Central Coast Renaissance Festival

I went to this festival last year, the first time I had ever attended a Renaissance Faire, and had such a great time that I decided to go again this year. I spent a year trying to find a pewter tankard that I could drink my mead from, and finally found one (and a pair of pewter goblets as well). That is about as far as my costume went, though.

Lara the Lacemaker

This event is nice and intimate, combining living history with vendors and a variety of shows. Kids would love this, but many of the games cost extra money.


The shows are free and usually involve singers, dancers, musicians, performers, and (the most fun) weapons!!


My favorite is the full-contact jousting, specifically the Queen's Joust, which is the final one of the weekend.


The food options are also varied and popular, the funnel cake line was the longest when I was there. I was a bit put off by the price for the mead I had looked forward to for a year. They charged the same amount but used such a cup half the size of the one they used last year. I will not be purchasing mead next year!! Bring lots of water, it gets warm here and the shade options are few and far between.


I loved how all the festival participants stayed in character, clothing, speech, and manner. The participants are like a family, they all know each other from the other Faires and have a good-natured banter going back and forth!! The Queen is perfect, just the right amount of "regalness" and her dress is beautiful. I got to play mancala with a Scotsman!! I will return here again next year if I am in town, fun was had by all.

San Luis Obispo Farmer's Market

I thought I would celebrate my 2-year anniversary of living on the Central Coast by attending the weekly Farmer's Market in San Luis Obispo. I went once before, last Fall, when it was "WOW Week" for Cal Poly. It was really crowded with sororities and fraternities and most of the tables were political or religious in nature. Yesterday it was still crowded, but this time with tourists and children. You have to be really patient while walking through the market.


I noticed that there was only one political table per party this time, and only one blatantly religious one. They should have a grammar-check on their whiteboard!!


There was an interesting table that was pushing some paranoid agenda about the 9-11 terrorist attack. The group was purported to be composed of architects, engineers, and firefighters.


Overall, this event is amazing. They do not allow dogs, and have a bike parking lot. There are tons of different options for food, including crepes, BBQ, Italian, Mediterranean, Asian, dessert, snacks, face painting, dream interpretations, massages, caricatures, etc. F. McLintock's wins for the longest line!! The fresh produce was well-represented, my favorite was the booth that had white, purple, and orange carrots.


The music was also good, there was an old-fashioned patriotic county band, a jazz band, a new age guy, a "regular" band, and my favorite "The Lord of the Cello"!! This guy was dressed in a kilt with combat boots and was playing an electric cello. His music was fascinating, sort of like techno-Celtic!!

I will definitely be back for this farmer's market, especially if Marston Smith (the electric cellist) is performing. Here is a little video I made of a portion of his performance:

Review - San Luis Obispo Swap Meet

I finally had a chance to check out the San Luis Obispo Swap Meet last Sunday. It is held at the Sunset Drive-In Theatre, and costs $1 for walk-ins, or $2 to park inside. Since my feet are bad, and there were no close parking places outside, I opted for the $2 fee. There are about 7 rows of offerings, about 80% used stuff. About 5% is produce and plants, and the rest is new stuff.


I am hoping to get in there one of these days as a seller, so I asked a few people for advice, and took some pictures of some of the displays for ideas. Most people have their wares spread out on blankets or tarps. The "regulars" have tables and usually got two booths. The people on the perimeter wall used the wall as display space. The type of stuff I sell is not really represented at this swap meet, so I don't know if it would be worth it. The booths cost $20, $40 for produce booths. I think I will try it once, perhaps in November or December as I have some holiday themed items to sell.


The food options were interesting, two Mexican food booths (Tamales and Menudo) and the snack bar was also open. I got a hot dog, but was craving some freshly popped popcorn. I asked at the snack bar and they pop the popcorn the night before. When I bought my hot dog there was no popcorn left, so people must not mind it not being freshly popped. I ended up seeing a movie in town after I left the swap meet to get my popcorn fix!! Next time I will try the tamales, people were crowding their booth.



I was surprised that the swap meet allows weapons to be sold. There were several guns (some rifles and a pair of pistols) as well as various swords and knives. The latter may have been due to the Renaissance Festival being next weekend, don't know. All in all, people were in good spirits, check out the guy smiling in the plant booth!! Unfortunately for the sellers, the only thing I was tempted to buy were some dahlia plants.

Independence Day in Morro Bay

I have been here for almost 2 years and I was happy to have the chance to experience the Morro Bay Independence Day. Their flyer indicated that there are tons of activities all day long for families. The bike parade starts it all off, and down at Tidelands Park there are bands and games and food from around noon through the fireworks show at night. The city trolley had special routes to take people to and from the park for the fireworks show, and I took advantage of this opportunity to take the trolley (another thing I hadn't done yet).

I waited at City Park for the trolley to take me down to the stairs atop Tidelands Park. I decided that since there were food options down at the park that I wouldn't get the all-day pass, saving 50¢ on the trolley fare. But, many people used this pass and they went between the State Park and the Embarcadero and the Park all day long. When I arrived at the Park, I was surprised to see that there were hardly any food options for dinner people like myself. I don't know if they had more booths during the day or not, but I lucked out and got the last hotdogs from one booth. It was the only booth open that was selling protein, there was still some churros and other sweets. Next time I will go to a restaurant instead, I think, if I just do dinner there.

I walked through the park and was amazed at how crowded it was. People were set up in tents and on blankets on almost every inch of the grass. I was able to find a little patch of grass by the sound guys for the band. I enjoyed listening to the music and watching the dancers while I ate my dinner. I loved all the families that were out and about. Kids were throwing balloons and blowing bubbles, and later they bought some lighted swords to play with. Boy, that lady made a killing selling those lighted toys. She bought them for a dollar each and sold them for $3!! When the band was finished, there was a lady who sang a patriotic song (pretty badly if the truth be told) and then two guys set up for the fireworks to start at 9:00.

When the fireworks started I realized that I had selected the wrong place to sit. The roof on the bandstand totally blocked the lower fireworks. As soon as people realized this, many got up quickly to move to a better vantage point. I decided to sit it out. The show was nice, I especially enjoyed the ones with secondary explosions. There was one which the crowd really enjoyed, it was one of those waterfall effects, but it was set off so perfectly that the crowd literally caught their breath. I attempted to photograph the fireworks, but only a few came out. Most of them were simply "art shots"!!

After the fireworks, it was amazing how quickly and orderly people left the park. Luckily the stairs were one-way, and people were polite. Some people chose to walk up the iceplant on the two sides of the stairs. The trolleys were waiting at the top of the stairs, standing room only. The one I was on went to the State Park first, then went back to the stairs to get more people. The traffic was so bad on Morro Bay Boulevard that they decided to pick up more people instead of attempting the traffic on the way to City Park.

I loved the experience, and saw where people set up for the best views. Next time I will try a restaurant view, unless I have a group of people who want to listen to the music. I was also happy that people were not smoking at the Park, expect one selfish guy smoking a pipe!!