El Dorado Hills: Pirates at the Library, September 11 & 12, 2009

This was a two day event. With Friday being a school day from 10am to 2pm and Saturday being open to the general public from 10am to 3pm. The weather on Friday was really warm, but offered up a beautiful sunset...

Temperatures didn't drop until nearly 6am Saturday, with the coming of rain. Saturday had spurts of light rain followed by hot humidity most of the morning. With warm afternoon temps.

We had 1,000 kids through the door on Friday. And another 2,500 people through the door on Saturday.

We arrived Thursday to the request from Cap’n MacLaren to teach dance as well as do the treb thing, as one of his ‘teachers’ wasn’t able to make it. No big deal usually, rather difficult for us, though as we had a very small group. We ended up splitting up between St. Genesius & St. Barbara’s. So, Gwen, Tory & I took the dancing and Don Juan and Orion, ably assisted by Gavin, took the weapons demos.

We had groups on the hour and the half hour, for 20 minutes, with 10 minute breaks in between. The groups were usually 60 students per group, and were usually grouped together by grade. One of the groups St. Genesius had was actually a group of 80, 60 eighth graders and 20 kindergartners…quite a challenge.

We started trying to teach the kids ‘Haymakers’, as that’s a *very* simple dance, but the eighth graders were uncooperative and difficult to split into groups. We got them into eight different groups, and only ended up getting them half way through the dance in our 20 minutes. Gwen had an excellent idea and after that we had the girls get into a circle and then the boys into a circle around the girls and grouped them that way. It was easier. We also changed dances, and I vastly modified and simplified ‘Jenny Pluck Pears’, so that the boys wouldn’t have to touch the girls and even a baby could do it. This went over much better.

It was my observation that the Kindergartners through Second graders were much easier to teach to dance than the fifth and eighth graders.

Saturday was pretty crazy…at least until 1pm. We had lines, like Disneyland, of kids trying to fire Orion’s trebuchet. I couldn’t believe it. I took tons of photos of the huge crowds we had. At one point Don Juan had a line almost equal to Orion’s for the catapults, and Tory had a big following of folk to try on the chainmail. We were completely inundated. Crazy!

Best thing about the event: lots of grass; lots of patrons; room to fire either trebuchet; room to dance…& if we had more people on Saturday we would have, too, as it was we were completely overrun and really needed at least one more person; the people…this is another one of those locales (like Truckee) where the community is completely focused on their kids…we seldom saw adults without kids in attendance;

spending some time with the Governor’s wife Liselle, who kept us supplied with fresh cookies & sangria; and spending time with the Governor (Mykall VonTramp) who kept us supplied with fudge; meeting new folk: the Pirates of Sacramento, and being supplied with Breakfast; and spending time with old friends: the crew of the Dauntless.

Worst thing about the event: ANTS!!!!! Lack of people for dancing; lack of time (due to lack of people) to shop and visit the other groups/vendors.

Definitely worth a return trip!

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/

Santa Cruz: Santa Cruz Renaissance Festival, June 20, 2009

Santa Cruz Faire was great. At first I thought we were going to be bored. It was so tiny...when I realized how cool it was (temperature wise) and that we were free to dance dance dance, then I realized that it shows considerable promise. :)

I think there may have been a total of 15 vendors (I think I’m being generous), and four guilds. We were placed in the ‘over flow area’ and were pretty much by ourselves (with the auction booth across from us, and the barbeque pit to the side of us). We fired the treb about 12 times over the day (possibly more) and we were able to dance five separate occasions. We learned some ‘new’ dances and practiced a few older ones. We even had Wil join us for two of them. Yay!

Robin and Gavin joined us for the day, which was nice. I think everyone had a good time. I really enjoyed getting Kieran to snarf beer out of his nose. That was hecka funny!

If you weren’t able to join us, you were missed, if you were there, thank you!

Here are some photos graciously provided by Wil: http://www.flickr.com/photos/wildabeast71/sets/72157620605919282/

School: Alder Creek Middle School, June 5, 2009

Once again we were fortunate enough to participate in the Alder Creek Middle School Event in Truckee, with our lovely host, Dame Charlotte (aka Sandy Horn, aka Lady Jean).

The school was fantastic. We did get a surprise morning of, however...the choir person was a no show and we needed to teach a couple of 1/2 hour dance classes instead. Okay, no big deal...we thought. We didn't have any music but figured we could make due. It wouldn't be the first time. Turns out it was 4 dance classes of 40+ students each...a bit more daunting that we had supposed. By the end of the day Don Juan and I had it worked out and things were running fairly smooth. I've vowed to put discs of the music in both vehicles so we won't be caught unawares again. :)

Livermore: May 18 & 19, 2009

Like Grace, I couldn't resist... :)

Okay, now that I'm looking at the photos I remember a bit more. We had a huge open field behind us, so were able to fire as often as we liked...and we liked a lot!

Grace, thanks for the photos, by the way!

All I remember of Livermore is that it was hot. Reports range from 102 degrees to 106 degrees. I don't care...all I remember is that it was hot! We had a breeze part of the time, but no shade, except what we provided ourselves. We were also 'lucky' enough (said tongue in cheek...it was a mixed blessing, actually...we love Mike & Christy, but the forge was rather warm) to be set up next to the Village Blacksmith [http://www.poundiron.com/]. One of our stakes broke, and Mike was nice enough to fix it for us, even though he's not doing that sort of stuff any more. It was definitely convenient to have the blacksmith next door. :)