Renfen

On a different note, I had to include a post about my visit to the Maryland Renaissance Festival yesterday. I'd agree to meet up with my friend Sven and his very kind wife Barbara. I also got to meet his daughter and her husband. All of us were dressed in garb i.e. costume. Sven was dressed as a wizard and was so impressive, a number of people came up and took his picture. He really does look the part.

The festival was packed! There were long lines at all the food booths which was very annoying. Also, some of shops were packed too. I promised Susan, one of the ladies I met on the tour of France I did that I'd buy a bag of lavendar to put number my pillow. She said the scent helps you sleep. I went in search of a shop that I thought would sell it. To my annoyance, I went 180 degrees the wrong way. I had to walk all the way back of Mary's Dale Way to find the shop Blessed Scents which did sell bags of lavender. For some reason, I thought it had a stronger scent. Barring that, all I bought was a bottle of water and a bottle of Gatorade. Sven treated me to a smoked turkey leg which I thoroughly enjoyed. The turkey leg was tough and Sven had a hard time trying to eat the thing. I guess I had strong teeth because I tore right into it.

Overall, I very much enjoyed myself. I didn't like the long lines. Also, it was warmer than usual for October. I like going to the festival in October because it is cooler and consequently I can wear my real cloak. My real cloak is made of heavy wool. It's equal to a very good wool blanket. With the heat, the last thing I needed to do was wrap up in a wool blanket. If you haven't been to the festival, I believe it running today and this coming weekend. It is a lot of fun. Cheers!

Renaissance Festival

I got to go the Maryland Renaissance Festival in Crownsville, Maryland yesterday. I try to go every year. The festival has good acts, excellent shops and decent food. I watched Fight School, The Rogues, the jousting and Hack and Slash. Fight School did the same routine with some new jokes thrown in. They were still good. The Rogues had a new fiddler and a new CD. They sounded nice. The jousting was all right. I didn't envy the knights wearing their heavy armor in the heat. It was in the high 80's or low 90's yesterday. Hack and Slash did the same routine and it was as funny as ever. I need to buy their Christmas show DVD sometime.

In regards to food at the festival, I had the mandatory turkey leg. It was very good though they raised the price on it a buck to $5. Also, I tried their sweet corn on the cob. The people running the food booth had a pot of melted butter that they could dunk the corn into. They also offered various seasonings. The corn was very good though a bit pricey at $2.50 a piece. Lastly, I tried their lemonade and their raspberry smoothie. I thought both stunk. The raspberry smoothie was little more than a weakly flavored icee.

Some of the shops had some very nice items for sale. I was sorely tempted to buy some new leather bracers for my festival costume and a hand bound journal. However, I'll be leaving soon for the 2-week tour of France I've told my readers about so, I decided it was wise to cool the spending. I ended up buying 2 t-shirts that I could wear when delivering mail.

Overall, the festival was really nice. I very much enjoyed going. One word of advice to any readers that may try to go to the festival. Make sure you leave so you'll arrive shortly before they open the gates. If you do, you should be able to get to festival parking without getting stuck in a line. If you don't, you could end up in a bumper to bumper line trying to get in the parking lot. Also, the festival is fully capable of handling large crowds. I heard one person say the festival could handle over 26,000 people! (It's possible considering how big the festival grounds are. Also, if you plan on going this coming weekend, the festival has a coupon that will get you $4 off the price of an adult admission as well as discounts on other admissions until September 8th. Ticket prices did go up a $1 this year for unknown reasons. Cheers all!

My End of the Woods

I thought I'd post an update on what's going on at my end of the woods. The biggest thing is impatiently waiting to go on the upcoming 2 week Globus tour of France. I'm impatiently counting every day. When I get within a week, I'll get to do more concerning the trip i.e. buy a bunch of Euros, put my mail hold request in and figure out what I'm going to wear. For now, all I can do is count the days.

Work at the Post Office goes well enough. I still have issues with the notorious single moms and I know I always will. I'm never going to accept their laziness or breaking of the rules. I count my blessings that I get along so well with my boss. Also, supposedly, the Postmaster is very pleased with me. I do whatever he asks without whining. He knows when he gives me a task that it'll get done. It's nice to know he's pleased with my work.

