I've been excited about attending this faire for several weeks. It's one of the last faires of the season, the last for Southern California certainly, and many of my friends were going to be there. I still have a few faires to go this year - Kearney Park in Fresno, a faire in Louisiana and the Dicken's faire before the end. Then comes the usual three month or so dry spell until the faires start up again in early March.

I left early on Saturday. The faire opened at 10am and it's almost exactly 100 miles way from my house. I decided to leave at 7am, anticipating a 2 hour drive. I usually like to get to a faire about an hour early as this gives me a nic eparking spot close to the front, time to change into my costume, and I get to avoid the usual backup of cars getting in.

There was absolutely no traffic, so I actually arrived at 8:30am, which ia way early. Thus, I decided to find the Best Western where I had a room reserved. Once I did that, I got some food, then went back to the faire and got a really, really good parking spot right.

I pulled out my new costume and noticed the elastic in the sleeves had broken. Ah, well ... so I grabbed my older, red and black costume. It was a bit wrinkled but it would do.

Now for the wait to get in before the faire opened. Last year, I remembered this line was quite long, but this morning there were less than a dozen people waiting.

We were entertained by two guys with an "interesting" costume effect. They made farting noises every few minutes, totally ignoring them but producing laughs from everyone around. It was interesting how intestinal gas became the subject of conversation for the wait in that line...

A weekend pass was $24, and since I planned on attending both days that what I got.

Once inside I looked around for Nightwatch (who had been right up front playing last time I was here in April) but I didn't see them.

The Escondido faire is positioned inside of Felicity park. The front gate is at the top of a small hill on asphault. Once you pass the gate, you come down a hill and enter the first part of the faire. This consists of booths galore -- this faire is very good for shoppers. If you follow the path, you'll pass lots of boothes, the main stage where most of the acts are located, then more booths, a kids playground, a large grassy area, then you'll go over a bridge into another area with more booths.

When I got to a faire, I always make a quick circuit of the whole thing before doing anything else. This let's me scope it out, see where things are and put together a plan of how my day is going to be spent.

I noticed the faire seemed a but sparser than the last two times I attended (April 2006 and Oct 2005). There appeared to be fewer vendors than before.

I already knew the Belles of Bedlam were not here, but the Merry Wives of Windsor were putting on some shows. I caught them first, at 10:30am, and watched them play on the main stage. As usual, it was very entertaining.

I spent the rest of the day just wandering around the faire, taking pictures and watching shows. I caught one of my favorite acts, Adam the Bawdy Juggler, twice and got lots of great pictures. I also saw Fowl Tales, House McFionn (Irish dancers) and, of course, the queen's show.

A wonderfully talented belly dancing troupe called She'enedra was playing, and I was looking forward to seeing them dance. I caught up with them in the early afternoon and was definitely not disappointed. Their dancing was awesome, as always, and they had recruited some local as most of the troupe was not there. It was very interesting to me to see the difference between the professionals and the amateurs. The local girls were full of energy and danced very well, but the professionals had the timing, the synchronization and the advanced moves.

Dusk arrived early (around 5pm) and I was getting very tired. Thus, I left the faire and went to my room a few miles away.

I happily spent the next couple of hours sorting through my pictures from the day. I got some great shots, although I noticed many of the shots from the morning showed the actors and singers squinting as the stage faced directly into the sun. Nonetheless, it was a good day for pictures.