Tis The Renaissance Faire!

Tis is olde English right? I'm pretty sure adding an e to the end of old makes That olde English too.
But back to the topic of this post, the Renaissance Faire!

I went to the PA Renaissance Faire this Sunday with my friend, her boyfriend, and YC. I don't know what I expected it to be like, maybe my high school's tiny faire, but it blew me away. It even has permanent buildings!

That mansion is right before you enter the gates. Insane right? Also, my friend and her bf had awesome costumes.

The shops and some little taverns are permanent, the stages are as well. The attention to detail is amazing too. The shops sell the cutest things too. There are lots of costume shops, jewelry, and at least one actual weaponry shop, where YC got a cool knife.

This is the entrance to a shop. In a bush! How cute right?

There were tons of employees dressed in period clothes, who stayed in character the whole time. One guy heckled us a bit when the four of us couldn't figure out the map, all while in character. Another guy and a woman came up to talk to us while we ate in a little tavern. They were all so cute to watch, with the accents and outfits. I loved it.

The King and Queen. Look at those costumes!

The little skits and events during the day were quite good as well. We watched an adult skit called The Sirens, where four women sang bawdy songs and teased the crowd. They had me laughing a good deal. The joust at the end of the day was pretty good too, even though the one horse looked a bit lame.

We also attempted to go see the Human Chess Match, but we got all turned around and couldn't locate the chess board. Oops.

The only activity I did not approve of was the elephant ride. There's one elephant in a back corner of the faire that people, mostly children, can pay to ride around a ring on. After reading other blog posts on how unethical elephant rides are, I couldn't help but glare.

One of the stages. I didn't see any of the acts done on this one.

One of my favorite parts of the day was trying the Honey Mead and drinking excessive amounts of hot cider. Hot apple cider is my favorite fall drink, I am drinking some I heated up as I write this.

The Honey Mead was quite yummy as well. I've never had mead before, so I don't know how it compares to regular mead, but it was very sweet. It sort of tasted like straight honey with a kick at the end.

My Honey Mead and YC's cold hard cider. Both were delicious.

My all time favorite part of the faire was, of course, the dressing up. I love dressing up! The main reason I love Halloween so much is because I get to dress up in a costume. So obviously had to go pretty hard with my Ren Faire attire. I went for a gypsy-esque look, with lots of jewelry and a costume corset.

I also made YC dress up as well. My friend cut up a white shirt I had and added brown lacing for YC. He looked quite dashing, if I do say so myself.

I looked like a boss as well. :)

Probably my favorite picture of us. We're so cute in our period attire.

Here you can see our full outfits. We didn't mean to match, but white shirts are the easies to make look period appropriate.

So the moral of this post is that the PA Ren Faire is awesome and you should definitely check it out if you're ever in the area. It was definitely worth the two hour drive.

Here are some more Ren pics for your viewing pleasure before you go:

The giant gross turkey legs they sell at the Faire. Ewwww

A cool apothecary

More cute pics of me and the bf. Look at all my awesome jewelry.

The jousting area.

Artsy mirror picture in a cute little shop.

More fabulous costumes in the royal procession.

 Have you ever been to a Ren Faire? Did you love it? Anyone else love dressing up as much as I do? Anyone as addicted to hot apple cider as I am, no? Leave a comment! I'd love to hear from you.
-Alisa