I've been considering buying a videocamera for the upcoming trip. My mom suggested it. Unfortunately, the timing is bad. I want to be able to pay all the optional excursions I plan to take at the beginning of the tour. I hope to avoid a big charge card bill when I get back from the trip. I haven't forgotten the Australia tour I did with Globus. I was paying on that for 3 months after I got back. If I bought the camera, I wouldn't be able to pay the excursions off before hand. I've decided to buy it in a couple months. I'll take it with me when I do the Egypt tour in March. That is something I'd definitely want to record on DVD.

I visited Dave & Busters today. They're offering a buy $10 worth of tickets and get $10 free coupon on their website (must be used by September 1st). It's a good deal. I suspect they're doing it to get you in the door. $20 with a supercharge will get you 125 tickets. That isn't much when you start playing the games. I'm partial to Spin & Win and that costs 8.8 tickets per play using a gold card. I suspect once you're there, you'll be more likely to recharge your card and play some more. I know I did today. I had frustrating luck on Spin & Win. I must've missed the 1,000 ticket light by 1 or 2 lights at least 15 times. I did finally hit the thing once. I now have over 63,000 tickets. They have a Zune MP3 player for 46,000 tickets. I want an MP3 player but, I don't know if I want to spend 46,000 tickets to get it. I'm going to keep thinking about it.

Also, I did a little bit for the environment today. I did a recycling run to the Glen Burnie Recycling Depot. It isn't much but, it is something. Also, I do try to not run the lights in my apartment unless I'm using them. That may have less to do with the environment and more to do with trying to keep my electric bill down.

On the subject of travel again, Globus looks to be getting more serious about their Journey club. It's a special travel club they offer that offers club only tours and access to their clothing shop. If you reactivate your Journey club membership, you'll receive a coupon that'll get you $75 off any tour that you book between August 2008 and December 2009. Also, they're offering a free extra night in a hotel providing you share it. Singles don't get to take advantage of this offer. Oh well. Also, it appears they going to come out with some kind of club membership number. The webpage to reactivate my membership asked for a card number. I had no idea what they were talking about. I'm curious to see if I get a membership card in the mail.

Lastly, I'm looking forward to the Maryland Renaissance Festival. It opened last weekend. Labor Day Weekend is a good time to go since the Post Office is closed on Labor Day. The only bummer to the festival is I'll make sure I get on the road early to get to it. If you take your time, you'll get stuck in a long bumper to bumper line. It'll be neat to check out the festival. They have some good acts and nice shops plus, the smoked turkey legs are delicious.

That's all that's worth telling about for now. Stay tuned for more updates as the France tour gets closer. Cheers all!

Maryland Renaissance Festival

I try to make it to the Maryland Renaissance Festival at least once a year. This year, it was hard to go because I'm always tagged to work at the Post Office on Saturdays and I go to church on Sundays. The best time to go would've been on Monday of the Labor Day weekend. However, I was in Sweden then. So, I had to either get Saturday off from the Post Office or skip church. I decided to try to get Saturday off from the Post Office. I've been going regularly to church since I quit Medieval Times and I didn't care to skip church for the festival. To my surprise, I was able to get this Saturday off.

If you want to avoid a long slow moving line to get into the festival parking lot, you need to leave early and wait for the festival to open. If you don't do that, you will have a long wait trying to get into the parking lot. I procrastinated and I paid the price. It took me 30 minutes to go from the Interstate 97 exit to Crownsville to get into the festival parking lot. When I left at 2 p.m., it would've taken even longer. Once you're parked its easy to get to the entrance to the festival. Warning! Make sure you take a good look around so you have a good idea where your car is. If you don't, you could have some fun trying to find it when you leave.

I paid the $18 admission and checked the schedule of acts. I decided to check out the Rogues. Their a Scottish group based out of Houston. They play some nice Scottish music. At 11:30, they were playing at the Jury Rig stage. I made my way over there. They were their usual good selves. I did notice they had a new piper. I have no idea what happened to the other guy. After listening to them for 20 minutes or so, I made my way to the jousting area to see the knights battle it out.

