Valhalla Renaissance Faire

Eddie and I have always loved the Renaissance Faire in Las Vegas. We went just about every year since we met and have taken Nate twice already. There are several faires in our general area (mostly Northern CA) each year. This one was in South Lake Tahoe, CA, about an hour and a half drive for us. This faire goes for 2 weekends and includes school and family days on a Thursday and Friday (which we'll probably do when Nate is older for more educational purposes). Today was perfect. The weather was beautiful and it wasn't very busy at all.

One the way up traffic was slow going through South Lake Tahoe, and this is why...

We aren't sure what the wagon train was for or where they were going, but it was fun to see. There were also lots of bike riders on the road for some organized event.

Nate dressed up as a pirate and was much admired by the other renaissance people. Several people stopped to talk to him and one person gave him some gummy bears and another gave him a "gold" pirate coin. We stopped at various booths and looked or played with the things they had. The first booth we stopped at had a wooden catapult and cross bow that you could try out (and of course buy). On our way out we bought the little DIY catapult set for Eddie and Nate to do together.

Petting a bird very carefully. It had a very sharp beak. Of course he loves animals so I'm sure that is why he agreed to sit on this lady's lap. 

Trying on a real helmet. 

Pirate flag

Giant turkey leg and garlic fries I ordered. Nate took one bite and decided he didn't like  turkey leg. 

Lemonade hog

"Bad guy" in the jousting tournament

Good Guy

Good guy ended up losing...

...so his brother came out to challenge the bad guy

Whoa that looks scary and it sounded scary everytime he hit the good guy's shield with it.

After the tournament was over they had horse rides. Nate got to ride by himself his year.

Luckily Nate held on the whole time. He loved it. This was his 4th time on a horse.

Here is a video of the horse ride. It gets blurry sometimes (weird camera thing) but you get the idea.