Our Day at the Ohio Renaissance Festival

After a long night of driving from Nashville to Dayton, Ohio, we got checked in last night, got some sleep, and then headed for the first item on our weekend agenda. The Ohio Renn Fair. I last visited this fair probably every bit of 15 years ago.

Amazingly, a lot of the same performers I saw then are still performing now.

Of course my son's MUST SEE was the Joust. So that is where we headed first.

I remember many knights and full on trying to unhorse one another. In fact, this was one of the main reasons I wanted to bring Aiden to Ohio, since in Nashville we have been getting like three knights Jousting for the last several years. Imagine my surprise when there are only two knights in the List.

The tried. They really did. The production value is well ahead of Nashville, with a Master of the List talking about everything that is going on, with a wireless mic, and somewhat decent audio quality. But there is only so much you can do with two riders.

Our side was to cheer for the Lady Jaqueline. She's the knight with the white horse and purple caparison. She tried. But if you zoom in on the picture above, this pass was a clean miss for her. Meanwhile her opponent was striking solid blows on her with each pass. On the 3rd pass she swayed back hard. On the fourth pass he unseated her.

She sportingly got up and back onto her horse for the fifth and final pass. And then all was done.

Then it was time to find lunch. A Turkey leg for Aiden, and I got the Beef Stew bread bowl. This was just as good as I remembered it from years ago.

The other thing I remembered fondly was the Swordsmen Show and the Mudde Show. The swordsmen were just as good as I remembered, though Aiden made the point that they talked too much and didn't fight enough. Which was a fair point. But it is hard to choreograph 20 straight minutes of comedic sword fighting, so I will give them being a little verbose.

The Mudde show was a bit disappointing. I guess they were still funny. But I remember it being absolutely hilarious. This was mildly amusing. Maybe last time I had more mead to go with the mud flopping.

Before the Mud flew

We had time for a few games and "rides" This is the Barrel Swing. Aiden looks a little worried here...

Then it was time to find some souvenirs and get on our way. So many different shops to look in. The one thing that Ohio Renn Fair excels at is shops and food. There are tons of varieties of both. So many things to look at, foods to try, deserts to taste, Renny stuff to buy.

Everyone walked away happy. Except for the Lady knight, who is bound to have some bruises after today's jousting contest. I'll leave you with a short video of one of the passes, Not the unhorsing, I didn't catch that one. But here you go!