And a Good Sunday e'en to ye, my fine Friends.

Today started as all good days should... sleeping in... well, we got to about 7:50am before the girls demanded breakfast by greeting all walkers-by (and several imaginary ones, i believe) with hearty barking. i snuggled back into bed only to realize that if we were going to make it to Scarborough Faire today, we needed to rise and shine. Well, we got the rise part working and headed out for a day of adventure at ye old merry Scarborough Renaissance Festival.

But first, like good suburbanites on a budget *gag*, we stopped at the grocery store to pick up discount tickets - hey, $6 saved is $6 - i once would have scoffed at a 15 minute delay to save 6 bucks, but now, Friends, frugal wins. Plus, who should i see in the line before me, but two older than teenagers, but younger than twenty-somethings girls dressed as pirates. As this was pirate weekend (arrrr, matey) at Scarborough Faire (ahoy, looked 'er up on the world wide interweb), i'm gonna make the wild assumption that they too were headed to the faire. Now, while one of them had a very cool and rather large pirate hat, their costumes were just so-so. Really, if yer gonna dress up for something like the Ren Fest, by golly, it should be good - no half-"hiney" impression here, mateys - it's all or nuthin'. Plus, while i love a good fairy, the ren faires are just that, "Renaissance" faires, set in the Renaissance period... no fairies, people. Also, there were no strange, loner teenagers dressed in black goth carrying swords (psst... just because you like swords and you like to wear black, doesn't mean you should do so... even at the ren fest.)

But, really, i was amused at all the folks dressed up... young and old alike. Is the chance to wear super tight clothes that don't really fit all that well just too good to pass up? Or does it seem (key word here: seem) to be ok to let it all hang out at the ren faires? i would argue, that no, still not an attractive or appropriate allowance. Plus, there likely weren't too many overweight peasants during the Renaissance period - unless you were rich or royalty, you just didn't eat well. Now, missing teeth, that's another story.

We were just beginning to take in the sights when i get the first quote of the day: "It's just lotion, sweetheart." So the guy in tights and a blousy shirt said as he shoved a bar of something slimy in my hands. i'm looking at it like it's gonna bite me and glancing at him like "really." "It's lotion, sweetheart," he says again. Yeah, got that the first time. Doesn't mean i want to rub it all over myself on the spot. Plus, what if it had cow lard in it to make it soft and lotion-y. Didn't they use that kind of stuff back then? He moved on to the next passer-by and we were off! Wish i'd made a joke of it and thrown the bar back at him, held up my hands and screamed like they were on fire. Back at ya, sweetheart.

So i didn't get a ton of photos, but my two favs:

Laugh, if you will, but being a fairy would be a fun role at the faire -- very out of scope with the true Renaissance, but fun nonetheless. That's the Noobler in this photo, by the way.

Searched for a wee gnome as a souvenir to add to my grand collection of two friendly gnomes, but came home empty-handed. Had a great time checking out the cool shops. It was pretty warm, and after 1.5 loops of the village, we headed home. A quick trip, but a fun one.