Renaissance sans inquisition

Last week at church, a marriage counselor suggested to the adults that marriage needs some of the adventuring that is more associated with dating in order to continue a feeling of closeness. I wasn't there for the lesson (yay work!), but Mark not only told me about it, he also followed up on it. As neither of us had ever been to the Texas Renaissance Festival, he suggested we take this weekend to go check it out.
I knew that people usually went to the TRF in costume, so I donned my only period-appropriate costume.

Notice I have a bard. Right there on the left.

Mark went as himself.
Which turned out to be okay.

"The World According to Mark" Shop. How convenient!

We started out our day watching a jousting competition; four "knights" beheaded wooden men, speared hanging hoops, and charged at a target with a lance (think A Knight's Tale), all while on horse. I'm still amazed anyone can show any accuracy while bouncing up and down and forward.


I feel like mostly we walked around looking at things--and this is reflected in my step-counting app, which showed we covered at least 5 miles.
But it was so fascinating.
One guy swallowed a dagger and stuck a scissor-blade up his nose.
Another guy showed off his lasso and whip skills--which included cracking a whip that severed various roses and one coke can, playing the harmonica while moving through a lasso, juggling while moving through a lasso, and lighting a whip on fire--all without referencing the "Watch me whip" song (which surprised me).
A falconer taught us about king vultures, hawks, falcons (duh), and owls [mostly I remember that most birds don't have a good sense of smell; the notable exception would be the vulture] while showing us his mostly-trained birds (they seemed to have trouble going back through the door they came out of).

Part of the fun was seeing all of the costumes (some family-friendly, others less so, which is why I didn't go to TRF as a kid) which may or may not have had anything to do with the Renaissance--I saw some Batmans and Supermans roaming around.
We ate probably-not-period-accurate food of reuben sandwiches and chocolate-dipped cheesecake (oh gosh that was good; it was supposed to be Mark's, but I probably ate a third of it).
We watched some amazing body-rippling belly dancers.
We came across a wedding (and decided our parents are probably glad we didn't get married in the TRF venue).
We listened to various strummers of harps and guitar-like instruments.
I rang a set of windchimes that were at least the height of a door.
We saw a guy play a carillon--the first time I've seen one, although I have heard it before thanks to BYU's Carillon Tower.

It's like an organ, but with bells.

We watched a sword-master teach about 40 kids various sword-fighting stances, and then make them swear to do their chores and listen to their parents (maybe for the tips--I think all of the parents gave their kids money to give to the guy at the end of the demonstration).

At my request, we wandered through small gardens and nature chapels. They lacked symbolism of any specific religion, but they were still beautiful. 

No idea what this is. But it's cool.

 We watched a sardonic magician silently yet quite effectively entertain his audience--which is impressive, because his tricks included throwing an audience member's shoe out of the arena, stealing a guy's phone, insist on seating rearrangements that split up couples (apparently so that he himself could sit by the girl), and making fun of our fascination with what are just sleights of hand.

One of the last things we did--which I had been begging Mark to do since our entrance into the festival--was a two-seater swing that was controlled by the swingers themselves through some good-old rope-pulling.

Mark hadn't been sure that it would be fun, but we both laughed like little kids as we made the swing go higher and higher.

Nobody died.

Yay for safe fun!