I wanted to get to the Kearney Park Faire in Fresno early. The faire was scheduled to open at 10am, and I timed leaving so that I would arrive at roughly 9:30am. As usual, my timing was off and I actually arrived at 8:30am. I am such an early bird...

There was absolulely no traffic (sometimes I wonder why I think there will be traffic at 5 in the morning) and the drive was easy. About forty miles from Fresno is started to sprinkle. Sigh. It was raining and it kept raining all morning long. And it was cold.

Since I was incredibly early I stopped for gas and for some breakfast at a roadside Denny's. I just love their meat lovers special. Very filling ... just what I needed to get ready for faire. While I was there, I picked up a newspaper to check the weather. The rain was supposed to get better in the afternoon and clear up overnight. Sunday promised to be a good, clear day.

I killed some time by driving around and looking at Fresno. I quickly determined there isn't much to look at in Fresno, so I just drove around.

Finally, it was 10am and I went into the faire. Kearney has a lot of parking and since I was early (no duh) I got a spot right up close. This faire has an interesting admission: it's $6 or a can of food for charity and $5. I didn't have the can, so paid the $6. The fee is for parking ... no money is collected at the "gate". In fact, there is no gate to speak of at this faire. You can just walk in from any direction.

As I walked from the parking lot to the faire, I marveled at the pathway. You see, it's beautiful (check the pictures when I upload them in a few days). It's a path lined with very strangely shaped trees, and is, in my mind, one of the most beautiful entrances into a faire that I've seen.

The reason why I like to get to a faire early is to have some time to scout out the place before the crowds arrive. With the slight drizzle and coldness, there was barely anyone there, so I had plenty of opportunity to check it all out.

Kearney has a couple of rows of vendor booths, a jousting area, and a very strange configuration tents which more or less wrap around the joust grounds. It was virtually identical to last year.

I ran into a number of friends, including Lindsey and Boink. Lindsey looked stunning in a new costume, and she was in a bubbly mood as always. Boink was plotting various fiendish activities for the day, including stuffing a cat (a stuffed animal) into a pumpkin to be shot from a trebuchet.

There were two groups of belly dancers, and I recognized both of them from the previous year. They all looked cold in their outfits, and I heard one of them say she wanted to start dancing before she turned into a popsicle.

I ran into a tribe friend named Steve and his family (his wife and two daughters). I liked them all immediately and took some cool pictures for their profiles. (At least I think they are cool pictures). It's cool running into virtual friends in real life and discovering they are, indeed, real people.

One of the nice things about the Kearney Park faire is the joust. It's much more "real" than most other faire jousts. These guys (and a couple of gals) really take it seriously. I noticed their was less "show" and more joust than other faires. I appreciated that they didn't waste any time getting into the jousting ... no long-winded talking for this crew.

Did I mention it was cold?

This faire has a king, and he wore a very fine costume. The nobles and the king performed some plays throughout the faire. It was very entertaining, but because of the rain I didn't catch most of it. I got some good pictures of them, but had to photograph from a distance so my camera wouldn't get wet.

Kearney Park is a real park, with lots of benches and trees. There is far more shade than other faires, and far more seating in the food court.

I got a little over 900 pictures during the day, and left around 4pm. I would have stayed longer, but it was getting dark, it was cold, and the crowds were getting very sparse. So I went over to my hotel, checked in, and got ready for another day of faire.

[The picture is of Lindsey and I taken a little after 10am in between rain showers.]