Weekly Date: A Gathering of Rogues and Ruffians

Diana took me to A Gathering of Rogues and Ruffians, a Renaissance Fair that took place last Saturday. I just happened to be wearing a half-cape already, so I fit right in:

The most impressive aspect of the faire had to be the costumes. There were normal-dressed muggles there (as well as some half-hearted charlatans like myself), but at least half the attendees wore intricate rags or regalia. There were sparring knights, dotty drunkards, flirtatious wenches, and at least one terrifying orc.

The fayre was set in a sizable clearing in the woods. Grabbing a map, we first stopped to watch a magician perform old tricks and tell new jokes. Then we performed the difficult dance of seeing each vendor's wares without looking interested. Such wares included costumes, jewelry, handmade leather goods, natural soaps, fortune telling, face painting, and even Christian labyrinths. There was also an authentic Medieval didgeridoo player and a violinist performing Zelda pieces.

The first culinary mistake of the day was mine. I don't know if it was the vendor's epic beard, my daring cape, or my assumption that "Thunder Pickles!" must be different than regular pickles—but whatever the reason, I forked over a dollar, took a bite, and discovered 2 things: 1) Thunder Pickles! are, in fact, no different than regular dill pickles. 2) Despite my recent affinity for any pickles on sandwiches and bread & butter pickles by themselves, I do not like plain dill pickles. Even Thunder Pickles!

We watched several rounds of a tournament of knights. It was cool to see the knights' choice of weapons and how it affected the fight. Do you choose 2 swords, a sword and shield, a sword and a small but pointy shield, a mace and a sword, or one long spear? Then we made some more culinary mistakes. Diana got chicken nachos, which sounds good, but was pretty much normal nachos with cold chicken and bbq sauce. She also got a pretzel, but Diana is somewhat of a pretzel connoisseur and she was not impressed. And finally, I got this:

That's right, a ostrich turkey leg. It took forever to cook, and I did not realize how huge it would be. And the texture was... interesting. I probably won't be getting one again, but I'm glad I tried it once in my life.

The last and best thing we saw at the fære was the Fandazzi Fire Circus, a troupe that danced and juggled fire to the music of live fiddlers. The whole thing was fantastic—a fitting finale to a fascinating festival.