Carl's Blog

Wish I could say that I slept well last night, but when it’s not your bed you just can’t sleep. At least when I went to the hotel lobby, the complimentary breakfast was almost ready. There was turkey sausage and bacon, ham and cheese omelets (They didn’t call it that, but that was what it was.) biscuits and gravy. I could have had cereal or yogurt too, but why when you are on vacation? The coffee was good and helped me wake up.

After breakfast I went for a walk around the hotel and stumbled upon 2 cemeteries but no churches. One was in the island between three roads, and I don’t think is in use anymore. I’m guessing a Methodist Church must have been near that location.

The other cemetery was a Greek Orthodox with first resident occupying the location in the 1960s and the most recent was this year.

I then headed toward the Whole Foods because I’ve only seen them in Dallas. I wish there was one of these in my hometown, it would make meal prep so much easier.

On the way back it started to sprinkle. The forecast predicted a rainy day, and the forecast was right, however; the rain held back until about noon. More on that later.

I drove around Annapolis a bit looking for a park along the water and found one.

This is when it started to rain, which made me decide not to wear my Ren Faire outfit today. l am glad I decided to wait until tomorrow to wear my outfit, because the rain would have ruined my boots.

So, let’s get on to the Maryland Renaissance Fair… I should have gotten there early.

Once I arrived at the entrance, I had to stand in two lines. Well, I only needed to stand in one, but I wanted to sample adult beverages, so I had to get my age verified wrist band.

Time to go into the Faire.

I’m glad they provided a map of the area, because all the side “roads” were confusing.

There were plenty of vendors selling everything from hats, masks, boots, jewelry, journals and magic wands. If you forgot to wear a costume, they even had costume rentals.

I think I walked around the place twice before I decided on doing anything and even then, I missed some of the side roads until later in the day.

One thing I did notice was all the choices in food. Eventually, I went and got a Scottish Egg and cheese bread for lunch. I forgot to take a picture, but I’m guessing you are tired of seeing food you can’t eat while reading this blog. I’d also bought myself the official 2023 mug for the Faire, the only time the beer cost $2. (Empty mug $26, mug filled with beer $28) after that 16 oz of beer cost $7.

So I told you about the vendors and the food, now what would a faire be without the entertainers. And there were plenty of them. I’m going to create a schedule for tomorrow so I can see as many of the acts as possible. I’ll post better images and short videos tomorrow.

And now let me talk about the rain…

As I said earlier, the rain started just around noon and kept raining until 2 PM. I tried to leave around 1:30 PM but the line was moving so slow that I sat there going nowhere and ended up needing to go to the bathroom. So, I parked again and just went back into the faire and the rain. I found a table under some trees and just sat under my umbrella waiting for the rain to stop.

Eventually it did stop, and I was able to visit a few of the vendors I wanted to see before I left. This time there was no line, and I was out of the parking area in under 5 minutes and at my hotel in about 15 more minutes.

I’m going to save the next adventure I had today for another blog. If you remember my first room’s key wouldn’t work so I go another room, well I tried to get back into a similar room oh my oh my. But that story will have to wait for later.

Going to end here. Tomorrow, I return to the Faire with a plan and in an outfit.