Carl's Blog

October 12, 2024

After many hours of travel I arrived at the humble Holiday Inn of Tomball. The kitchen had been closed for hours and very few patrons remained awake so I retired to my room, tired and hungry.

Sleep did not take long to over take me; however, it was short because of my excitement of the day ahead. I had been invited to the 50th opening of the King’s court.

I began to stir hours before the sun would rise. I impatiently waited for the kitchen to reopen so I could have my breakfast and hours before I needed to dress and ride to the Festival.

As I traveled to the enchanted lands, the road I traveled was covered in fog adding to the excitement as the miles melted away.

A suggestion to any and all that travel to this enchanted real, have your papers ready. (Print your tickets) I saved probably 15 or 20 minutes waiting on line, if I had brought digital tickets.

The land is divided into smaller realms that mirror our world.

You can visit… Tuscany, Burgundy, Poland, Germany… You get the idea. Each area has its “special” food.

You can also find Butter Beer from the magical realm of Harry Potter.

Along with food and drinks you can find many forms of entertainment, comedy underlies almost everything. Keep a lookout for the ratings shown on the stage. Unless you want to have questions from your children before you are ready. Stay Away!

I always enjoy the juggling acts.

And you should always stop for a magician especially if it is The Merlin.

There is also an enchanted garden you can walk through, you might find a shrine or sites to rest and contemplate the universe.

You might be wondering why would parents bring children here if the entertainment could raise questions earlier than wanted or give them ideas that could burn the house down… Well there is a whole area that has carnival games.

You could catapult a frog, catch a fish, throw a lance or axe, and even ride an elephant.

There are also some huge swings, a climbing tower and a bungee bouncing trampoline.

Oh and the vendors… Some are just reselling junk you can buy from Amazon, but other handcraft in wood, leather, cloth and metal.

I was even able to custom order a chainmail linked bracelet that the artist is going to attach a gem stone that I had in a necklace, but that won’t be ready for a few weeks. If I remember I’ll add the picture or maybe make a new post.

Final thing…

Be sure to check out the extras you can purchase. You could eat a feast and be entertained with the King and Queen, you can do a Scotch tasting or wine

The day ends with fireworks, but I had left the realm before the closing event.

I am currently trying to decide if my feet can take another day of walking after walking 18k steps or 9.9 miles today.

Here is a very short video collage, walking into the venue, juggling, bird of prey and full metal combat.

Huzzah!