It's Picture Day!

This first picture is from the Quatrain. It's kind of a pre-cursor to jousting, with the knights challenging each other in accuracy. First they try to slice a cabbage with a sword while riding past on a horse, then they try to spear apples, and finally, they try to catch rings on their jousting poles. I thought it was great, the kids got a little bored with it. I do think I like the actual jousting better though- but either way it's fun to get behind one of the knights and boo the others.
This picture was from the hobbit walk. You enter through a tiny hobbit house and then through the enchanted forest. All throughout the forest are little cottages hidden amongst the foliage. They all look like the grandest dollhouses you've ever seen. This is one of my favorite things at the festival.
This is a picture of one of the rides for kids. Yes, it is a giant rocking horse. I think they've eliminated some of the rides, because I remember there being more the last time. This was the only one Abigail wanted to go on. And Zander made it about halfway up the ladder before freezing in terror, so he didn't go on any.

Then there was the food! Oh my gosh, so many options I tell you! I'll apologize right off the bat, because it didn't occur to me until AFTER I'd inhaled my "banger" that I should take a picture of it. Essentially it was a brat-like sausage wrapped in croissant dough and baked. I had mine with country gravy, and it was so good! Oh my gosh good! As I gazed at my empty container, it occurred to me that I should have taken a picture. So then I pulled out the camera and took a picture of the kids Royal Blue smoothie.

And here's the remains of the Macaroni and Cheese Bites. These were really good too. Sinfully good. Zander really liked them, although he was very generous and shared a couple of them.

Ah, the requisite turkey leg. These were well-smoked and quite tender for a turkey leg. Andy had a bit of a difficult time avoiding all the gristle and bone in a turkey leg, but he was able to manage, bolstered by a mug of ale.

They really had so many options for things to eat, that I wish we all had bigger appetites and bigger pocketbooks. It would be fun to just go from stand to stand trying one of most everything. They even had a place advertising roasted boar. Whether or not it was real boar...I don't know, but we'll be hitting that up the next time we're there.

Overall, the weekend was much too short, but we had a great time anyway. Now we get back to this century and the reality of the real world. Abigail returns to school tomorrow, and Andy will return to work while keeping an eye out for a new job elsewhere. He's already been told that the seasonal lay-off is eminent, and since it's only the beginning of September, he's going to have to find something...