TN Renaissance Festival

For helping some of our friends move, Lee and I received a pair of extra tickets to the Tennessee Renaissance Festival.  I had always wanted to go, but wasn't sure that the $20 price tag was worth it.  

With the free tickets, Lee and I headed out right after church to attend the festival.  When we arrived, I literally couldn't stop laughing for 15 minutes.  Some costumes were very well coordinated, others were not.  Some people made sure to stay in character, others did not.  The people made it quite an interesting place to visit.  If you are one that enjoys people-watching, this is absolutely the place to go.  Lee and I started our exploring and stopped at the first show we came to.

The show was a comedy show performed by two "wenches".  The crowd was certainly entertained and I believe they participated more than at any show I have attended before.  They loved it!  The show was funny, a bit gross (what can you expect from wenches?), but I believe my favorite part was watching the crowd.

After the show, we continued to survey the area.  I was surprised that the festival wasn't solely renaissance.  It was more of a fantasy festival.  There were fairies and all kinds of mythical creatures running around.  Half of the booths set up were for magical and dragon items.  There were also games set up with a renaissance theme.  They were pretty comical.

The main thing we wanted to see at the festival was the jousting.  The jousting, however, didn't start for an hour or so, so after we found where the match would be held, we went and found something else to do.

There was a tent with eagles and other awesome birds for a show that would be going on later. Seeing the majestic  birds up close was amazing.  We moved on and stopped at a Robin Hood show.  It was a family-friendly show, but it was entertaining.  I couldn't hardly focus though because there was a girl sitting not too far from us who had a spider on her hat.  For the longest time, Lee and I stared at it because we couldn't tell if it was real or if it was part of the costume.  We eventually found out it was real.  It was a granddaddy long legs, so it wasn't dangerous, but when it started crawling all over her, I about jumped out of my seat.  She never even noticed it.

  After the show, we went back to the location of the jousting tournament and watched the live chess game.  It was well scripted and rehearsed with the sword fights at each move.  Our friends, who decided to come to the festival later than us, met up with us during the chess match.

The ladies went and saved seats for the tournament while the guys went to find food.  Once we were all back together, the tournament started soon after.  I guess because I'm used to movies, I was expecting someone to get knocked off the horse during this game, but fortunately for them, no one did.  

I think the joust would have been quite entertaining for kids, as the poles broke if anyone hit anything, but Lee and I wanted some real action.  It was worth the entry fee though.  Once the show was over, we walked around a bit more with our friends before heading out.  For the price we paid for the tickets, it was quite an interesting and fun experience.  I'm not sure I would pay full price to attend again.  I would certainly go back if I got discounted or free tickets again. 

Biloxi / New Orleans

The night before the trip lasted much longer than I had intended it to. As we planned on leaving Thursday morning at 5am, I wanted to go to bed at 8pm.  I got home, did some laundry, played with the cats, did the dishes, packed, cooked sausage balls and mini muffins for the road and by the time I got to bed it was after midnight. That was definitely a mistake.

The alarm went off at 3:30am and I felt like I had only been asleep for 20 minutes.  We got up, finished packing, took care of the kittens, and got ready and loaded up the car.  We said our pre-trip prayers and hit the road.  The first few hours of the trip were the most difficult because we were tired.  On our way through Alabama we saw the destruction from the recent tornado.  The amount of damage was terrible.  The entire tree line looked like knocked over toothpicks.

Once we got a little further down the road, we got hungry.  Lee made fried bologna sandwiches the night before the trip, so at lunchtime we pulled them out of the cooler and let them heat up in the window.

After many hours of driving, we finally made it to Biloxi, Mississippi.  We drove down the strip for a little as it was too early to check-in to our hotel.  

After we got a ways down the strip, we turned back and stopped off at the beach.  It was a bit too chilly to put on bathing suits and swim, so we just played on the beach, walked in ankle-deep water, and took plenty of pictures. Once it was late enough for us to check into the hotel, we went over to the pier to wash our feet off.  Lee couldn't find a place to do it, but a homeless guy pointed out the hose down on the pier.

