Ren Fest

   C and I went to the Minnesota Renaissance Festival today. We do this every year about this time. This year we did something different. We did not attend the Feast of Fantasy.
  The Feast is a meal of several courses with various types of entertainment between the courses. There are jugglers, dancers,madrigals and storytellers. Sometimes the King will pay a visit. The Feast is hosted by the Feastmaster and his assistant. It is a good time and the audience is encouraged and sometimes roped into participating.
   One thing that has been happening in recent years is that the Feast has become increasingly raunchy. It was always just a little bit racy, but the humour kept getting bluer and bluer. Last year there was some humour that C and I found seriously offensive. We needed to stop going to the Feast.
  It was a little strange. C kept talking about how we needed to make reservations. I reminded him that we needed reservations because we had gone to the Feast. Since we weren't going we could just walk up and buy tickets.
   This morning it was very cold. 45 degrees cold to be precise. C elected not to wear his kilt and decided to wear a sweatshirt, vest and a hooded sweatshirt. I had been looking forward to going in costume. My usual costume was not going to work. I would need something much warmer. I really wanted to dress up and wearing a bodice with a pair of jeans didn't count. I remembered that I had a gold coloured skirt from my Bristol Faire costume. I could wear my red shift, the gold skirt and my brown overdress. I had a navy blue shawl that I could wear as well. It was perfect. I would be dressed up and comfortable.
  We ate a quick breakfast and got on the road. We made good time to the festival arriving just before the opening cannon. Due to mining around the festival site we had a long walk from our car to the festival. I didn't mind. Walking was good exercise and it kept us warm. Once we got to the festival we bought our tickets and went in.
  Just inside we found one of our favourite acts. Her name is Mistress Kathleen and she plays a hammered dulcimer. I love listening to her play. We found out where she would be made mental notes of that.
  We started to walk around. C was hungry and wanted some food. We found a booth that sold scotch eggs and breakfast pies. C had a pie and I got an egg. A scotch egg is a boiled egg with sausage around it. The egg is then breaded and deep fried. It was pretty good. C was pleased with his pie.
  We walked around some more. I saw a woman weaving on a small loom. She was wearing a very attractive lavender, green and white tartan. She had designed the tartan herself. She and a friend wove it. It was beautiful. I watched some medieval dancers.
  We found a group of musicians. One of them was playing a banjo. C watched him closely as he played. We stayed for a few songs and then left. We wondered around for a while and then went to see Mistress Kathleen. She was fantastic as expected.
   We wandered around again stopping in shops that we liked and listening to musicians playing along the way. We saw a lot of things we hadn't seen in a long time.
  Around lunchtime both of us were hungry. This was the only time that we missed the Feast. The lines for the food booths we wanted to go to tended to be long. At the Feast you get served. I saw no problem with the wait. At least you get to choose what you want. At the Feast you don't have an option.
   After lunch we stopped by the place where the King and Queen have court. It was romance weekend so they were offering free vow renewals. I made a joke that I didn't realize marriage vows had an expiration date. C chuckled.
  We did some shopping. The honey booth had big jars of buckwheat honey. Buckwheat honey is the best thing for a cough. I wanted a Renaissance goblet. Normally we would get one at the Feast. I like to have a goblet for each year that I've gone to the festival. I've lost count of how many I have. We found a nice goblet with the year on it. I walked past a hat store. There were many lovely hats, but non that I could actually wear. I did find a nice pearl and crystal headband and bought it.
  We each got a turtle on a stick and then walked around some more. C was getting tired. We wanted to get home before the festival closed to avoid the traffic.
   On the way home we stopped at a grocery store to pick up a few things. I went into the store in costume. C says there were a few people who stopped to stare. I didn't notice.
   We got back into the car and talked about all we had seen. Normally we get done with the Feast and walk around a little before going home. This time we saw more and we saved a lot of money. Skipping the Feast was a good idea.