Off to the Renaissance Faire!
This particular Renaissance Faire is held every year at the Santa Fe Dam Recreation Area. It’s actually called the Original Renaissance Pleasure Faire - because that’s what it is. It was started in 1963, and was moved around the Los Angeles Area a few times before settling in their current spot. They now have 200,000 people come to visit every year - and they only open for 7 weekends out of the year. It’s pretty amazing.
Getting there was both easy and incredibly difficult at the same time. It’s only a half- hour drive from Caltech; but the line of cars waiting to turn into the area it was held spanned more than a block. It took about 45 minutes of waiting to actually get into the area. But waiting in line, we had our first glimpse of what was to come. People walked past the line of cars in all sorts of regalia, with capes, fancy dresses and otherwise. I specifically remember a man dressed all in white: from the back, it looked like he might be a knight, as he had a white cape on (although the sneakers he wore somewhat ruined that look). However, when we drove past him the cape was connected to a long baggy tunic with the Templar sign on it. My expectation of his clothes versus the reality made it seem really funny, as it looked like he had put on a bed sheet.
After getting to the front of the line of cars, we finally figured out what the hold-up was: although there was plenty of parking in the recreation area, they only had 3 people taking payment for parking. This situation probably happens every weekend (and every year) as well. It seemed like they knew it would happen, with the number of traffic policemen we saw on our way in. It’s unfortunate that there doesn’t seem to be a solution to the problem.
