Renaissance Festival

On Sunday, we went to the Maryland Renaissance Festival. It's located in Crownsville, right near Annapolis, but I had never been before. Some of Kyle's friends from work were going, so they convinced him to come along. There were so many people there though that we never even saw his friends.

This is what the grounds look like when you pull up. There is a castle right up front. Throughout the grounds, which are located in the woods, there are lots of old-timey looking buildings. There are vendors set up in the buildings selling all sorts of things from food and beer to period costumes and leather items.

I thought this would be a cute picture. Too bad Kyle was standing to the side, because now you can see me standing behind the tree as well. Oh well, I guess.

This stage was the first one closest to the main gate. When we arrived there was an act going on. We only caught the tail end of it, so I'm not sure what was really happening. But the guy was talking in a fake British accent and telling jokes, so it was sort of interesting.

The next show was a juggler, so we decided to stick around. Peyton loves when Kyle juggles, so we thought he'd like the show. We went up to the front of the area and got second row seats so that Peyton would be able to see. The juggler was kind of crappy, because he kept messing up. He juggled three balls and then some clubs. He could only juggle five clubs for about three seconds. Lame!

He did do some cool tricks with these cigar boxes. He was very skilled at balancing stuff on his head.

For the grand finale, he had some audience members come up on stage to hold this rope. Kyle got to participate! Look how thrilled he is...

The juggler got up on the rope and walked across it a little bit until he was standing over a man that was laying on the ground under the rope. Then he juggled three knives. The guy laying on the ground looked terrified, and frankly I don't blame him because that juggler messed up so many times earlier in the show. But everything worked out in the end.

Next, we wandered around a little more. Peyton was hungry so we bought some food. Then we happened upon a playground area for the kids. Peyton saw it, so you know he had to play. There were slides, swings, and a big wooden pirate ship.

We had to drag Peyton out of there. There were just so many kids that it was nuts and he was littler than most of them, so I was a little nervous that he was going to get hurt. He didn't want to leave, but we won.

We watched some people playing different games like throwing battle axes and trying to 'Drench the Wench'. No one was even getting close to hitting the target to drop the girl into the dunk tank, so Kyle had to try. He wasn't anywhere close either!

There were free pony rides and free elephant rides. We didn't participate in either though because the lines were long and we weren't confident that Peyton wouldn't freak out.

There was a jousting arena set up, but we just missed one show and the next wasn't starting for two more hours. We walked around a little more but then it began to rain. So we, and everyone else, headed for the exits.

It was a decent day, but not something I'm sure we'll ever do again. It is probably fun to go there with your friends and sit around and drink all day. But Peyton was just too young to enjoy most of the shows. He was antsy sitting through one show, and that one was probably the most appropriate for his age. There were tons of inappropriately dressed women there. There should be an age and weight limit for some of those costumes. I saw way too much cleavage for one day. It is sort of comedic though, because some of the people were really into it.

We stopped at Chevy's for dinner on the way home. Peyton experienced cantaloupe for the first time and loved it. After dinner, we headed home and relaxed for the rest of the evening.