Happily Ever Adventurous: Birthday Adventures: Renaissance Faire Part I

Arriving at the Renaissance Faire

On Saturday morning, I had some Turkish coffee with Baros and Danielle (who had
crashed at our place the night before) and then I hyper-actively hightailed it to Queens via public transport. After a few public transport snafus (if you've ever taken the subway on the weekend then you know what I'm talking about), I made it to my friend Angela's apartment just in time for delicious roast port buns that Evan had made a run for.
We had our mini breakfast and left for the Renaissance Faire in Tuxedo Park, NY.

At the front gates, ready to Renaissance!

I love the Renn Faire with all of my heart. Last year was the first year in about 6 years that I couldn't get there (too much to do and no car to get there with). As a result, I was really excited to go this year.

If you've never been to the Renn Faire, it's amazing. It's a town built into Tuxedo Park and it's styled like a "renaissance" town and everyone (all the actors at least) are in period costumes and speak with accents. There artoe amazing shows and jousts. Knife throwing, fire throwing, bastardized Shakespeare, Robin Hood and his merry men and so much more.

There are shops to outfit yourself for the faire so you can buy corsets, leather ware, armor, weapons, jewelry, flower crowns, elf ears, tails, etc. You name it and most likely, you can find it.

There's even delicious food, the favorite being giant Turkey legs.

My beautiful henna

I love wandering around the faire. I don't need to do much to be content, just being in the jovial atmosphere makes me happy. It's child friendly but really it's built for adults and their imaginations.
It's a wonderful place.

The first thing we did upon arriving was head over to the face painting and henna
booth. Ang got her face painted and for the first time I did henna on my hand. Ang's face paint was glittery beauty and I'm in love with my henna (which is good since it'll be on my skin for at least another couple of weeks).

Such lovely artwork!!

Then we headed straight to the food while I tried not to bend my henna hand (it needed to stay still for 3 plus hours for the henna to develop on my skin). We shared a turkey leg, a spicy sausage and bangers and mash (sausage and mashed potatoes). I didn't take pictures of the food this round solely because it was challenging to maneuver and not crack off the henna.
The henna was definitely worth it but kind of a pain in the butt. Next time, I would consider doing it right before leaving that way I would already be sitting still for an hour in the car (granted I'm not the driver).

After eating, we started our wander. We wandered through the leather and weapon
shops (one of these days I'm going to buy full leather armor because it's gorgeous... buttt it's also expensive...).

We watched some amazing glass blowing. I will always be in awe of the skill it requires to make something so delicate and beautiful. At every step I would be terrified of messing up!

Incredible skill required

The finished glass was beautiful

Some of my favorite fairies

We wandered through the fairie forest and then saw some dancing by the maypole. It's so much fun to see the kids interacting and playing.

The Maypole

Having a fairie conversation with a lovely
parrot

Epic glass and an epic sky

The Sherwood Stage

Aaron Bonk

Afterwards we passed the Robin Hood Bridge to get to the Sherwood Stage to see
some flame-throwing and juggling antics. Oh man, that guy was awesome!! Aaron Bonk. He juggled swords, played with fire and cracked a crazy whip. He even juggled and cracked the whips simultaneously... which was supper impressive! It was a great show and I definitely recommend it.

Balancing flame

Balancing and Throwing
swords

Flaming whips

Crazy flame throwing

And he had so much fun with it!

My beautiful fairie of a best friend

Then, we wandered through Pirate Cove and had a fascinating conversation with an older gentleman about his time in Vietnam and the military. He was also kind enough to show us his functioning Pirate pistol.

Heading through Pirate Cove

Fitting that Ang has the weapon lol

Ding Ding Ding

From there, Evan tested his strength with a hammer. He struck the bell all three times and was apparently the only one to have done that all day!

Knife throwing

From there we continued with some games. We threw knives (Ang thought it would be
easier than star throwing... it wasn't lol). We shot crossbows (also not easy) and then shot bow and arrows! Bow and arrows were the easiest.

Then we wandered over to the camel rides! I got to ride my first ever camel! So much fun. It wasn't a long enough ride but it was fun nonetheless.

The baby camel!!

I want to go again!

A little fairie watching the camel

Then we wandered some more and grabbed a drink. I got a rose cider and we
contemplated more food (ultimately we decided to wait since we were going to the San Gennaro feast once we got back into the city).
We watched some tomato throwing. There was a man getting tomatoes thrown at him as he made fun of those doing the throwing. It was hilarious.

We saw so many cool costumes and items. I was a super happy camper.

Evan being a goof

musical performances

We did not see everything in the park but we had so much fun with what we did see. I'm really happy that I got to go again the following Saturday with other friends as well. The only person missing was Baros due to his crazy schedule!