King Richard's Renaissance Faire

I love the Groupon and Living Social deals. They have some really fun thing at really great prices. And many of the things they end up advertising are things I never would have searched out on my own. I have done a lot of fun things or have additional fun things planned due to Groupon and Living Social. I would encourage you to check them out and see what city near you has them. Most of the things I end up doing are deals that give me the price of tickets to be half off (so basically buy one get one free) or even cheaper than half the price. You can't beat that. So here is one of the activities I did from one of these amazing deals. I went to a Renaissance Faire. If any of you know me I don't do costumes. I don't ever dress up for Halloween unless it is super simple like pinning smarties to my pants which made me a smarty pants. (he-he) But dressing up is just not my thing. Buuuuuuuuuuuuuut this was different. For some reason I wanted to go in costume. I knew a lot of people there would be dressed up. You could rent a custome from them for the day or I could buy one that would be cheaper than renting it and I could use it again maybe for Halloween since it is an easy costume now.

I was really excited for this event, I am not sure why I was so excited but for some reason it was like my inner child was exploding with excitement and joy. I couldn't wait for my dress to come in the mail and my poor roommate Amy had to hear about it every day to where it was because I was tracking it online. And Jared who went with me got to hear about it as well. They both laughed and thought I was funny. To be honest I would have laughed at myself if I was on the other end of the situation to. But it was fun and made the experience that much more fun because of the extra excitement I had. I will have to admit I think I looked pretty darn good. I tried to talk Jared into dressing up but I was unsuccessful. When Jared saw me all dressed up and all he laughed and I asked if he would mind spending the day with someone dressed up when he wasn't. He was a good sport and did well.

Before they opened the gates they had a little introduction to the day to present some of the key players which were more for when the tournaments with the knights and jousting took place. They were setting the scene for the day.

This is the band for the Gypsy dancer

The Gypsy Dancer she did a really good job.

This was just a really cool log that has been carved into a wizard.

This guy had a falcon on his shoulder. He is one of the animal specialist at the faire.

As we were talking a stroll around the place to figure out where everything was we passed a shop that sold hats. I commented to Jared he could get a hat. There was a couple who had been looking at the hats from a distance as well and (they were not dressed up) and they said to me you couldn't get your man to dress up with you? I told them no. The guy said you could get him an article of clothing from different shops throughout the village and before long he would be fully fitted in a new outfit. We got a kick out of their comment and that we hadn't even been there more than 5 minutes and someone already commented that Jared didn't dress up. And what made it even more funny to me is the people who were not dressed up were the ones giving him a hard time about it. I am glad Jared has a good sense of humor to walk around with a crazy girl like me and take the looks and comments with ease.

When we passed the Fairy village I had to take pictures because I automatically thought of my nieces and new they would like to see the fairies. They were getting everything set up I wish I would have thought to come back later in the day to see what all they had done here but we never came back this direction.

This is Daniel of Danger. He was a juggler and comedian. He was really funny. One of his first acts outside of cracking jokes was juggling fire. The standing joke here when they would juggle fire is when they would blow out the torch with the last one they would ask the audience if they want to see him put it out with his mouth. He will take the torch and slowly move it down to his mouth like he is concentrating really hard and it gets close to his lips and he blows it out.
We did actually see a guy breath fire and he also did torture stunts. I didn't have a very good position to take pictures of him so you will just get to hear about him. He took a drill and drilled it into his nose he also took a spike and hammered it into his nasal cavity. Then he took two fish hooks and put one in each eye and they were connected to a chain and then he pulled on the chain so we could really see they were attached into his eyes. I can't remember the other things he did or if he did more than that but it was crazy the stunts he was doing.

Daniel then got up on this ladder and balanced himself and then he spun the plate on the stick in his mouth and twirled the hoops on his arms. He was really funny.

For his next act he put out the board you see on the table and the two cylinder pipes. Then he said now I need a volunteer. A lovely and beautiful lady and he said more as he connected eyes with me as he was walking down the ramp and over to my seat. Then as he arrived to my seat he said he needed the man that was with me instead. I was relieved that I didn't have to be the volunteer. Jared did a great job at holding the teetering wood on the cylinder pipes. Look at that big grin he has on his face I think he was even a little excited in being able to participate in one of Daniel's dangerous acts.

