The Saturday after our return from the Most Extreme Mid-Atlantic Parks Tour there was a traditional annual local event we hadn't missed. This was the Fairy Tale Festival, over at the Turner-Dodge House. We'd been there a couple years running, and once again missed FAE, who always gets to the place earlier than we do. We didn't have much time for it, unfortunately. ![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bunnyhugger had a women's pinball tournament to run in the late afternoon, so we had to duck out early, and given the struggle of getting me to rise while there's still morning our time was sharply limited.
So between our late start and early departure I'm not sure if the event was substantially different. It felt smaller but that's surely because we didn't go into the Turner-Dodge House this time around. That's always an extra charge but they also have the rooms and sometimes decorations and events in there. They had the habibi dancers performing outside --- in past years they've been in the third-floor ballroom --- so the thing we were most likely to stop and watch a while was outdoors anyway.
As usual there were a number of vendors selling the sorts of fairy-tinged convention dealer stuff. A lot of them admired bunnyhugger's jackalope costume, one that she's used for a couple of fairy-themed or Halloween events before, and was easy to wear and also put away ahead of the pinball stuff. People loved it. We did think a little about the kid a couple years ago who was sorry to leave bunnyhugger in her wyvern costume, and how her mother had promised bunnyhugger would be there next year. We don't know if we ever saw the kid again.
And arguing for the fair being larger: they had more props this year. They'd set up a bunch of little displays with fairy tale themes. Mostly the Three Little Pigs, as they put up a sign near some straw-covered sod reading ``Hippy Pig Straw House - Demolished Due To Wind Damage'', and a ``pork barrel (of bricks)'' beside the sign ``Future Site of Brick House''. There was also a stick house, or wooden boards anyway, which seems like a reasonable house for normal purposes. They also put a pig figure in a small heap of upturned ground and the sign declaring ``happy as a pig in mud'' beside it. There was also a Candy House, a cardboard thing with giant decoration candies plastered over it.
I hope the houses and all are signs of the event growing, and that they'll have more of this sort of thing next year. It's fun going to a spot to walk around fairy tale and fantasy settings.
And now, Halloweekends Saturday! Which started with our traditional visit to the Merry-Go-Round Museum.
bunnyhugger riding on the dog, on the Merry-Go-Round Museum's operating carousel. We always get at least one ride and it happened they were starting one just about as we arrived; you can see another rider behind her.
Here's the dog considering the pig (go on, guess the pig's name) and other riders. You can see how busy it was; we've often had rides alone or all-but-alone.
Here's a cool skeleton riding an inner-row horse.
Here's a less-cool skeleton riding on the chariot.
Here's a picture form the inside of the rabbit that's, sadly, for kids only; it's too small for adults to ride.
Peeking underneath a horse, while bunnyhugger photobombs another picture.
Trivia: After its December 1903 flights the Wright Brothers disassembled the damaged Flyer and packed in crates for shipping home to Dayton, to be rebuilt into an improved model. Instead Wilbur and Orville built an entirely new airplane, and the 1903 Flyer stayed in wooden boxes in a shed for years. Source: First Flight: The Wright Brothers and the Invention of the Airplane, T A Heppenheimer.
Currently Reading: Knowing What We Know: The Transmission of Knowledge From Ancient Wisdom to Modern Magic, Simon Winchester.
