Maryland Renaissance Festival

I was super happy to be able to go to the Maryland Renaissance Festival twice this year; once with a friend and once with my mom (who came to visit for the first time in 8 years). Since we'd both been a couple times already, my friend and I made a point of taking in as many shows as possible whereas my mom and I saw a couple shows but mostly wandered around.

I really think that the first show we saw, Flexible Comedy, was my favorite. My face rather hurt after from all the laughing.

Then there were the Pyrates Royal. I regret not having got one of their CDs but might order one from the website. They were pretty good and the tenor had a wonderful voice.

Also doesn't he remind you of Smee from Peter Pan? Then there were The Interpreters, the definition of bawd. One speaks Italian and one speaks blond. Very entertaining.

We also saw a group called Wine and Alchemy. I'm afraid I was already playing with my fun lenses by then so the only picture of that I have was done with a fish eye attachment.

I had good fun that day playing with different lens attachments. There was the fish eye:

And a Lensbaby double glass:

The day I went around with my mom was so much fun. She was like a little kid at Disney. Actually I should ask my sister what mom's first visit to Disney was like because I think she got a bigger kick out of the festival...and who wouldn't? She particularly enjoyed the costumes people had, especially the totally not having anything at all to do with that year's story line costumes.

We also saw the Dangling Darlings and she got some good shots of them.

We saw a Gypsy band, a gentleman randomly playing a spinet, and some lovely stilt walkers.

We also ran across a guy I saw last year. Last year I saw him only as a butterfly but this year he was a butterfly, a baby, and was riding a horse.

The horse contraption was adorable, looked somewhat like a My Little Pony actually. My mom fell in love with it. I think she was more enraptured than the kids. It was adorable.

That's mom in the stripes.

I also introduced her to the awesomeness of fare food including fried brownies and fried candy bars. I was pretty disappointed with the brownies and will, myself, be sticking to the candy bars in the future.

Best part of the day? I got my face painted. I was so pretty I waited until I absolutely had to to wash it off. In fact, if the next day hadn't been Sunday and if I didn't consider face paint somewhat inappropriate for Mass I think I'd have kept it on.

Can't wait for next year!