Catch Up on Melanie . . . and the Renaissance Festival

Melanie has been busy this summer, and she moved to a new apartment with her own room and just two room-mates instead of 5 over the weekend of August 22-23.  Last weekend she was a bridesmaid in her friend, Abby's, wedding.  Below is a picture of Melanie with Jonna (on the left) and Beth and Natalie; all of these girls were part of the group of six that lived together all last year.  Right now Melanie is working really hard to raise the last of her support for Great Commission Ministries by the end of September.  The students will be back on campus before you know it!

Today Greg and I drove down to the New Stanton area to visit the Pittsburgh Renaissance Festival.   It was a beautiful day, and we got there around lunchtime and saw a mime show and then wandered around the festival.  Here are a few memorable moments.

 

Jousting was the order of the day.  The actors were good, but the horses were the real stars in my opinion.  They were amazingly well-behaved with so many people around.  Still it was a good show with Henry VIII and his court on the daise.

There were a lot of people wandering around in costumes.  Some of the men wore armour and chainmaille suits.  Not everyone had a lance, however.  (Thankfully.)

 

There were sword fights.

And more sword fights.

And the court processed in and out of the arena around every show!

There were Mad Mechanical players doing a bad job with Shakespeare.

And there were people acting as villagers and street people all throughout the festival.

I really liked the glass blowing demonstration.  This glass blower was making a vase shaped like a fish.  I would have bought one, but it was $63.  Uh, I don't think so.

Anyway, it was a lovely way to spend Sunday . . . even if some of the stuff was kind of bawdy.  But, in Henry VIII's day, it was AT LEAST bawdy and probably much worse.  Definitely a PG kind of time period.