Ren Fest

I have never thought that anyone is too old to play dress up. As a person who loves (notice the present tense) to pretend, imagine, and dress up, and has never really grown out of (what people might call) child's play, a Renaissance Festival results in a lot of fun for me.
This particular Renaissance Festival is about fifty minutes away from the city in an open field. There's a small castle gate that marks the entrance, and inside, we were immediately met with the sounds of some bagpipes. We stopped to look in some little shops (Ye Olde Jewelry, Magyk Cloaks, etc.) and then made our way to the joust. We got there a little late, so we didn't know what was going on. I should probably add at this point that it was raining. Though, of corse, it started to clear up right as we were about to leave the festival.
We left the joust and went around shopping again. I love seeing the little stores that I wouldn't get to see anywhere else. There was a leather shoe store, a store that sold metal scented roses, and a fairy store. The people in the stores were all dressed up in clothing from the Renaissance. Though my dad did point out that around 90% of the population during that time was probably wearing rags, not cloaks and fancy dresses. I did see a guy dressed like a flagellant though, so I was weary and didn't talk to him.
After looking at some of the stores, we went to go see my favorite part of the Renaissance Festival, Cast in Bronze. The act consists of a guy playing a medieval instrument that is sort of like an organ, but instead of the sound coming out of pipes, every note you play on the keyboard hits a different bell. The instrument weighs about 4 tons, and has about 40 or so bells in it. It's absolutely huge, and absolutely wonderful sounding. The instrument itself is called a carillon, and it is the only instrument of its kind in existence.
We then had food, and while we were sitting and eating, the bagpiper came to our section of the festival and started to play a medley of Star Wars and the Star Spangled Banner.
All the time that we were at the Renaissance Festival, my dad and I kept on bringing up a scene from The Big Bang Theory where the characters all go to a Ren Fest. Then Sheldon ruins the fun (like he always does) because he states that it is an inaccurate festival. But then, Raj, Howard, and Leonard convince him to go back, dressed as Spock (yes, from Star Trek) and pretend to be Spock investigating what life would be like during a Ren Fest.
Throughout this whole festival, there were people dressed up. They were wearing all these cloaks and cool outfits. A couple of years ago, when I first went to this festival, I wanted  my own outfit to wear for later years. I asked my mother to create one for me, and not surprisingly, she hasn't (though she did promise to make me a cloak about five years ago and she still hasn't, so I could probably get her to make one for me. It would be extremely useful during Harry Potter Day at school), so I should probably get to making one for next year's festival.