Ah, Renaissance!

I certainly meant to write about our trip before now. Time does get away. Our oldest boy moved back for a little while, and his girlfriend is here visiting. I know it’s hard for them to be in the situation they are in, but it sure is great to see them and to have them back, at least for a little while.

With our regular busy lives and all of the wonderful activity of having our older kids back, we’ve just been pretty discombobulated around here! I’m trying to get our schedule back to at least semi-normal. Our school took a direct hit. We had a lot more time off than we intended to take, with Easter break, then the trip down to the Renaissance Faire, and then I gave them a little more time to visit their big brother. We were scheduled to finish school the first week in May, but it looks like we’ll be going through to the end of the month now. That’s okay. Most of the schools here will go at least that long. I was just looking forward to having a little bit longer of a summer vacation. On the other hand, getting our scheduled school year finished so early makes it easy to be flexible for just such occasions. It works out well, I’d say.

It appears we’re going to be taking a little more time off soon. We’re still planning a camp-out, and it looks like we’re going to have to do that sooner rather than later because of a situation on my husband’s job. His truck has to go in for repairs and he can’t put it off much longer. When he does, it’s a week off of work like it or not. So I guess we’re taking our camp week in the next week, maybe two if he can postpone it at all. I’m excited about the camp-out, but I was hoping we could hold off until the night time temperatures up on the mountain were a bit warmer. I think we can adjust.

Now, for the trip. Dan and Sarrah canceled early on, and Chris canceled last minute, but Nicolas, Jonathan’s friend from way back, got to go with us. Nicolas is sort of our Renaissance partner it would seem. This is the third year we’ve been together for Renaissance, and we all had such a wonderful time we decided it wouldn’t be quite right without him. He stayed over with us the night before, so we got up and hurried out of here as early as possible on Friday. I actually joined the twenty-first century and got my first cell phone so that the boys would be able to take off on their own and still be able to communicate with us. I’m sure that two fifteen year old boys would have been absolutely thrilled to have stayed with us the entire time, but it was just in case we got separated, you understand.

We had our hotel room reserved for anytime after three o’clock, but it was quite a bit later than three o’clock by the time we arrived. We did make it in time to enjoy ourselves a little bit. Actually, we got there early enough that we went down to Bass Pro Shop. Wow! What a store! It was late, so we couldn’t stay long, but I think if we’d have gotten there by noon we still wouldn’t have had enough time. That place is huge, and if you are the outdoor type, it’s a dreamland! They had everything from bass boats to fishing lures, from campers to camp stoves. I slobbered on most of their merchandise.

The place was great looking, too. It looked like an enormous log cabin from the outside, and on the inside it was decorated like the great outdoors! There was an aquarium on the ground floor full of carp and large mouth bass, a few catfish, that you could stand eyeball to eyeball with. The elevator actually ran behind it. You start out underwater and emerge in the camping department. They had a little shooting range up there that Josiah and dad played around with. Jonathan and Nicolas were off and I didn’t see them again until we met up to leave.

They wanted to get away from me. I was a horrible grouch on Friday. I had been on edge anyway, and my kids had been acting up, but then about half way to Phoenix we stopped to get some snacks out of the cooler, and we realized that the car wash we ran through on the way out of town had crashed into the bed of our truck and left a terrible dent. I didn’t have a receipt to show we’d even been there, and all I could think about was how I was going to get the truck repaired, and fact that I didn’t have that stupid receipt! It took me awhile, but I got my attitude squared away. Unfortunately I nearly ruined Jonathan’s day before I did. And here I’ve been talking to him about his attitude! Mmm! Yum! Crow! I’m starting to acquire a taste for it! So anyway, I will probably put an album of pictures from our visit to Bass Pro Shop on my photo page soon.

We went back to our hotel room and I sat out by the pool while the kids swam and Allen ran for pizza. It was a really nice suite, and the pool was right outside the doors off of our patio. I think if that’s all we had done on our trip the kids would have been happy. They really enjoyed the pool. I hated to make them get out, but we had such an early morning ahead of us that I just had to get them fed and into bed. I thought I was going to have to go in and beat Nicolas and Jonathan into unconsciousness! LOL! They were so excited and having so much fun that I think they’d have been up all night talking if I didn’t force them to go to sleep. Nicolas probably thought I was a jerk! LOL! Jonathan sure did!

So, morning came early. We all sat and vegged though our breakfast in the hotel lobby, and then off we go to start our adventure! Ah, the Renaissance Faire! T’was lovely! I swear I could live there! Well, I’d might starve if I had to continue to pay those prices to eat there, but other than that, I could just stay! The weather was nearly perfect. It got a bit warm up in the afternoon, at least a bit warm for my taste, but for Apache Junction, Arizona in April, it was nice! It was probably mid-eighties up in the afternoon, maybe as high as ninety. We all got a slight burn on our faces and arms, but nothing serious. It was warm enough that I thought it might have been a good thing that Nicolas didn’t wear his armor.

The crowd was pretty big. It was the last weekend of the Festival and I guess everyone decided to go before it was over. I don’t know. We almost always go on the last weekend, and it’s always been busy like that, but for all I know it’s that busy every weekend. For several hours there it was elbow to elbow. My husband got a bit out of sorts over that, but by late afternoon a lot of folks were leaving and it thinned out nicely for us and the other die-hards!

There’s so much to do there that it’s hard to do it all in one day. There are activities and rides for the kids. Josiah loved the rock climbing wall, and was very good at it, I might add. He also got on one ride where they stand you on a trampoline and then hitch you to some bungee cords, give you a fling, and off ye go! There were swings, a ride that was supposed to be like a joust, a giant rocking horse, just to name a few.

The shows are always a big draw. There are comedy acts, jugglers, music shows, animal acts, and that’s just the ones scheduled in the theaters. There are also lots and lots of street shows. Everywhere you turn there are dancers and jugglers, musicians, comedians, and yes, the mime.

I have to at least make one special mention about one of the bands. They are Tartanic, and man! What a show! It’s great fun! I guess it helps if you already like bagpipes and drums, but even for those who generally wouldn’t like such things, this is a show worth seeing. It’s what my kids say is heavy metal on bagpipes. You wind up clapping and hollering, just getting into it! I personally like their music, but it’s the show! They are really good live entertainers. If you ever get the opportunity to see them, by all means do so.

There are lots and lots of characters in costume running around all over the town, like the creepy eyed wizard and this absolutely wonderful faerie that was amusing all the little girls. I wished I’d gotten a picture of her, but really, it was more in her actions. I’d have needed a video in order to capture her. It is hard to tell who is actually a part of the Festival staff and who is just a visitor in garb! I noticed that a lot more people were wearing garb this year. Either that or because I wasn’t wearing any this time around it just seemed like more people were! I noticed a lot more kilts than before, too. Maybe it’s due to the the popularity of Tartanic among the folks who have been there and seen them before. I have decided that my husband should have a kilt. He’d look smart in one! Next faire, dear.

I felt so bad for Nicolas and Jonathan! Nicolas brought all of his garb and weaponry to wear, but he left it at our house! We didn’t even realize it until we were almost to Phoenix! So naturally this would be the year that so many people were dressed out! He was so disappointed and we felt so bad for him. There’s always next year, Nicolas! Prepare ye!

I absolutely love going from store front to store front looking at all the artisan’s wares. I think that’s a big part of the reason I like to go so much. It’s in my heart to learn how to make some of those wonderful things! I just know I could, and it sparks so many ideas when look at what other people have made. I was hoping my husband would take a pile of pictures of all of the things I liked, because I wanted to study and look at them again and again, but he didn’t see the need. I was a little disappointed about that, but we did get some good pictures of the kids doing lots of fun things, and of the “town”, a lot of the buildings, and that sort of thing.

It really is like a little village. It’s set up with permanent structures and it covers a lot of ground. I wish we’d have thought to take a picture or two from back away from it a little bit. It’s really something to see. You can see the towers and the flags from the highway. I don’t know what they do there the rest of the year after the Renaissance Festival is over, if anything. Maybe it’s just a little ghost town the rest of the year. I’m not sure what else you could do, because it looks decisively medieval. It seems kind of a waste for it to just sit, abandoned for ten months. It’s so big! I don’t know where the biggest Renaissance Faire is held, but this one is surely at least one of the largest. Anyway, I put all of the pictures we got into a folder on my Xanga photo page here , or at my myspace photo page here , if you’re interested in having a look at any of them.

By next year I plan to have my garb in order. I didn’t exactly feel out of place without it, but I would have liked it all the more if I’d had some. They sell it there, but they are really proud of it! I think I can make something just as nice for a fraction of what some of them were asking for theirs. Except for the armor. There is a guy there that makes the most incredible leather armor! It looks like something you’d see in a good Hollywood movie, or like it came right out of the middle ages! There are a couple of pictures of it on my photo album if you get the chance to look. I hope the craftsmanship and the detail is clear in the picture. It was absolutely amazing in person.

So much of what we saw there was amazing! They have some of the best artisans around. But the real kicker, probably the smartest guy in all the realm was the guy who makes wooden swords. I think every single kid at the Faire had one. They were overpriced, but on the scale of everything else there, the swords were the most affordable things you could get for the kids, and they all loved them! This year the guy had shields and axes to go along with the swords. I’m telling you, that guy had the cash cow! Why couldn’t I have thought of that?!

The kids got their swords and commemorative coins. I got my awesome 2008 Arizona Renaissance Festival Twentieth Anniversary Special Edition Commemorative Mug. Allen got his pictures. All is well.

All in all it was a great day. It was a fast, turn around, whirlwind of a trip, but I’d do it again in a second! Yeah, it’s the same from year to year, and yeah, it’s corny and gaudy and touristy… the whole bit, but we love it.