A day at the Maryland Renaissance Festival

Today, my husband and I took the kids to the Maryland Renaissance Festival in Annapolis. It was beautiful weather, wonderfully bad-for-you food (fish and chips, yum), and great entertainment. We got there just in time for a jousting competition--these guys (and gals!) actually go at each other with long wooden sticks upon galloping horses, heh:

Here's a close up the above photo--note the broken tip of the lance against the knight's armor:

Another jousting shot:

Two little girls dressed in renaissance garb:

A wall of wooden shields at a shop where we bought our son a wooden sword:

And "Kathryn Parr" and "Thomas Seymour" who hosted the joust (and yes, I felt very geeky knowing who those two actually were in history, heh):

Compared to the other renaissance festivals we've been to, this one was by far the largest. There were a gazillion shops and eateries, a plethora of folks who dressed the parts, and great entertainment. It was interesting, however, to note the differences between the others we've been to--in particular, one my husband and I went to about 15 years ago in San Francisco. At that one, we saw actual sword fighting exhibitions and browsed shops full of inexpensive and unique trinkets whereas the Maryland festival prohibited weapons of any kind (thus, no sword fighting exhibitions) and most of the shops were pretty pricey. Perhaps it is the difference between two coasts, or maybe just a sign of the times. No matter, we still had a wonderful time and enjoyed the weather, atmosphere and food. A good time had by all!