Renaissance Festival 2011

After living in Houston for 19 years (altogether, not in sequence) we (I) decided to try a new adventure and go to the annual Renaissance Festival, an event that is hosted every fall for approximately one month in North Houston. It is quite the festive occasion, with people dressing up in authentic costumes, recreating the atmosphere from the Renaissance.

It draws HUGE crowds, as we discovered. I talked the Harpers into going with me (I had free tickets, which was a draw.) What we saved in admission cost, however, we more than made up for in gas. It took me almost three hours to get there, almost two hours of it on one stretch of road to get to the parking for the event. They were very good sports about the long drive.

We had a fun afternoon admiring the interesting characters we encountered.




We ate authentic Renaissance food (at least that's what they called it.)

And we watched a reenactment of a joust.
One of the fun events offered was an elephant ride, which Violet especially enjoyed.Until the elephant tried to grab her off the fence.
We had a great day, in spite of the long drive and the aggressive elephant. Thanks, Harpers for coming along so dad could stay home and write his talk.