The Texas Renaissance Festival

Our friend Ron had some free tickets to the Renaissance Festival, good only for the Friday after Thanksgiving. He offered them to us because he would be unable to attend that day. We excitedly accepted the tickets because we were not going to be able to afford to attend the festival this year. We attended once a few years ago and loved it. My inlaws Billie and Freddie went with us yesterday even though they'd just been a few weeks ago with Marty's brother's family. We love seeing all the costumes....well, most of the costumes...the shows, the food. We all enjoyed it and we all had such a good day together. I think Heather enjoyed it tremendously as well, even though what teenager looks forward to spending an entire day with all the adults and no other teenagers??? But she loves the Renaissance Festival enough to go even with all of us. We are all anxiously planning next year's trip. Who knows, maybe next year will find us in costume! And no, none of our costumes will include chainmail!

I took so many photos that I should split them into multiple blogs. All the portrait type photos we took will be in an upcoming blog post. Billie and Freddie even convinced Marty and I to have our portraits taken in costumes so be watching for royalty! Still, I sorted through photos and decided which ones to upload and narrowed it down to 40 photos!!! So, now I need to narrow it down even more or you'll never get my page to load! If you want to see more of them, I'll upload more to my flickr page and you can view them on my photostream there. Keep checking back as I upload more. There are lots of the jousting and rings tournament for the queen. That was awesome to watch!

The grounds where the festival is held each year are beautiful!

Every man entering the gate was greeted with a kiss from a wench. Bright red lipstick was reapplied after every one of them! Marty got it twice because I told her I missed the shot the first time so she turned him around and planted one on the other side!








This man greeted everyone as they entered the gates. He's a man of few words and just grunted his hellos!

This was the most popular man in the park. Kids were lined up all day to visit him!







This man greeted us as we sat to watch our first show. 3 men performed a rendition of Romeo and Juliette unlike any I've ever seen before! Upon departure he told Heather she could explain the jokes to her parents!









Heather was adorned with colorful ear cuffs....no piercing required!








This little fairy was the cutest thing in the park! She was responsible for watching the horse while the carriage driver took a break.












We all loved the parade! Every type of Renaissance costume imaginable was on display!







I'm sure the men enjoyed the chainmail costumes most of all. Wipe your drool fellas!






Beautiful costumes everywhere!











There were so many people crowded around one show that Freddie hoisted Heather on his shoulders so she could take pictures.

Billie looked great holding Freddie's hat for him!







The jousting and rings competitions for the queen were the most popular event of the day.

In this photo the man on the ground held rings that the horsemen would collect on poles as they rode past. The man with the most rings at the end of the competiton won that round.

After the rings, armor and shields were donned for the jousting!






Jousting.







There were so many people that we had to stand at the very top of the arena to see. I was thankful for my zoom lens!!!







For some, a Renaissance Festival is not complete without the turkey leg!!!

Heather.




Freddie.





Marty and Freddie tried their hands with the archery. Can you tell this is right up Marty's alley???

Marty gave Heather some pointers.

Heather climbed a rock wall. I didn't even attempt it in my boots!

We watched a birds of prey show. This is a red tailed hawk.

As we were leaving I thought one of these guys wasn't going to let me go!







What a wonderful day we all had! Thanks so much for the tickets Ron and thanks for joining us Billie and Freddie!!!

Stay tuned for more.....

And Suzanne...I looked everywhere for the dancing gypsy men and they were not to be found! I'll just have to watch them on your blog I guess!!! lol