Sonora Celtic Faire Trip Report with lots of pics

[NorthBayDreamer]

Sonora Celtic Faire

March 13-14, 2009

We were excited about the weekend and were hoping to get away early, but early turned out to be about 10 whole minutes earlier than usual.  The 3 hour trip had us arriving around 7:30 PM on Friday.  We checked into the Gold Lodge http://www.goldlodge.com , which is across the street from the fairgrounds, so that was nice.  We grabbed dinner at the Frog and Fiddle, enjoyed great tapas and cold beer, and then wandered back to the room.

The next morning was an easy one; we were slowing getting ready at a nice leisurely pace. We were to meet our friends at the front gate at 10:00 when everything opened.  I could hear the bagpipers playing at the fairgrounds when standing just outside our room, then BOOM, BOOM.  What was that?  Can't be the opening cannon, it is only 9:00 AM, it just can't be, right?  I grab a cell phone and guess what, it is 10:00 and NOT 9:00, the clock on the night stand was an hour off (the time change was a week ago).  Shift gears into hurry mode, lace the last things up, and we make it through the gate by 10:20, frazzled and feeling a bit rushed.  Now we must find our friends.  The first thing that catches my eye are the Irish Wolfhounds, those dogs are huge.  They have about 6 right next to the royal court area. 



The fairgrounds are set up with the queen's court just inside the front gate and most of the rest of the faire is on the other side of a building you pass through.  All of the other guilds are on the far side of the grounds, so we really didn't go back to the queen's court until we left.  I think it might be better to have the queen's count with the other guilds, just my opinion.
We find our friends almost immediately and the ladies head to the shops and the men head to the ale stand for a Guinness.   Beer is $5 and they have Harp, Newcastle, and Guinness.  Water is $1, a shot of whisky is also available, but I didn't have any. The morning slipped away into early afternoon browsing the vendors, but not before my friend finds something that he MUST have around his neck.  He does look good in it.



As we get into the guild area for the first time, we are looking in on the Viking guild and a stranger says to me "Hey, I know you, you are Northbaydreamer".   I say that I am.  He says that he is Chainsot and was at the agreed meeting place at the agreed time.  Eeek, with the screwed up start to the day, I totally forgot about the R/F meet up.  I apologize profusely and tell him what happened, he welcomes us into his guild yard and we spend a great deal of time with the Vikings Saturday and Sunday.  This is him and I:



And the guild yard



We discover that they added a 3rd Ale stand this year, how nice of them.  We rotate between them being unofficial quality control inspectors.  They only failed us once, when the keg of Newcastle was empty and would not be ready for a QC check for 10 whole minutes.  Can you believe it, the tragedy, the horror, the suffering?  Being quick thinking and never dissuaded from my mission, I weigh my options of seeking another ale stand (a 2 minute walk) or have a Harp, I decide to sample the Harp rather than risk dying of thirst during the trek.

I took some time during the afternoon to do the scotch tasting.  It was the same format as last year; $20 is the cost to do a blind taste of 8 whiskeys.  I did my tasting in 3 sittings over about 5 hours.  At the end I went back and got the card that showed what I sampled.

1.   Bushmills
2.   Maker's Mark
3.   MacCallan 12 year
4.   Jameson
5.   Trace Buffalo
6.   Bowmore Legend
7.   Tallamore Dew
8.   Famous Grouse

You could also get and Irish coffee from there, which some of our cadre availed themselves of.
It was a fine of revelry, shopping, flirting, and wandering about.  The faire was open until 10 PM, but we petered out about 9.   I am just not used to being on my feet all day.  We retired to the hotel room and opened a nice bottle of red.

Sunday morning went more smoothly that Saturday and we were fully dressed, had the truck packed, and just drinking coffee by 9:30.  It was a crisp 39 degrees, and I think it reached 65 later (about the same as Saturday).  This was to be the day of acquisition.  I guess it seemed more appropriate being that we were now dressed as pirates.  YES, we were not true to our history in that we did actually pay for all the acquisitions.   I added a pin to my collection, it says "Everything is fun and games until the flying monkeys show up", and another small knife (I don't think one can have too many).   My friend got a Viking sword, but managed to leave his wallet there, he noticed a couple of hours later,  he had a LONG 20 minutes of running back to every vendor he had visited, but in the end his wallet was intact and in good keeping.  My wife acquired matching kilts for us.  I actually wore the kilt to work and later out to the pub on Tuesday.  Her biggest hit was the beautiful frock coat that she tried on twice on Saturday and then bought on Sunday.



We got to watch the trebuchet fire heads of cabbage at the Dauntless sailing ship, which was about 50 yards away with the queen watching the attack.   I really love the music at this faire, bagpipes play all the time and 3 stages of music are also going all day long.



I did make another photosynth (a panoramic view):

http://photosynth.net/view.aspx?cid=c7320ca2-bb45-4a59-a0cf-1f7623731f3d


I will let the rest of be told in pictures. 

[Mandrake Von Sets]

Nice pics and thanks for sharing.  The trebuchet you commented on (no pics?) is the one from the guild my wife & I belong to (but weren't able to attend this year).

[NorthBayDreamer]

I think it is the same trebuchet as I saw at Folsom, this is a pic from Folsom: