It’s always a lot of fun. I was able to convince my boys to go check it out and we met up with my sister and another great friend of ours and spent the afternoon exploring the fort, watching knights battle it out on the lawn, listen to authentic music, and just enjoy the day together.
The best part were two “knights” who were stationed outside the fort entrance. They had all kinds of chain mail, weapons, and helmets for the kids to try on. They were great and answered any and all questions. The boys had a great time touching items and trying them on.
The night before we left, I remembered I had an old “Robin Hood” costume from a history fair we had done. It fit Conductor and he was eager to wear it. Happy was sad he didn’t have one. I spent two hours on Friday night making him a night costume using a paper grocery bag, gray primer spray paint, and foil tape. He even ended up with a mini-matching shield. Then we arrive at the Fort and conductor decides he isn’t going to wear the Robin hood costume after all. ::sigh:: Lego-Man snagged the hat though and brought along his walking stick as well. He received many compliments on the hat and all knew who he was suppose to be.
Happy showing off his costume.I loved listening to the music. The gentleman playing the guitar-like instrument (I think it’s a lute) looks like he could have stepped out of a time machine. The costumes – for the most part – were very well done.
Another really fun aspect to the day was the launching of these great crossbows. The last time we went to this Fair (seven years ago) they had a huge catapult launching pumpkins in to the bay. They had a smaller one launching apples that the children could launch. This was the only big weapon we saw this day and we stood here for a good 15 minutes or so watching them load and launch at their shields down below them.
Another authentic looking gentleman. He was loading the crossbow.
They were all having a very good time firing these off.
Two group shots of all the kids.
While we toured the fort (I do have lots of photos of the inside too), we came to the food storage areas (root cellars). One of the last ones had a hole to the ground above for air ventilation. This area was pitch black other than the hole shining light down. I took this shot with no flash.
All in all it was a fun day. The boys were able to see some of what we had studied about last year in history.
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