After an early awakening after a late going to bedding, elsaf made judiang and I eggs benedict for breakfast. Very yummy – my first time to have ’em. We then packed up the dogs and headed off to Elsa’s brother’s girlfriend, Ardath. The dogs were left behind with Ardath’s dog, Casey, and the three of us went off to the Michigan’s Renaissance Festival.

(Silly side note – while I was just off at Google looking for the URL for their RenFaire, I misspelled “festival” as “festial.” And discovered the official site as the first option! Yes, if you go to their site and look at the title on your browser bar, you’ll see the same spelling error.)

This was Judi’s first time at a RenFest and I think she had a good time. Maybe she’ll even write about it!

I went for the food and the cool weaponry they sell (for a pacifist, I’m sure fascinated by medieval weaponry). The girls, apparently, went for the dogs. Many people brought their dogs (which you could do, but you had to make reservations in advance) and all three of the girls are dog lovers. Still, I managed to sneak off to see many of the shops.

We had lunch almost as soon as we entered the place. I saw “bread bowls” with “cheesy broccoli soup” as an option and had to get one. It was very tasty. Then I got a Root Beer from another vendor. I have to be in the mood for Root Beer – that was the mood, apparently.

A bit of mooching about and shopping then took place. I bought a miniature marshmallow catapult for $10 and talked about catapults and trebuchets with the sales people. At another merchant’s store, I tasted some wild flower honey. It was tasty, but I decided against buying it.

We had been making our way to the jousting arena and arrived just as they were getting the crowd excited. Needless to say, there were no seats. Alas! But I got a fairly good standing position and was able to see and hear most of it. I even got some pictures. I shall post a few at the end under another cut.

After the show, it was apple dumpling time. The apple dumpling was one of the best I’d ever had. Very yummy! Judi and I were impressed with the festival food. Much better than Fair Food, I can tell ya (and I rather enjoy Fair Food).

We moseyed on down the back of the festival stopping in at more shops. I bought a wooden tic-tac-toe set since you could pick the color of the “men” for the board. I got green and purple, of course. Oh, and a purple top to make it $5 for the toys total.

By the time we got to the stage where Ded Bob played, that, too, was full, so we just sat for a bit. Then Elsa and I went to look at the two shops that sold harps. In one shop, a lady was selling her CDs, so we both bought one at “buy 1 for $10 or 2 for $15.” Very beautiful music. (We listened to ’em on the way back.)

We were exhausted and decided to head back to Ardath’s (to release Ollie from his crate and get Floyd). She made us some raspberry lemonade and we watched the dogs carouse. Then Elsa took us back to her place. (Ollie rode up front with Judi cuz I have no authority with him. Gee, he’s as bad as my students!)

Elsa grilled us hot dogs for supper on her charcoal grill. (That was the nifty present that Judi and I got her last year for her birthday.) Then I made amaretto sours for all of us. Now Elsa is busy working on stuff for tomorrow’s picnic while Judi’s playing Diablo II and I’m typing this up.

(Betcha anything Judi will claim to be too tired to write up an LJ post tonight.) EDIT (I’m not going to use ETA until I know what that means): Judi posted! Check it out here!

So, here are the pictures from today – some of the doggies, some of the festival.

A day late and a dollar short, here’s a photo of the presents that Elsa opened yesterday.

Elsa and Ollie, the new love of her life. (Floyd is still important too, but he’s not as easy to pick up.)

Judi, Elsa, and Ardath at the Festival.

The Festival parade (note the life sized Garden Gnome).

Our hero, the English Knight!

The evil baddie, the German Knight!

Our hero is victorious!