose!

Ivy was a HUGE hit in her dragon costume, and dozens of people asked to get her photo. She made lots of people smile, and will be memorialized in lots of photo albums 🙂 Jim was born to be in costume, I enjoy it a good deal, and Joey had more fun than he thought he would, going in. Ivy probably won’t remember this trip, but she did wonderfully, and didn’t have any issues until the drive home, which at the end of a loooong day, is understandable. It was a really fun outing, on short notice, in a day that could have easily been just another day. Life should have more days like that, and I will do what I can to facilitate that more often!

Photos from the day are available on the Photo Albums page, or by clicking here (be sure to view both pages of photos… look for the 1 and 2 at the bottom of the page beneath the thumbnails.