Ren Faire 2008

This morning I got up fairly early and went for a nice bike ride with my wife. It was windy outside making it rather chilly. I should have taken that in to account a few hours later when getting ready to go to the Age of Chivalry – Las Vegas Renaissance Festival. However, I’m not that smart so I headed out without a jacket. That would prove to be a mistake.

Our goal was to make it to Ren Faire by 11:00 so that we could take part in a photography meetup group. Unfortunately, the organizer didn’t include a specific location for where we were going to meet, and if you’ve ever been to the Ren Faire, you know that it’s big, has 2 entrances, and may take more than a couple minutes to find somebody you are looking for. I wasn’t too worried about meeting up with the group as I had made plans to meet Jeff and Todd there for some photo fun. We ran in to Jeff as we were parking, and met up with Todd 5 minutes after entering the venue, so we were all set. With cameras in hand, we set forth to conquer Ren Faire. My set of photos can be seen here.

After stopping at a couple jewelry stands, we came across the Kilt Connection. I have wanted to purchase a kilt for a long time, and at last year’s Ren Faire I nearly pulled the trigger. Since then I have visited utilikilts.com several times and have measured myself for a kilt 2 or 3 times using their instructions. And yet I still haven’t bought one. Well, that changed today. This shot is of me trying on the kilt. No, they don’t have dressing rooms. They just have you drop your jeans right in the middle of the walk way. After trying on 2 kilts, I bought the second one I tried on. I went ahead and put my jeans in my bag and wore the kilt for the remainder of the day. Just as everybody I’ve ever talked to about kilts has told me, they really are amazingly comfortable to wear. And, to satisfy your curiosity, no, I did not go commando under the kilt. I realized later why I went ahead and purchased a kilt today after so long. Being able to try one on rather than ordering from the website really made the difference for me. And, to confirm my concern, the first one I tried on didn’t fit me all that well and it was the size I would have ordered from the website. So basically, I’m stoked.

The sun made brief appearances from behind the clouds, but for the most part it was fairly gloomy. Add to that some wind and you have your self a down right chilly day. We walked around for about 4 hours, checked out all the vendors, had some (overpriced) lunch, took some photos and then called it a day. My wife pointed out that last year on the morning that we went to Ren Faire, we had run 11
miles as part of our training for the LV Marathon. As soon as she said it, my legs remembered the pain from that day. Though my legs weren’t in pain today, the rest of my body was from being so cold. I’m such a wuss.

If you’ve never been to a Ren Faire, you should definitely check it out. You’ll find people dressed up in some amazing outfits. Some people go with medieval outfits, others dress in pirate attire and many dress in fantasy outfits (think Girls with Wings). There are dozens of vendors selling everything from hand made clothing & jewelry to armor, knives and swords. The people there are as nice as they come. We all had a great time and we’ll definitely be back again next year.