The wizard stolled away, leaving the children captivated. And most importantly, they were not to tell anyone their wish. He was connecting their wish to the stone, he explained. Then, one at a time, he touched his magic wand to their heads first and then to the stone in their hand. He told them it was a wishing stone and that they were to think of a wish. Then, he placed a shiny stone in their palms. He directed each child to hold out their hand. Shortly after getting the kids freshly squeezed lemonade, they were stopped by a tall wizard with a long gray beard. The kids enjoyed following along with the crowd, clapping to the music. A lady, who appeared to be naked except for the thin leather pieces tied around her waist to make a skirt and around her chest to make a top, walked around with a basket of the musicians’ CD’s for sale. The guy with the bagpipe wore a kilt, leather straps, had long hair, a beard and his face was streaked with blue paint straight out of Braveheart. There were three men playing instruments, two of them held a large drum each and the other was a bagpipe player. After talking with the mermaids and playing on the pirate ship, we followed the enchanting sound of a bagpipe and found ourselves on a bench in front of a stage. We were delighted to see the large elephant casual stroll through the fair on his way to the tent. There is also a fairyland in the woods, a butterfly garden and a c ircus tent. For children there is a Pirates’ landing filled with wooden pirate ship playgrounds, live mermaids in a pool, and a pirate ship fun house. My other daughter would choose to purchase a wooden sword and shield, which I then needed to buy her younger brother a wooden sword as well so he could defend himself in the wagon!įor adults, there are plenty of interesting shops, live shows and demonstrations, and a nice variety of food. Throughout the course of the day, my oldest would buy a set of blue horns to wear on her head, making her look like a creature from Narnia. My daughters each brought twenty dollars from their piggy banks. There are plenty of options for fair visitors to purchase or rent costumes and accessories to become part of this land. The Medieval Fair is full of merchants and peddlers, barbarians, pirates, mermaids, fairies, spirit folk, warlords, Vikings and Celts, all in full costume and character and accent. “And don’t miss the live chess game at 3!” he said as we continue on. Their costumes were brilliantly colorful and detailed with jewels and bells and their faces matched with paint. Then, we came upon a couple of Jesters who encouraged us to come see their show at one of the stages later that day. I took a quick picture of my daughter standing in front of a wall of swords and got the heck out of there before I would be obligated to buy a newly broken weapon or rush my kid to the emergency room. The shop was full of swords, axes, flails, spears, armor and shields. I would have loved to spend more time examining these authentic pieces had it not been for the extra thirty tiny fingers I brought in with me. “You must be 18 to touch the weapons!” I hear a voice say as I notice my kids have run in and already began touching all the sharp knives. The first stop on the entrance road was medieval weaponry. Let’s move on kids. It was all in good fun it just took me a few minutes to adjust to the new renaissance environment. “Oh no,” I thought, we were already part of this new world. A few comments were made to my children, referring to me as their slave since I was pulling them in a wagon. I tried not to make eye contact with any of these “characters” because I was not yet ready to engage in this fantasy land. A couple other people had their wrists tied with a rope and were being led by their owners. They were begging the incoming guests to pay the price to free them. On the other side of the road were a bunch of peasants and serfs tied by their wrists to a tall pole. Adjacent to the musicians stood a girl on stilts. In a gazebo, a group of people were playing a variety of acoustic instruments. Immediately upon entering there was activity all around. A character greeted me, “How do you do, my lady?” Towing my two youngest kids in a wagon behind me we approached the entrance the face of a castle where noblemen were standing in a tower with goblets in their hands bantering with the incoming visitors. After driving down a dirt road into the woods, we came to a large field to park our car and enter the fair grounds. My oldest daughter wore her long flowing blue sparkly skirt and my other daughter wore her pirate hat. I escaped with my kids to the Great Lakes Medieval Faire and Marketplace last weekend.
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