We checked into our hotel - the Isle of Capri Casino.  The city was full of old people and the casino was pretty dead.  I didn't mind it. We went up to our room with the wonderful view of construction and crashed.  After a long day of driving and sight-seeing, I was definitely ready to go to sleep.

The next morning we had reservations for the Honey Island Swamp Tour, but we had a couple hours to kill, so we checked out of the hotel and stopped by the Biloxi Lighthouse.  Tours were only held for one hour each day and were $5 a person.  We made our way to the top - following behind the very old man leading the tour.  We were the only ones there and he gave us a very long, very slow story of the history of the lighthouse.  He was nice, but the awkward part was the fact that he never took his sunglasses off, so we never saw his eyes.  Once at the top, he continued telling the story as we took pictures.  It was a nice, breezy day out, but in the top of the lightouse it got hot very quickly.  We stayed long enough to take all the pictures we wanted, hear the end of the story, and then headed back down.

In our research before the trip, we found out that airboat tours in the swamp are extremely expensive - $60 a person.  We didn't want to spend that much, so we read some TripAdvisor reviews and found a place much cheaper that gave pontoon boat tours.  My hopes weren't extremely high, but it turned out to be much more fun than I thought.  The pontoon boats were covered, so we were in the shade and not burning up.  The guys driving the boats were knowledgeable about the area and pointed out any wildlife they saw.  

We saw several birds, turtles, and smaller alligators (a few feet long) and I was satisfied with the trip.  Then we went to see Big Al. Big Al was 12-13 feet long.  Also, Big Al apparently liked hot dogs.  We were told to keep our fingers in for that reason.  Other tour groups had tried throwing marshmallows to him, but he wasn't a fan.  Our guide made an alligator noise to call Big Al over, then started tapping the water with a hot dog on a stick.  

As our pictures show, Big Al certainly came out of the water for the hot dogs.  It was pretty creepy because he was only a few feet away at times.  After we were done taking pictures, we headed back to the dock.  I would say the tour was well worth the money.  It was amazing to be that close to such a large alligator!

After our tour, we decided to drive down to the tip of Louisiana.  It was an interesting drive.  We passed several refineries.  We also passed a few churches.  We drove right to the end and then turned around and headed back. It was a nice, calm way to end the day.  

While in Walmart the day before, we saw an ad for an airshow in the paper.  It was free, so we decided to go.  We drove to the base and waited in line to get it.  It was pretty cool because we got to park on the tarmac.  I didn't realize though how far the walk to the actual show would be.  They had buses taking people over.  

Once we were through the doors, the show had already started.  It was so hot on the pavement, every little bit of shade was occupied by people seeking relief from the heat.  We just found a spot good for taking pictures and endured the heat.  The shows were pretty impressive for the most part.  Lee enjoyed the older planes and their pretend dog fight.  The only one that was terrible was the wing walker.

The wing walker didn't walk the wings, she just stood in one spot attached to the plane putting one arm in the air to wave and then alternating to the other arm - not very exciting.  Once Lee was done watching the show, we made the long walk back to our car to head to New Orleans.

We arrived in New Orleans, parked the car not far from the French Quarter, and proceeded to explore the area.  I had forgotten from previous visits the terrible smell of the city.  The smell of trash, horse poop, and vomit wafted through the streets as we walked around.  While the smell was terrible, the area was quite beautiful.  The architecture and flowers made me want to just sit on a balcony and enjoy my surroundings.

We stopped in the shops and viewed the local art vendors on the street.  There were several talented artists, and several not quite as gifted.  Before we left the French Quarter, we stopped at Cafe Du Monde for some beignets and chocolate milk.  They of course were delicious. After leaving New Orleans, we stopped at Loyola University to check out the campus.  Lee took some pictures and we headed home.

On our way home, we stopped in Tuscaloosa to see the damage from the recent tornado.  It had been a couple weeks, but the recovery effort was still in full force as the damage was extensive.  It still shocks me to see how one house can be completely destroyed while another just a few feet away remains unharmed.  We prayed for those in the area and continued home.  We arrived home after our long weekend and crashed before having to go to work in the morning.  It was a short weekend in time, but a long weekend in activity.