Part 2 of "What I did on my Spring vacation"

After getting back from Cornell on Tuesday, we went to Medieval Times on Wednesday. In case you're not familiar with Medieval Times ( or it isn't obvious from the name and the photos above ), it's a dinner show ( lunch in our case ) that features Medieval nights, with stuff like jousting and sword fights. To be honest, I can't hear the words "Medieval Times", without thinking of the movie "The Cable Guy". Specifically, I wind up thinking about two Janeane Garofalo scenes:
This scene ( starting at the 20 second point ) ...



... and this scene ( starting at the 2:03 point ) ...



Of course, this is probably due to the fact that I've always been a big fan of Janeane Garofalo ( OK, I've actually always had a bit on a crush on her, as I've mentioned in this blog post and this video ), but I've had a hard time taking Medieval Times times seriously since that movie came out. Well, to be honest, even before that movie came out, I was never a big fan of all that sword and sorcery stuff ( Perhaps this is why I didn't like LOTR that much ). This may come as a shock to some of those I played Dungeons and Dragons with in high school, but I primarily played D&D for the sake of being social ( For some this reason this reminds me of a line from Judd Nelson's character in "The Breakfast Club" ( try to guess which one ) ). I also went to a few Renaissance Fairs with friends, but once again, I was going for the friendship, rather than for all the sword and sorcery stuff.

So, as you might have guessed, the trip to Medieval Times wasn't actually my idea. My aunt had gotten the boys ( and Ruth and me ) tickets to Medieval Times as a Christmas present, and we figured my week off would be a good time to go. In any case, even if I was really into the Medieval Times stuff, I knew I would enjoy it if the kids enjoyed it - and the kids certainly did enjoy it.

Before the show, we got the boys some toys swords. Look how happy Peter was to have a sword ...

Michael also was excited ....

.... which meant it was inevitable that they would have a little sword fight of their own before the show:

I won't bother to post a bunch of generic pictures of the show ( you could find that easily enough on your own if you are interested ), but I will post the picture below just to give you an idea of what the show looked like ( We had front-row seats! ).

As you can see, horses were involved. That was a bit of a problem for me and my allergies. Despite the fact that I took a lot of Claritin before the show, I was having a real hard time breathing by the time it ended. If I hadn't been having so much fun watching the boys react, I probably would have left the show about halfway through.

So, I did watch the show to the end, and all in all I was impressed by the show they put on. It wasn't exactly my cup of tea, but it was impressive to watch the "knights" clang they swords together so hard in "battle" that sparks came of the swords. Interestingly enough, that was the one part of the show that Michael didn't like. It scared him so much that he hid under the table while many of the sword fights took place.


He's a very non-violent kid. :)

However, he got a little bit braver towards the ends, and watched the entire final battle. As a coincidental bonus, the knight that represented our section ( The Black and White Knight ), was the winner that night, so the boys went home really happy.

So, while I don't think I'll be going again ( unless I can bring SCUBA gear, so I can breathe air that doesn't have horse hair in it ), I was glad the boys had a lot of fun.

I know my Aunt occasionally reads this blog, so big thumbs up on the gift, Aunt Barbara!

Rich