"A lady on the left is no lady at all..."

...according to the etiquette advice provided by her majesty's ladies in waiting at Michigan's Renaissance Festival, which we attended with Jon's parents. Fortunately, Cortney was seated correctly on Jon's right for the Italian wine tasting, the special theme for the opening weekend of the festival. Certainly, the food was one of the highlights of the day, offering every authentic old world finger food from huge turkey drumsticks to soup in a bread bowl to pickles in a barrel. Care to sample the king's nuts? (Roasted almonds).
While most of the vendors maintained period costumes and accents, some of the guests took advantage of the occasion to dress more like Xena than Guinevere. This was not so good in the case of the obese women with cleavage that supported a tip jar tucked in between! The most amazing costume award goes to the walking tree man, straight out of the Ents in the Lord of the Rings. The jousting was also a good spectacle, once the long-winded introductions finished. The accompanying drummer helped to increase the importance of the event, much like the timpani player in the movie Spaceballs. We also enjoyed a romantic ride on the Flying Dragons, took in the Ded Bob Sho, bought Cortney a beautiful green ring, and got Jon a didgeridoo. We're not sure how much the didgeridoo has to do with the Renaissance, but Jon definitely enjoyed filling up the car with the sound all the way home.