He then pulled two more men from the audience to help with his stunt.

It was pretty amazing that he could balance on a contraption like this. I don't know if you call it brave or maybe a little drunk thinking he can do anything.

This was his final act. He does not look like a man with that much upper body strength but we continued to be amazed as we went throughout the day. Things don't appear as they seem.

After Daniel we went over to a magic show. The magician was very good and talented. He had these little yellow balls that he had a volunteer come up and he pulled one of them from the guys short sleeve shirt. Then part of his trick was putting one ball in his hand and putting one in the other guys hand and then in the end they both ended up in the other guys hand. Then he said he was going to put one ball in his pocket and put one in the other guys hand and then he was going to have the ball move from the volunteer's hand to his hand and then there were 3 balls in the volunteer's hand. Then he said he needed another ball and all of a sudden the guy felt something in his sleeve up by his shoulder and there was a ball in his shirt. The Magician hadn't even touched the guy. It was amazing. He also ripped a $20 bill in about 6 or 8 pieces and folded it and it came back whole. He was amazing we got some good laughs. He also did the trick with his hands that he had all of the audience do with him and we all followed his instructions and watched him and he was able to easily bring his hands back to a normal position but the rest of us still had our hands all twisted funny. He was good.

These guys did a juggling act as well. The volunteer has a cigar in his mouth and the point was to knock the cigar out of his mouth while juggling but miss his face. They succeeded!

I thought I had escaped from being a volunteer but alas I had my turn. They told me not to step on the sheet that is on the floor until they told me to. In the process the man in the kilt is applying a lot of pressure to my back as if he is trying to get me to step before they wanted me to. That combined with something they said made me step before I was suppose to. Then they were telling me to lay on my back and I had started to get down to lay down and then they said no with your feet at the other end they made it confusing to what they wanted. I think the whole point to their act is to make you feel embarrassed so people are laughing at you which I think is part of their act. Finally they were happy with the position I got to.

Then they put this heavy stinky sombrero over my face it muffled the things they were saying. They also were rubbing the swords together to make it hard for me to hear. I asked Jared what they did and he said it was really just a comedy act more than anything. So that confirmed my hunch in that I was just a prop for a funny joke.

They told me to take a bow and then he pushed me in the direction to exit the stage. Frankly I was glad to be done and I don't necessarily need to be a volunteer again. I would rather be the person in the audience watching.

They juggled torches as well. It is pretty impressive when they juggle things like this and only end up grabbing on to the end that is intended to be caught. I can juggle golf balls and I have tried having someone throw another one in but it ends up throwing off my rhythm and I lose them all. So I admire when people can juggle stuff like this and knives and dangerous items. Maybe if I took a juggling class I might be able to do it as well.

Again the running Joke of putting it out with his mouth.

His partner decided to show him up and really do it. He stuck the flame in his mouth a couple of times before he closed his lips around it to distinguish the flame.

This is a baby Tabby Tiger

The baby with a grown tabby. It was so cute to watch them play with each other.

This is the baby Royal White Tiger. Each tiger got a bottle of milk just for coming on stage. Not a bad gig.

The larger Royal White Tiger playing with the baby.

 The Tigers are so pretty. And so lovable with each other. They reminded me of watching two kittens innocently at play. Their color depends on where they originated from or what they needed to blend in with at the time. It was interesting to learn about the different tigers.

The Snow Tiger is the one on the table so you can see the difference between the Royal White and the Snow Tigers. The Snow Tiger still has faint black striping on its fur but isn't as easy to see.

This one I believe is the Bengal Tiger.

This is a Liger Named Hercules, He’s 900 pounds and 12 feet tall, and he is the Worlds biggest Cat. He is extremely huge. Hercules is the offspring of a male lion and a female tiger, and is the result of a phenomenon known as hybrid vigor.

When you’re blending two species, you can line the genetics up just right and you gain all of the best qualities of both parents, and often get enormous size.

Tigons are the opposite. A male tiger with a female lion produces a tigon. They’re healthy, beautiful, good animals, but they don’t become as large as ligers, they generally stay about the size of or a little bigger than their parents.

