Jousters, Jugglers, Swashbucklers, Dancers, Costume Wearers, Bag Pipers, and Pastrami Sandwich Eaters.

    Posing with a member of the Royal Court.

Saturday we accompanied Bonnie to the 50th Annual Renaissance Arts Faire. She volunteered us to help the Center for Spiritual Living assist the Temple Beth-El to sell giant pastrami on rye sandwiches, kosher hot dogs, dill pickle spears, and chips out of a cardboard castle. We arrived two hours before the doors opened to set up the food stations, hang signage, and arrange the pay & order tables for the booth. Sadly, the inflatable pickle costume failed to inflate and the disappointed pickle lady went home. 

Despite the absence of their beloved mascot, people flocked to buy a pastrami sandwich. We volunteers had a moment of panic when we realized we didn't have any pickles. The Temple Beth-El's seasoned leader, Dave, calmly made a call for a temple member to rush the pickles to the park. Mere minutes before the booth was set to open, someone shouted “the pickles are at the gate” and we all cheered! 

 

Now, that's a lot of pastrami! 

We worked the booth until noon when a new set of volunteers arrived to relieve us. Of course, Bonnie and I conspired to share a pastrami sandwich after smelling the mouth watering aroma for four hours - the sandwich did not disappoint us. Bonnie's neighbor and close friend, Kaye, joined us for a walk around the place. I particularly loved seeing the people wearing traditional medieval costumes, but the most interesting people to see were dressed up like fantasy characters. I saw pirates, wenches, elves, fairies, rogues, warriors, people with animal tails, painted faces, steampunk attire, and a couple young wanna-be-Irishmen teens in kilts and cowboy boots. 

The delicious food and festive music didn’t end at the Renaissance Faire. When Kaye finished her volunteer shift at the pastrami castle, she had us over for her famous vegetable beef barley soup, which I have renamed, "Kaye's magical healing soup, aka, the best soup I've ever eaten." Cray didn't make the dinner party, because she didn't feel well. We brought her home a bowl of soup, which she ate before bed. When she woke up the next morning she was as good as new!

  

Kaye’s dad made these dulcimers. She comes from a musical family and she sings and plays the ukulele, which she did for us that night. Her little dog Bandit howled along to the music and had us all in stitches. 

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Does everyone have a corgi these days? Here I am throwing a ball to Kaye’s corgi named Paksi. 

I brought my ukulele to dinner and Kaye tuned it for me with this cool little guitar tuner called a “Snark.” Then she taught  me a couple cords to practice on my beginners instrument. Kaye has a very grown up ukulele and believe me she knows how to play it!!

Kaye is an amazing cook, musician, and she puts together adult Lego sets like this truck - you can even look under the hood at that engine.

She has a typewriter like this one put together and it looks so real!

The photo of this Lego piano doesn’t do it justice. There is an app that connects to it and plays piano music. Never a dull moment at Kaye’s house!