Unlike the jousting at Medieval Times, this jousting was more real. These guys really did fall off their horses vice faking it. One knight actually got thrown his horse and landed with a clump. A couple other knights had problems controlling their horses. The minute they entered the jousting lane, they charged. I don't know what the horses problems were. Jousting wise, some of it was good and some of it stunk. One time, two knights went at each other 3 straight times and missed each time. I booed at that point. After the jousting was over, I made my way back to the Jury Rig stage to see the Medieval Baebes.

The Medieval Baebes are a 7-girl group based out of England. They sing genuine Medieval music. This has plusses and minuses. It sounds authentic which it is and has an interesting sound. One of the down sides is often, you can't understand a word they're singing. Babe wise, I thought the Baebes looked nice. If you wanted to get an autograph, you could buy some of their CDs and whatever else and they'd be glad to sign it. I decided to pass on that.

After the Medieval Baebes, it was time for another specialty of the the festival, smoked turkey legs. Smoked turkey legs are tasty and fun to eat. I make it a point of buying at least one every time I go to the festival. Price wise, they cost $4 which I thought was reasonable. I very much enjoyed munching on one as I wandered around the festival checking out the shops.

One of the more impressive shops is the Art of Fire. The shop makes handmade glasswear. R. Foster Holcombe is a fully qualified glassblower. He is so skilled at the craft that me can make a beautiful glass goblet in a matter of minutes while demonstrating to the crowd watching. The demonstrations are impressive if you like to see beautiful things made before your eyes. Price wise, I can't tell you how expensive or inexpensive they are. I suspect they're not cheap. Personally, I don't own of their work though I hope to some day. They do make some very nice glassware.

I didn't stay super long at the festival because the acts don't change much from year to year. Also, after spending over $1,100 earlier this week, my wallet needed a little relief. There are no shortage of tempting items to spend your hard earned cash at the festival (I saw some cool daggers at Rorik Rorikson's ironsmithy). For the sake of my wallet, I decided to call it a day after 2 and 1/2 hours at the festival.

FYI, the festival will be open only one more day, tomorrow. It opens at 10 a.m. and closes at 7 p.m. After tomorrow, you'll have to wait until late August of 2008 for it to reopen. I would definitely recommend going to the festival if you live in the Maryland or D.C. area. Cheers all!

Maryland Renaissance Festival

They finally posted the entertainment schedule (it was supposed to be posted the beginning of the month and wasn't posted till nearly the middle of the month) for the Maryland Renaissance Festival. A number of perennial favorites will be returning. The Rogues will be warming things up with their fantastic bagpipes. Hack and Slash will be back with their whip mayhem. The excellent juggler the Squire on the Wire will be back to do more juggling derring-do. And Fight School will be back to teach audiences about various swords while making them laugh with their funny repartee. To my delight, I'll get another chance to see the Medieval Baebes. They return the last weekend of the festival to knock out festival goers with their beauty and their music. I definitely plan to see their show.

A little reminder, the festival kicks off the weekend of August 25th and 26th (just 5 days away, mark your calendars!). The festival runs every weekend through October 21st. There is tons of free parking. Admission is $8 for children (7 to 15 years old), $18 for adults (16 to 61) and $15 for seniors (62 plus). Their hours are 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. rain (I can testify to that) or shine. For further information including how to get to the festival, please check out their website at http://www.rennfest.com/. Hope to see you there.

