A Family Affair at The Renaissance Faire

Our weekends are usually busy in the summer.  Lately we've had our goals of rearranging house furniture to better suit our little crawler, help our mothers with house projects and look after their animals, and trying to get on the ball with ideas for Annaliese's first birthday party.  There is always something that needs done but sometimes it's nice to just go away for the day, just us.

Justin, Annaliese and I packed up the car last Saturday and drove the 80 minute car ride to the very large Pennsylvania Renaissance Faire in Manheim, PA.  Justin loves movies and books that take place in that era but had never been to a Renaissance Faire before, so I was excited for him to experience his first time!

We arrived with everyone fed, napped and ready to go.  It was a beautiful day!  Low 80's and low humidity.  It was the perfect day to spend outside.

The sky on the way home

The jousting arena

Annaliese was enjoying the sunshine

 I love this place because everyone is always in character!  The vendors speak with English accents and accept cash (pounds) for payment as well as "Lady Visa and Master Card".  Everything in this little village is made to look like you're actually in the Renaissance era.  We did pass by the Queen, but she had her servants surrounding her so I wasn't able to get a good picture, but she was beautiful!

A Celtic band

One of the villagers 

The ship where many swords, axes and armory were sold

"Wee Dragon", a place for little princess attire

A quote from Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Night's Dream"

Yes they even had Greek Renaissance food!  (this ones for you, dad!)

People who were there visiting also came in costume!  Justin enjoyed this the most, because there were families, couples and singles who wore outfits to join in the fun and they certainly fit right in!

Even a little bitty baby had on a costume hat

People dressed up in knight's armor

We got to see a few shows while we were there.  We were able to see a bird show where a guy who has been training birds since he was 7 years old showed us an owl, an eagle and a falcon.  That was really cool!  No pictures were taken because we were too far away and I have yet to get a cool lens for our camera to take up close pictures from far away.  We also got to see The Mud Squad perform a little skit but unfortunately before we got to see them play in the mud, Annaliese was getting hungry, so we headed to another area.

The Mud Squad's lair

The Mud Pit

One of the three from the Mud Squad

What made my day, other than having a great day out with my little family, was capturing some really good candid shots of Justin and Annaliese together :)

We had a great day as a family!

A great day with great memories :)

Linking up with Alison and Galit for August's Memories Captured.