Hercules getting his treat of milk.

They tried tempting him with some steak to get him to rear up on his hind legs so we could see how tall he is. It was the last show of the day and he was done performing. But you can still see how big he is. His head is as tall as the man behind him. He is a crazy huge animal.

The last thing we watched was the Jousting tournament to the DEATH. Earlier in the day we watched another tournament to honor a knight or something. It was entertaining as well.

It was fun to see these people get into character. There was one of the knights that I guess he played the bad guy part and he was just angry and hateful. He really got into character.

Their costumes were really good.

This is a good action picture. We got one of the sticks breaking but just as it snapped a lady walked in front of the camera so it wasn't as good. They could improve on the acting skills. Their fighting was not very good it looked like they were either trying to hard which didn't even make it look remotely real.

Oh I almost forgot to tell about the food we ate. We got a King's Turkey Leg and Clam Chowder in a bread bowl. They were both really tasty and good. The Turkey leg was huge and we were curious as to how they are made because turkey's don't have legs that big. To end things off we had a few food vouchers left so we got a brownie Sunday which I am sure (ha ha) they had ice cream back in that time. If not to bad for them and lucky for us.

Jared and I had a good time. It was a fun day and the set up of the place was really cool. It was entertaining to watch the people who really get into the scene and costumes. I was practically dressed as normal as Jared was compared to some of the other people there. It was a great experience to have and do at least once. 

Hammond Castle

Back in July I went to Hammond Castle with some friends. We did the candlelit tour of the castle. (To see more on the Hammond Castle look back a few months for my other post on the castle it has more exterior pictures)

 

Here is an old time organ that has been hooked up to an enormous sound system that can blow you away in this Chapel Hall.

This room was the room he had for his Wife this was her sitting room. 

This Archway was brought from Italy if I remember right. So many pieces of the museum came from parts of Europe. 

John Hammond use to get up in the morning and walk out of his room which is up on the right side and jump off the roof/balcony into the pool. The pool doesn't look it but is extremely deep. 

This is a shop that was brought from another country in Europe. 

Here is a bakery from Spain. 

Side of the pool where the faces have water spueing out of their mouths. 

Dinning Room

The ceiling

The view from the dinning room. 

The library is a circular room with a domed ceiling which was designed so if he was standing on one side of the room he could hear conversations or talk to someone on the other side of the room. 

I loved the big windows it was so pretty. 

This was John and his wife's room. 

Behind the pillow is a secret passage way that John has in each room so he could get to the guests room before they could and he would scare them when they would get to their room and turn on the lights or he would talk to them when it was still dark and scare them. 

Guest room. In this room John would take the door knob and remove it from the door and it would blend in with the rest of the room and in order to open the room you had to press the correct flower on the wall.  From time to time he would change which flower opened the door so when people would return they wouldn't know where the button would be which would make it hard for them when they needed to go to the restroom. 

I loved these I thought they were so pretty. I love the bright blue. 

This is the servants stairwell. He made these stairs so they lean to the opposite side than usual so it would make people feel like they were falling down the stairs or make them stumble down them. 

Art work his sister did. 

John Hammond was the inventor of the push button radio and the remote control as well as many other patented inventions.  

This was John's favorite place to sit and meditate and read. I don't know about you but I don't think a stone chair would be my favorite place to sit. 

I thought the stairwell handrail was really cool that it was built into the wall like this. The first time we went down the stairs we didn't even notice it because it was just a part of the wall. But as we went up the stairs I noticed. 

View of the ocean what a beautiful place to be able to see the beauties Heavenly Father has given us. 

A little gazebo at a park down the road from the Castle. 

It was a lot of fun to be able to go and tour the castle. I was able to see a piece of history here in the states that I thought was only in the European area. It was really neat to be able to learn about this man and the way in which he lived his life and the sense of  humor he had and all the fun he had. He seemed like he would have been a great man to know. He would actually live life at night so he could get more work done on his inventions and he would sleep through the day. His neighbors didn't like him much because he would play his music so loud at night that they could literally hear it for miles away and the neighbor that lived right next door was always angry with him for making so much noise at night.