Renaissance Festival

Laurie and I were joined with our friend, Mandy, yesterday to enjoy the Renaissance Festival on it's opening weekend.  The weather was most interesting.  It was cloudy and raining off and on as we drove to Apache Junction for the festival.  When we arrived, it was muddy but the all-terrain wheelchair did great in getting me around.  (It's quite funny to ride around in the cool hippocampe, the festival workers are outspoken by nature and we get a LOT of comments during the day.)  During the Joust, it started dumping on us and everyone ran for cover.  We made it into the entrance of a clothing booth after being nearly soaked in the rain running.  It finally died down a bit and we ventured out into the fair again in search of lunch.  For a few hours it managed to get bright and sunny again and warmed up a bit.  Mandy and I both had our hair braided (pictures of mine to follow) and watched a really cool glass blowing demonstration while we sipped hot chai, hot chocolate and a latte between the three of us (Laurie, me, and Mandy respectively).  We visited the apothecary and got some herbal and chai tea and I got some new hand salve to protect my hands whilst knitting.  Wandered around a bit and got some yummy candied apples.  As we were finishing up the last of the loop, and after a quick bathroom break, we emerged to find more rain.  Rearranging the ponchos for a second time, we made for the car.  As we were sitting in the car all warming up, Laurie noticed that the rain was actually frozen in clumps on the windshield.  Brrrr.  Of course, the ride home was not without excitement, as Laurie forgot to put the handle bar for the all-terrain wheelchair in the car from the roof and it fell off spectacularly in the middle of the freeway.  It got slightly damage but Laurie believes it is fixable.  It did take me forever to finally warm up when we got home - my feet were frozen through, but all around a good day!  Here are the pics of my hair: