Adventures and Misadventures in the USA

It is safe to say that we had a FABULOUS time this past weekend down in Randle, WA at the 40 Year Celebration (40YC) of the SCA (Society for Creative Anachronism). The weather was gorgeous (though a LITTLE bit cold at night) and the people were great.

Friday:
As they had been asked to, Dorothy and Jessica showed up promptly a little before 8:30 in the morning so that we could get an early start (as I had stressed to both of them). Luckily for me they were expecting that things would be running on SCA time (about an hour or two later than scheduled).
Because I had spent the entire previous day sewing my new garb and driving to Burnaby and then Kitsilano to pick up Jessica and Dorothy's things (not getting home until 9:00 at night) we didn't have time to pack the night before so that was the first order of business.
Dorothy and Jessica were a great help with everything that morning. I did a lot of packing, Derek did a lot of van preparations (checking coolant, loading everything in nice and tight, etc.)
By 10:30 (ONLY two hours late) we were on the road with our music mix in the cd player and Jessica passed out in the back of the van (having worked a twelve hour graveyard shift the night before).
We made rather a lot of stops for pee-breaks, gas and food on the way down and had a TINY detour that involved circumnavigating SeaTac Airport (and taking the road that runs underneath the airstrip... it was quite exciting really). Derek was a little put off by this but we did end up making it to the site (only six or seven hours later than expected) by 8:00 that night.
We were smart about our eating and had stopped in Randle to have a wonderful porkchop dinner just before we arrived on site (so that at the very least we wouldn't be hungry while setting up.
The van was unloaded and tents were set up in RECORD time. By full dark all our tents were happily put up near the river that ran through the site.
Derek and I spent some time chatting and watching the moon rise over on of the surrounding mountains... what a beautiful sight!

Saturday:
Why the biffy trucks insisted on coming to clean them at 7:00 am each day (except for the final day when they came at 10:00) I will never know. That was the first sound I heard that day, followed quickly by the herald (someone who runs around the site announcing things) letting us know when archery, heavy fighting and rapier would be starting.
Morgan (Derek) and I (my SCA name is Aria) got up and were greeted by Christine (Jessica) and Gwynna (Dorothy). Christine told us to check out the Dewdrop Inn and let the owner know we were her friends. So off we went!
The Dewdrop became our favorite hang out all weekend long for a few reasons: BIG reason #1: The uber-breakfast sandwich is the greatest thing ever invented. It is a sausage patty (like in an Egg Muffin thingy), a couple of fried eggs, two strips of bacon and some cheese all sandwiched between two thick slices of french toast (I think I gained about 15 pounds just from eating breakfast there all weekend, but MAN was it tasty!); reason #2: Phillipe. He is the craziest, most wonderful frenchman I have ever met at an event. Despite having had some serious personal stuff going on in the last little while he had a smile on most of the weekend and was always striving to make people happy and to make them laugh; reason #3: It was an AWFULLY fun place to be. There were always people milling about and having a good time. They had bards in and out all weekend and we all had a blast there.
After breakfast Morgan (Derek) and I went for the first (of many) shopping trips. The merchants on site were wonderful. They had anything and everything medieval you could possibly want to buy and then some. Some of the best scores this weekend were: a nice cavalier hat and bracers (armguards) for Derek, a couple of lovely haircombs for me, some gorgeous pearls (for decorating garb) and the greatest thing we got all weekend, a metal brazier that sits three feet off the ground on a tripod. We were especially proud of finding the brazier because we got a smoking deal on it.
Around noon Gwynna and Christine wanted to pop into town to get a little more cash and some water for the heat of the day. It was quite the blessing to walk into an airconditioned store and get slurpees too!
When we got back Morgan and I went to Sushi Sam's (medieval sushi merchant... yet somehow the fish was fresh... hmmm) for lunch. We had a good time playing backgammon while we waited for our order (and man, it was GOOD sushi). While there I was approached by Phillipe (earlier in the day I had offered a barter of back massage for meals at the Dewdrop). It turns out that the owner of the Dewdrop, one Silverstone (or just Stone) by name, was having some back problems and was quite happy at the idea of the exchange.
So I went and got my chair and brought it back to the Dewdrop. I managed to do enough massage for Stone and his staff that Morgan and I were fed for most of the remainder of the weekend. Everybody won! While I was doing that Morgan was shooting at the archery range and having a good time.
In the evening we spent some time wandering around the site after Morgan had a nap while I did some sewing. That night was a site-wide shopping extravaganza (ironically we didn't end up buying anything). After shopping at Midnight Madness, we headed over to the tavern/great hall (which was a great set up, all wood interior with spears and shields on the wall and long dining tables up and down. There was some bellydancing going on and Gwynna looked lovely (and was the best dancer there). Sadly, instead of the usual drum circle happening there was this one old guy who kept putting lousy music into a boom box and then drumming on (what looked like) a snare drum with drumsticks. This is quite unusual (and wrong sounding) because bellydancing calls for a very complex set of rhythms played by hand either on a doumbek, a set of tablas or similar drum set up. Gwynna, sadly, got frustrated and decided to find something better to do for the evening.
When she left Morgan, Christine and myself decided to try and find a bardic circle to sing at. After wandering for a while we found Phillipe who took us to a party happening at The Keep (another camp). They were also doing the circle of guys ogling the bellydancers (really not what we were into at that point) so we decided to head home and get some sleep.