Cloaks

This past weekend, we had some heavy rain Saturday and early Sunday. It gave me a chance to wear my real cloak. I say "real" because it is a real cloak vice a costume cloak. I think I have some admiration for things from earlier days. I like wearing my full length English riding boots and find it fun wearing my cloak. I had a bit of a misadventure with my cloak. I bought my first one from http://www.tolkientown.com and found out to my dismay that is was purely costume though it's a very nice costume cloak. I wanted something that would keep the rain off and the wind out. A costume cloak won't do that. The second cloak I bought was from http://www.bytheswordinc.com. I'd told them what I wanted length wise and they assured me they'd see to it. I wanted a cloak that would be only about 3 or 4 inches off the ground. That way, it would keep most of me dry if it rained. Someone goofed, whoever made the cloak assumed I had a 3-foot high head and a 10-inch neck. I nearly choked trying to close the cloak around my neck. Unlike the tolkientown cloak, this one was a real cloak and looked very nice but because of the mistake with the hood and neck, it wasn't going to work. I resolved to find a place where I could actually try on cloaks. I found out that Moresca (http://www.moresca.com) sells them. They have a nice shop at the Maryland Renaissance Festival (http://www.rennfest.com). It was there that I got to try on the cloaks they had. They had a number of different colors. I decided to go with black as I thought that was a manly color. I forgot that people associate black with evil and darkness and didn't realize how some people might react to that color. I found out later.

Overall, I've been very pleased with my "real" cloak. I think it looks cool and it has definitely done the job. I've also found it great to wrap up in during a cold night. It's like wrapping up in a nice wool blanket. I'll have to see about posting a picture of me wearing it sometime. That's the end of my cloak tale. Cheers all!

Maryland Renaissance Festival

I got to attend the Maryland Renaissance Festival today. Initially, things didn't look good. When I woke up, it was raining outside but luckily it stopped by 8 a.m.

I very much like the Maryland festival because I think they do a really good job i.e. excellent facilities, excellent acts, excellent shops and a good range of food for sale. There is something to please all ages and groups at the festival.

I also had something of a shopping list. I wanted to buy a doublet and some type of Renaissance pants so I could look the part of a Lord. I also wanted to buy a pair of leather gauntlets/gloves so I could look the part when I play the Executioner at Medieval Times. For the doublet and pants, I went to the Moresca shop. I've been very pleased with them with the cloak and shirt I bought from them. After checking what they had, I found a doublet that I thought looked all right. I got a shock when I laced the dang thing up. Suck in that gut! Yes, I now what a women feels like when she wears one of those bustier thingamajiggys. I definitely need to start doing some situps so I lose some of my gut. Pants wise, I didn't fair so well and ended up buying a pair of black breeches. They said they would be a bit baggy and I felt ya ya ok. Big mistake, I should've tried them on there. When I got home, I got another surprise. They weren't kidding when they said BAGGY. They're something fit for a clown. I'm definitely going to take them back and try to find something better.

After buying my doublet and breeches, I went in search of my leather gloves. I tried a couple places before arriving at Potomac Leather. I'd bought a leather pouch with strap from them before and well pleased with it. I needed the pouch as the black sweat pants I was wearing with my costume didn't have pockets so I needed something to carry my camera, keys and wallet in. The pouch did the trick.

I told one of the shops salespeople what I wanted and he quickly found it. It turned out they had a really nice pair of black leather gauntlet/gloves. I could've gotten ones with studs on them but I thought that was a bit too much. I also wanted to be able to wear the gloves with my Lord costume so I went with the plain ones. After that, it was time to check out the festival.

I got to see part of the Fight School act which was nice. It's a really nice act. My only complaint is they've been doing the same act for the last two years. Time for some new material guys! I got to watch a comic fake swallowing a very LONG balloon. He then faked popping it inside himself by swallowing a dagger. Yuck! I also took some photos which I plan to post here once I get them developed. Sadly, I didn't get to see the Medieval Baebes. I found out their first performance wasn't until 2:30 and I had to leave by 1:30 as I had to work at Medieval Times today. Damn! After shooting the rest of the roll of film I had in the camera, I decided to have one of those scrumptious smoked turkey legs.

I had no problems finding one of the stands and forked up the four dollars for one. It was as good as ever. It was also fun to munch on it barring having to pull out some of the ? quills maybe, I don't know what you'd call them. Anyway, barring that, it was great to eat one. I also found a stand selling root beer floats. I thought that sounded good so I paid two dollars and got half a glass of root beer and a scoop of vanilla ice cream. I wasn't impressed.

Lastly, I listened to a group playing brass instruments. I don't know what they were called but they were very good. Some music sounds wonderful when it's played by brass ensembles. The music these fine musicians played was great. It was a nice finish to my visit.

