September Crown

You know you are in the SCA when you happily give your baby Duc-Tape to play with and a shield to have lunch on. And a rubbermaid tub to play and sleep in (tired of fighting the pack-n-play).

It was a great labor day weekend. Walter and I had worked like mad people to get Walter presentable to fight in the Kings Tournament and we were able to pull it off. I made Walter a new fighting tabard and quilted tunic embellished with his device and Walter was able to finish his new shield and fix his broken sword. (sadly I forgot to take a picture of the quilted tunic)

And this new confidence must have paid off (not to mention the weekend after weekend of fight practices) because he won 10 of the 18 fights he was in.

During the long tournament Padon and I hung out in camp, visited with friends we hadn't seen in a while and went through merchants row where I found the Kingdom Spinners Guild and signed myself up on their email list.

I gave myself kudos for letting Padon play in the dog crate which I wouldn't crawl in myself but he was having such a good time opening the door, climbing inside, sitting, opening the door, climbing outside, opening the door and...well you get the picture. It really was the perfect size for him and when as a little kid do you not like your own personal fort?

I felt like I hadn't been to a kingdom event before. There were so many people I felt like I had never been a part of something that big, which is not the case. I want to guess there was at least 3000 people and there were so many tents that it was easy to get lost. The Autocrate (event coordinator) had roads set up and everything well marked but I still would get turned around when I would go to go to the bathroom. One night Padon and I were walking back from Court to start dinner and it was relatively dark and as I was trying not to kill myself as I walked over mole hills and dips in the ground I said to Padon, "Well Baby, I think Mommy's lost, I have no idea where we are." But after a couple minutes of walking in the direction I thought our camp was I could see our encampments "Dragon Wing" through the sea of period and mundane tents and I was relieved that my tiny bit of direction was correct. The place was that big.

There are a good twenty or so tents to my left and right behind me and hundreds of tents ahead. This was the main road on site. Those biffys (port-o-potty) were way too far away.

The whole Medlested camp went to the final battle to see who would be named the new King (current royalty lined up below) and while it was cool to see the winners battle for the crown they were so good that it was relatively fast.

The concensus was that the fighter on the right was a jerk and they didn't want him to win (maybe it was the fact he was dressed in husky colors; WSU Cougar jab) but thought his wife would make a fabulous Queen.

He did win, however, and everyone seemed pretty excited about it. They picked him and the other fighter up and toted them around the incircled crowd.

This doesn't really mean anything for me however. If I pass him and his wife I am supposed to curtsy and say "your Excellencies" and I am supposed to curtsy when I walk in front of their tent even if their not there. The thing is I can never remember who anyone is and if they aren't wearing their crown they aren't getting anything from me. Only royalty are allowed to wear jewels in their circlets and crowns so that usually is a dead give away but if they aren't wearing it then I can't be at fault. So there :p. I try to get it right.As we were packing up to leave Fiorlief came up and showed us the second green frog they had found in their tent. I showed it to Padon and the look on his face was priceless. He was in total awe of this tiny green thing. I so wanted a picture but it was really hard to get a picture of him before he poked the frog in the head. And my pulling the frog away as he reached for it made him frustrated especially when it seemed I was giving it to him. So in the end all I got was the picture below and I let the frog go out the crack in our tent so it wouldn't be tortured any more. We ended our Labor Day weekend rating the event with Dathi, Fiorlief and their kids Aiden and Talon at the Twede's Cafe in North Bend. Supposedly if you are a die hard fan of Twin Peaks you know all about Twede's but seeing as I'm not it was an amazing experience for me.

Food was priced like Red Robin but it was the page of 50 burgers, giant plates of food, humongous shakes, and to die for pie al'amode that made us fall in love. Padon just kept spinning in circles with his mouth hanging open at the "Tweety Birds" that were hanging from the walls. And because Walter and I had so much trouble choosing which of the 50 burgers we should try we split a Pizza Burger and a Fajita Burger both equally delicious. I was so gorged when we left I was afraid I would be sick but it was so hard not to keep eatting the Dick's like french fries and to finish the fabulous cherry pie. I mean there was icecream on top!

Huzzah! Besides the fact that the sky opened up and dumped on us 4 times it was a good weekend. I am so tired!!!