Sunday:
In the morning I asked Morgan to pick up breakfast from the Dewdrop and bring it back as I was finishing off the sleeves for my new bodice. When he arrived back at camp he brought the news that they were not open yet so I made some museli instead and Morgan, Gwynna and I sat around and chatted for a while.
During our nice, quiet breakfast, a gentleman named Ambrose (mka Dain) came by to say hello and give Gwynna and I some absolutely AMAZING chocolates with a coffee cream center (tasted like a coffee crisp times a million on the delicious scale). We invited him to come by for dinner anytime...
Later Morgan, Christine, Gwynna and I decided that we would have a weiner roast to inaugurate the new brazier (and we invite Ambrose to this). The only problem was that none of us wanted to go into town to get the weiners. The problem was solved while I was in the great hall later that day where we were able to buy a box of 30 bratwurst sausages (it cost less to buy 30 than to buy 8... silly, isn't it?) and some buns to go with.
So we were all set for the evening and having a great time in the afternoon playing games of Mancala in the great hall and singing songs and giggling.
At one point Stone came along and asked if any of us wanted to go on a quick trip to Gig Harbour with him. Gwynna seemed up for a road trip (or an hour or two) and agreed. It turns out someone's vehical had broken down and because Stone had a flatbed trailer (and is a really good guy) he was taking their vehical home for them. They didn't get going until very late in the day but all went well and Gwynna had a good time on the trip.
At about 4:00 in the afternoon I went to check on Morgan (who had gone for a nap at about 1:00). When I got back to the tent he was still sleeping and it was stiflingly hot inside. I woke him up and it quickly became apparant that he was suffering from mild heat stroke from having been inside the hot tent for so long.
I took him out of the tent and into the shade and proceeded to slowly rub cool water into his hair and draped a wet towel around his neck, head and shoulders. After about half and hour we managed to cool him down so he only had a mild headache (which we got rid of with Peppermint Halo). Once he was better we went back to the tavern and picked up my chair, and then to the tavern to get the food for the evening.
Once we got back to camp we began to prepare for our feast. I fetched green sticks for roasting the bratwurst, Christine was the fire-maiden and Morgan spent time getting firewood and buckets of water for us.
By 7:00 we had a roaring fire going in our new (and wonderful) brazier. Sadly, Gwynna was out late and didn't end up coming back in time for our little party but we still had a great time.
Ambrose came by with a wonderful salad (which was enjoyed by all) and we also managed to drag out other neighbor, Craig, to our little happy fire. It turned out that everyone there had quite the bardic talents. We all exchanged songs and stories and jokes late into the night.
While we weren't looking a thick, low-lying fog crept around us and isolated our tents from the rest of the event (although by this time a LOT of people had packed up and gone home so the five tents of us and our guests were the only ones for a quarter mile around). We couldn't make out much beyond our circle of tents but above us the stars were clear and bright. There was a big of cloud coming over one of the hills and it was glowing an eerie but beautiful blue from the rising moon behind it.
By the time midnight rolled around I was thoroughly exhausted so I dragged my life-sized hot water bottle (aka Morgan) to our nest in the tent and fell fast asleep.

Monday:
Ahhh... to sleep in with no portapotty truck showing up at 7:00 am! We had a luxurious morning, sleeping in, then having breakfast... it was great! Packing up took a while and at the end of it I managed to find a safe place to dunk myself in the swiftly flowing, glacier fed river to cool off (good thing I did too as I didn't get all the spots with sunscreen and might have been REALLY sore today otherwise).
The drive home was fairly uneventful and MUCH faster than on the way down (thank goodness). We only stopped a couple of times and made it back to Canada by 7:30ish (only a six and a half hour drive). Derek and I dropped off Jessica and Dorothy and then went for a shower, sushi and then a blessed sleep at home!

I LOVE SUMMER EVENTS!