Renaissance Festival 2009

It's that time of year again - the most beautiful season in Minnesota - Autumn (or pretty close to it.) The weather is gorgeous and cool, and it was a perfect time to visit the Minnesota Renaissance Festival. We dressed in our finery and made the two hour drive to Chaska. Inthe parking lot we spruced ourselves up (and we weren't the only ones!)

We saw these dancers chatting at the Belly Dance show.

As usual we HAD to go to Lost Art Leather. This is undoubtedly one of the best booths at the fair. The owner Marla has the most wonderful sense of color. It is so hard for me not to buy everything in the shop even though most of the color combinations don't really match my natural coloring!

We saw a new show this time - Franko the Hypnotist - later in the afternoon we eavesdropped on a woman talking about her experience on stage. She said she didn't feel compelled to do the things she was told to do, but she did feel the emotions that were suggested. (She was told she was a nurse helping with a birth. Hypnotic suggestions about her husbands winks and the emotions they would evoke did not work, her husband reported sadly.) Here the volunteers are moving into a hypnotically induced state of sleep and relaxation. We recommend the show. It was fun. (He told me to say that!)

I'm always interested to see the dancers who dance with snakes. I would be so distracted, I think, worrying about the well-being of the snake. I guess it would make my dancing less bouncy!

Who do these characters think they are?

I seem to take a lot of pictures of the lords and ladies from behind. I do like this one.

This was one of the belly dancers. Obviously I photoshopped it a little!

This is my favorite photo so far.

We'll be going back again in a few weeks, I hope, so look for a few more photos.