I plan to go back again. I still have to try to find some decent pants that I can wear in costume with my full length riding boots. I also like being able to wear a cloak and not having people spaz out. I think cloaks are cool and it's neat to watch my cloak flutter as the wind hits it. I also like to wear a costume at the festival. The costume is one of the main reasons I like my new job in sound and lighting at Medieval Times so much. It's a lot of fun to wear it. I'll make sure I post more in this blog when I go back. Cheers my lords and ladies!

2005 Visit to Maryland Renaissance Festival

Because of A^2, I decided to post what I did this past Saturday. I'll have to post the pictures I took of the knights that were jousting later.

Saturday, I finally got to take my friend Tami to the Maryland Renaissance Festival. The folks who organize the yearly event really do a great job. I've been four times now and enjoyed it every time.

Tami had never been to the festival. I was looking forward to introducing her to it. The festival is located near Crownsville, Maryland. It has been a yearly event since 1976. It has permanent buildings for all the various shops as well as a permanent jousting field. Price wise, it is very reasonable. The non-discounted ticket is $17 for an adult. I don't know what it costs for a kid. How long it'll take you get there depends on where you live and when you leave. I made it a point to leave around 9 a.m. so that I wouldn't hit a long line of cars trying to get in. This worked as we weren't stuck in traffic for very long. The festival opens its gates at 10 a.m.

There are a number of acts that I particularly like at the festival that I made sure I introduced Tami to. There is the scottish bagpipe group called "The Rogues" who play some awesome scottish bagpipes. They've also tried to create more modern music for this instrument so they can keep it alive. I think they succeed admirably.

Another good act is "The Squire on the Wire." The squire's name is Michael Rosman. He mixes comedy, juggling, and tight-rope walking into an excellent show that keeps the audience roaring.

If you want to see two action heroes, you see the act Hack and Slash. They're a great comedy act at the festival. Their real names are John Davis and Spencer Humm. The two would be heroes do a number of routines that are hilarious. Hack is the one with the green and brown whip. The world's most difficult color combination. Slash is the "big" man. You'll find out what I mean when you see him perform.

Another favorite act of mine is Fight School. This act is noteworthy because it is funny AND you learn something. They actually explain how certain swords and swordfighting techniques developed while cracking various jokes. Fight school is composed of Jim Frank, Mike Martin, Casey Severn, and Geoff Thompson.

Jousting is a staple of the festival and this one was no different. What is interesting about the jousting at the festival vice Medieval Times is the knights wear real plate armor, ride horses whose ancestors would've carried "real" knights, and they don't fall off the horse intentionally. While some of the fighting is obviously fake, the jousting is a lot closer to real jousting vice what you'll see at Medieval Times.

Another nice thing about the festival are all the different shops. A number of them sell very nice merchandise. You can pick up some nice pictures, leather goods, well made renaissance clothes for the festival, or some beautiful hand made glassware. I bought myself a nice renaissance shirt and a satchel. One bad thing about pants that you have to wear with riding boots is often they don't have pockets. That makes it difficult to carry your wallet, keys, etc. The satchel fit the bill perfectly. It was big enough to carry all those things and a camera to boot without being bulky, didn't cause me problems with my cloak, or was exposed to any would-be thieves. It also isn't touristy looking.

The touristy thing is important because when I travel, I don't want to look like a tourist. Tourists are big targets for thieves and people selling junk I don't want to buy. The satchel should be great for carrying my passport, airplane ticket, wallet, camera, and keys. The only complaint I have with the satchel is the three stone buttons you use to secure it. They're not that easy to use.

The last thing I like about the festival is the food. The smoked turkey legs are particularly excellent. I make a point of having one of these every time I go. If you go to the festival, as long as you're not vegetarian, try one. They have lots of other kinds of food including pizza to eat though the only other one I can recommend are the orange ices. They also have a good selection of beers though I would ask you to please don't drink and drive.

The only thing I can fault the festival for is the short time it runs. It starts the third weekend in August and goes to the third weekend in October. I wish it ran longer.