Renaissance Festival

Gary and I headed to Crownsville, MD last weekend for the Renaissance Festival.  Since both of our birthdays and our anniversary are this time of year, it is the perfect time for a weekend getaway.  This is the third year we have gone. We leave home on Friday after work and have a whole weekend of fun.

Waiting for the gates to open

Albannach, a Scottish pipe and drum band, was appearing this weekend. 

Check out a YouTube video here

Dancing around while playing a bass drum.

 It is a great place to people watch

 

Some people come dressed in costume 

 

It is always interesting

 

We went to two Albannach shows each day

 

 

 

 The crowd had some interesting characters

 

This drummer really gets into the music

Stilt walkers roam around once in a while

The music store - we always buy the little girls a musical instrument.  This year Izzy and Abby got wooden recorders and Ellie got a giraffe shaped rattle

We listened to several bands.

This guy posed for his picture.

In the background on the right, you can see a character dressed as a catepillar with a butterfly above him

All kinds of food vendors are available

Wolgemut is another favorite of ours.

Check out a YouTube video here

They invited another performer Oo to join them on stage

He played a saw

More stilt walkers

I know Izzy and Abby would have loved these

two performers. 

Everyone has a good time.

Just taking in the sights,

sounds, and smells of the festival is fun.

A knight clinked past us.

Musicians of all kinds

A small part of the parking lot. 

This was the end of day one and then we headed back to the hotel to rest our knees.

 

 

Liz's Amazing Clay Creations

 My daughter, Liz, is amazingly talented! She can sing and was classically trained for opera, she writes, and she can do unbeliveable things with sculpy clay! Disclaimer: she gets none of these artistic talents from her mother!

 

 She has recently been making Japanese kokeshi dolls.  We purchased many wooden kokeshi dolls when we lived in Japan. 

She created this one for Shelly who loves Japan and all things Japanese. 

 

 Look at all the detail

 

You can see the pictures she found and then she just did her own thing - Amazing!

 



Isn't this litle short doll cute?

Liz made two of these for me and one for Sarah.

Can you guess which ones are mine?

If you guessed these two, you were correct.

Finished and ready to be delivered

A back view. 

 

Here are a few more of her amazing creations:

 

Cake topper for Sarah and Tony's wedding

Cake topper for Lindsay and Rob

 

 

Isn't she amazing????

She makes things for sale too ;-)