Minnesota Ren Fest

Today is mine and Michelle's 18th wedding anniversary. Since I did not have anything scheduled for this weekend I asked Michelle a couple weeks ago what she would like to do for our anniversary. Usually I am the one who plans our activities but I thought that maybe Michelle would prefer to celebrate our anniversary doing something other then chasing birds, bugs, and animals through woods, fields and swamps.

Her choice was to spend Saturday at the Minnesota Ren Fest. This was a fitting choice since when we got married we were poor and did not have enough money to travel somewhere nice for a honeymoon so we spent a few days over in Wisconsin and then came back and spent the following Saturday at the Ren Fest.

We went and watched several of the stage shows. It was fun seeing some of the people who I knew from the many years that I was in business as a family entertainer doing magic and balloon sculpting.

Besides the stage shows there are a lot of other things to do and see. Food is a large part of the days activities. This is the first time that we have been to the Ren Fest since I was diagnosed with diabetes about three years ago, so finding suitable food for my strict diet was a bit more difficult.

There are also always a lot of colorful characters at the festival. Some are street entertainers, like the ones pictured above, while other are actually spectators who decide to become a part of the atmosphere by dressing up.

We spent a lot of time looking at art, cut glass, costume pieces, and sculptures. One of my favorites was this 2 piece bronze dragon. It is difficult to see but it is in a small pool and the mouth is a fountain. If only I had a yard big enough to build a small water feature.

And what festival would be complete with out rides. This giant rocking horse looked way to scary for us old folks so we decided to pass. We ended up spending only about half a day, because it got kind of warm in the afternoon but we both had a good time reliving some fond old memories.