King Richard's Faire

Dan and I had been to King Richard's Faire a few years ago and had mixed feeling about it (we had fun, but it was very overpriced and commercial).  Our friends suggested going again this year because it was close by where we were staying for Marty and Joanna's reception, so we decided to give it a second try.

I was curious to see if Hannah enjoyed it or not.  She actually seemed to have a really good time yesterday!

When we got to the fairground, she was asleep.  We were able to transfer her to her stroller, and she didn't even notice.  She slept for at least another half hour!  Some of the staff who were entertaining visitors just inside the entrance got a big kick out of the fact that she was asleep on her stomach - they made a bunch of jokes about how she'd already met the dragon or had had too much to drink, etc.  It was kind of funny.

Robyn, Jason, and Jeff (Robyn's brother) were already there when we arrived, and we all met a story-weaver (a story teller who gets audience input to make her stories complete) named Spark while we were waiting for everyone else. We ended up talking with her for a while, and she told us to come and see one of her shows (more on that later...).

Jason was wearing a boar's head hat which they had gotten in Italy, and Hannah thought it was really funny.  The staff at the festival did also - one of them asked if they could take his photo, even though they weren't supposed to do that!

After walking around for a while and playing some of the carnival games (archery, Oriental stars, ax-throwing, etc.), we got lunch and then decided to watch one of Spark's shows.  Since Hannah was getting really sleepy (see the photo below), we thought it would be a good chance for her to relax and possibly fall asleep on one of us...

That would have been a good idea, except that Spark remembered Dan and called him up on stage by name!  The audience chose him to be the hero of the story and the woman on the left was his sidekick.  Dan's hero name was "Alison the Great" and he had to say "Awesomeness is Power" every time Spark mentioned him.  She gave him a purple cape to wear - it was hysterical!

There was also a villain (in the back right of the photo below, wearing Groucho glasses), but Dan and his sidekick saved the day at the end of the story!  Thank goodness.  I was worried.  :)

Hannah HATED the show - partially because she was so tired, and partially because she was very much in a Daddy mood and didn't understand why she couldn't go on stage with him.  She cried through almost the whole thing and I even had to walk away with her at one point to get her to calm down.  She tried to walk up to the stage twice and I had to pull her away - poor kid.

I hope we'll get opportunities to do stuff like that again in the future, because I think she will enjoy watching her daddy do silly things in public.  I certainly did!  Go Dan!  I wanted to videotape the show, but it was hard enough snapping these few photos while trying to keep Hannah from getting too upset.

Afterwards, we watched a pretend jousting match, which Hannah really liked because she is currently enamored with horses.  I love when she makes a "clop clop" noise to sound like a horse - Nana taught her that when we visited them last month.  It's just so darn cute.

We had a good time at the Faire, but I'm not sure it's worth going again.  I think I'd rather check out some other festivals in the area - any suggestions?