The Rennfest

I love Maryland! The longer I live here the more I love it. We are into our third year here, (how is that possible?) I am finding more and more interesting things to do here. I know we have barely scratched the surface of what we need to experience and visit while we are living here, but here is something you must do if you visit Maryland in September and October.

The renaissance festival! This incredible place is tucked in the rolling green agriculture lands of Crownsville outside Annapolis.

Here is a description from http://www.rennfest.com/.

"The Maryland Renaissance Festival is a recreation of a 16th century English village. Our village is named Revel Grove, and is set on a beautiful 25-acre wooded site with 85 acres of free parking. The village consists of craft and food booths, five pubs, ten major stages, a Jousting Arena and lots of games.

The Maryland Renaissance Festival has become the region's premier outdoor event and the second largest Renaissance Festival in the country. Since the Festival's first season as a ramshackle village in 1977, the event has matured into a large theme show with more than 1,300 participants and 280,000 guests per season. "

I am so glad we got to go this year. Last year I had just had Gradon and well, taking a new baby to the renfest just didn't sound appealing. This year we took the whole family, and we all had a fantastic time.

We were lucky to go with our friends the Mahaffeys' some of our favorite people here in Maryland. They were experts on where to go and what to see.

It was fun to walk through the village, I loved the ribbons strung from the buildings.

As we walked to our first spot, we saw a friendly spar with swords:

We all wanted to see the joust, so we started there first-

Next, we rode the elephant!

We made our way around to the games and stopped for a snack. On our way we were stopped for bad behavior and put in the stocks-

But finally made it out and had turkey legs and fries.

And then the pony rides.

We then had fun on the super slide, and took a break at the pirate ship play area.

After this we wound our way back to the village square for some grub. Something we wanted to do but didn't have time was watch a glass blowing demo. We hope to see that next year. Thoughout the afternoon I kept my eyes peeled for King Henry, and did spot him on our way around the faire with his lovely queen Katherine Parr. ( I didn't get the chance to get a photo of him, however.)

The girls picked a pretty flower crown to remember their time at the faire.

On our way out of the faire we met with some of the ladies of the court, and they oblidged to stop for a photo. A great day at the rennfest. Can't wait to go back for more next year.