every weekend at the Renaissance Faire

I went to the Ren Faire.

The best fun to be had at Ren Faire isn't sweating in the hot, sunny faire in ridiculous garb or purchasing expensive silly things. It's lounging in Paisley Glen, complaining about the heat!



I'm not quite acclimated to Washington yet, so the heat didn't bother me much. Shortly after arriving at the Faire on Saturday afternoon, I got to ride in Tyler's fancy red convertible to buy water... and another thing.



There were cows and a mountain!


And when we got back to Paisley Glen it was time for fancy time, so everyone fancified and went for a promenade.

(Paisley Glen isn't quite Renaissance reenactment so much as it's Victorian Renaissance reenactor reenactment, and more than that just silliness.)

And then it was dark and the other thing I bought was an inexpensive LED hula hoop.


Hunger happened but was quickly slain by the fabulous ramen cart (and ramen) that Stuart made.


And that was Ren Faire. Today I'll cross the Pacific again, back to Korea.

it's twilight time

I have not been to the Olympic Peninsula since Twilight happened. Since we planned to spend one night in Port Angeles, I thought it would be a fantastic opportunity to dine at Bella Italia, where Bella had her first date with Edward.

I don't know if I look sufficiently pale in this picture.


I shared an order of mushroom raviolis with my mom. That's the same thing Bella ordered, don't ya know? It's very good. They use various native Olympic Forest mushrooms. Or something.


After dinner, we went to see the latest Twilight movie at the Port Angeles Theater. It has five rows of seating!


Finally, here's my brother looking like a sarcastic 15-year-old.

he lifts his big foot up

Nathan and I went to Pike Place Market one day. I bought a mustache. It was the best thing ever. It's difficult to wear in the wind, but when it's still it's my favorite accessory.



A few days later Nathan, my mom and I went on a trip. First we visited the Olympic Game Farm in Sequim, Washington. It's not a happy place



but there are zebras


and a number of sad-looking bears who still find the drive to reach under their electric fences to take pieces of bread to eat.


And sometimes I'm kind of immature and want to take my picture next to the intersection of Kitchen Dick and Woodcock. Mother's the one who pulled over for it.

Back in the US...

In Seattle, people don't ride motorbikes. They pay for things with credit cards and they all speak English. There are no mangy dogs on the street. People wear shoes. It's confusing and strange!

My ma and brother picked me up at the airport on a Wednesday (my second go at Wednesday; the first one took place mostly in Seoul.) My body didn't remember how to sleep, so for awhile I was staying up for 24 hours at a time and waking up randomly at 2:00 am. It got better.

I got my Korean visa the day after I arrived. This task involved shivering on the Seattle sidewalks at 8 in the morning, with fake shoes (I only had flip-flops) and no coat (I didn't own one.) It was only like 70 degrees.

In the following days, I cherished the vast selection of English songs they have at karaoke bars here. I wore shoes. I went tromping around in the woods, confident that I would not be attacked by a viper or a cobra. There was a possible bear.



Tyler was brave and athletic, until the wood became "vibrating and spongy."



My mother left an assignment on the answering machine to make a terrarium. It was pleasantly specific about the location of the plastic geese. Nathan (my brother,) Tyler and I made a terrarium. And there was a frog who wanted to play.



The frog didn't want to play anymore so we evicted him from the terrarium.



Poor frog.