Hoggetowne

Last weekend Mrs. Marius announced her intention to put in for a couple of days off at work. She is currently working two jobs, and gets no days off, so it was quite understandable that she would need a breather. The day after this announcement I got word that the Hoggtowne Medieval Faire, in Gainesville, was starting this weekend. We still only have the one car(waiting on tax refunds for down payment)so even when she does get time off all she ends up doing is sitting around the house, so the faire was just the right medicine. Thus yesterday morning we piled into the car and headed north. Normally we'd dress up in our period finery for such an outing, but we decided given the chilly weather, and the desire to just relax, we'd dress normally and be part of the great, unwashed masses.(although we did shower)

The nice thing about Hoggetowne is that there is a very strong SCA presence at the faire, so it is a bit more grounded in reality than most renn faires. You still get your fair share of elves and wizards wandering around, but the general atmosphere is friendlier. We also got to see many old friends who happen to live in Gainesville. Friends such as his Baronship, Syr Terrell:


As you can see, one of his trademarks is his serious, humorless demeanor.(and just by way of explanation, his lady and he are major Gators fans)

Also at the faire was a place where you could get a ride on one of the war horses used in the jousting demo, and since the COA is quite stereotypically in love with horses, she went for a ride:



Later the SCA put on a fighting demonstration:


We also ran in to some very old friends, Dell and Widget.(yes, her real name is Widget...she's on the left):

But my most pleasant encounter was with my second mom, Natasha. We met more than 25 years ago, and she has been Mom to me ever since. With the events of the last couple of months still all too fresh in my mind it was so good to see her I can't really describe it:


Finally, around 4ish, Mrs. Marius had seen all she wanted to see, eaten all she wanted to eat, and bought nearly all she wanted to buy.(you could easily go broke at one of these things) We made the rounds, got hugs and said our goodbyes, and headed home. The diem had been fully carped, and my lovely wife was in a better mood than I've seen her in for quite some time.

All in all, it was a good day. :-)

Marius