Pirate Picnic: Lake Elizabeth, Fremont, August 15, 2009

Don Juan, Tory & I (Kyra) arrived at the site and were lucky enough to get our preferred spot (on the knoll between the Senior Center and the Ampitheatre) at 10am. We began unloading and setting up the games. Don Juan set up a terrific croquet course (down hill and around a tree), the badmitton court and lawn darts. We left the horse shoes & bocce' ball (which never actually got taken out) and the archery for later. [We wanted to leave the archery until we were going to use them, as we didn't want the park people to kick us out...]

At 11:52am I received a text message from Gisch, which read: "Baby! She just arrived about 25 minutes ago. She's beautiful! 9 lbs - 5 oz - 22 in long - 15 in head. Jenn is doing fine." What a great start to the day! It'd been so long since we'd heard from them it was a complete surprise!

Shortly thereafter our first guests arrived, and then folk began trickling in. We were expecting in the neighborhood of twenty-five people, so of course only seventeen ended up coming. :) Quality instead of Quantity I always say!


I was inspired by Wil and took some artsy-fartsy photos. Obviously I shouldn't quit my day-job. :)

Tory was being particularly obstinant about having her photo taken, so of course I took tons. Here is just a small sample of how I tortured her, the hat ones are particularly mean, don't you think?:

Later in the day I took as many photos as I could...when I remembered to do so! :)

Here's Isla, Evie, Hunter, Dan & Don Juan (who didn't dress...the turd!)

Evie was really good about keeping herself entertained. Other than the flowers that she was eating, she did a great job! :) Seen here playing with a tree.

Barda did a pretty good job of keeping herself entertained as well. I think the cupcake helped, too.

More photos of everyone: Dirk, Barda, Els, Evie, Ilsa, Tory & Yeung Kim

Dan (with his head cut off), Dirk, Barda, Elspeth, Evie

Isla, Yeung, Tory & Willa

Front & Center: Fyonna

Don Juan, Dan, Isla, Miles (in the back), Yeung & Tory

This is before Yeung & Willa arrived, but is a pretty good photo of everyone else...well except Hunter, who I expect is camera shy...

Don Juan, Elspeth, Bella, Miles, Isla, Mariah's boyfriend (who's name I didn't catch), Mariah, Dan, Fyonna & Tory ...I think the babies were wandering around keeping themselves busy (probably playing with the croquet balls)


We played several rounds of croquet. Tory, Willa & Yeung played several rounds of badmitton. Just about everyone tried their hand at archery. Don Juan and some others played lawn darts. A card game was floating around, and Mariah and her boyfriend even tried out a paddle boat on the lake (now $12). Miles & Bella beat on each other with swords...just a typical day. :) The kids really got a kick out of the pinata (surprise surprise). I hope that beating on the man (Peg Leg Pete) didn't scar Evie for life. :) Fortunately he didn't want to die!

I didn't want the day to end. It was quite fun! I don't think the last of us left until nearly 6pm!

San Luis Obispo: Central Coast Renaissance Faire, July 18 & 19, 2009

I was a bit skeptical when we arrived. We were given a tiny amount of real estate. But did we ever make it work! We had a small wedge shape of space, but putting the pavilion in the bit in the back really opened up the encampment and made it work for us. It would have been nice to have had a bit more room, so that the kids could play in the encampment more. I’d wanted to play bocce’ with them, but we just didn’t have the space, and being so near the front of the faire, we couldn’t very well roll the balls out into the street. We did have a bit of afternoon shade, though, which was definitely welcome!

So, do we rally for more space next year, with space to fire the treb(s), or do we ask for the same bit of space for the shade, as shade is hard to come by at this faire? What do you think?

Best (aka what worked) & Worst (aka what didn’t): * The shade was fabulous, then again, so were the lower temperatures. * Being near the front of the faire was interesting, you got to see folk come and go, and they almost always stopped, so we definitely got more ‘face time’ with the patrons. * Notes, we need a more concentrated effort to all be on site and willing to listen at 9:30 (we should be on site by 9am) so I don’t have to repeat stuff over and over and/or not relay anything at all. ;) * I’m going to try to get us a gig dancing for the queen next year (hopefully temperatures will remain moderate). I miss not having a ‘show’ of that sort to perform. * Parades...do you think there were enough parades? Seemed to me that half of our day was spent in parades and/or meet & greet. Fortunately this time we had enough bodies to spread around a bit. * End of the day, having Wil’s folks’ house to retire to...and being made to feel like royalty was worth more than anything. Thanks Gene & Ruth! * Nearly everyone stepping up to take a turn at the front of the guild yard...especially seeing Steve do it on Sunday. Yay Steve! * Everyone keeping busy with crafts, Killian and Cullen working on chain mail is always a big hit with the patrons. I think they really like the multi color stuff, as it stands out. * Tear down went very well. * The faire board must have really liked our work as the site coordinator, came by during tear down to tell us what a fabulous job we did. And again a short while later Mickie, the entertainment coordinator, came by and presented us with some very nice posters that were printed on linen.

Room for improvement / Goals for next event: * More organized dancing, which we’re contractually obligated to do anyway. * More treb shows, again, which we’re contractually obligated to do. * More music in the encampment. * More games for the kids.

Here is a link to some photos that Wil is so gracious as to share with us...http://www.flickr.com/photos/wildabeast71/sets/72157621828580584/