Returning to the Castle

Tonight we were back at the castle again, the Medieval Times castle, that is.  Maddie invited a friend, Sarah, to join us, and the five of us ventured down to Sugarloaf Mills to cheer on the Black and White Knight in his quest to win the tournament.  Or at least his quest to stay alive.

As you can see, we all had our crowns on again, and we were all ready for a great evening at the castle.  There was the usual great food in front of us, and the usual lack of utensils to eat the food with.  But that's part of the fun, of course.  The chicken on each plate was a huge portion, and the soup was delicious.  The place had plenty in attendance, so there was a lot of energy to the crowd tonight.

It was really fun.  Maddie took pretty much all of these pictures with her phone tonight, as I wasn't inclined to take along the larger camera this time.  Last time I got all kinds of great pictures, so I was content to let Maddie take the good ones this time!

The show hasn't changed much, with games and pageantry, and all kinds of horsemanship with medieval costuming.

The lighting and music and mist along the ground add to the atmosphere, as do the stellar stunts by the knights from the various kingdoms.  Maddie and her friend were having a great time, cheering along with everyone else.

At one point, our knight was throwing a few carnations once more to our section.  We were about four rows up, so it was unlikely that we could be getting any of the flowers.  BUT!  Somehow, he launched one up towards us, and sure enough, Maddie's friend was able to make the catch!

We got these tickets fairly easily, and inexpensively too, using a discount we saw online.  We got there a bit early, and explored the lobby somewhat, looking at the items for sale and posing for pictures here or there.  Eventually, a herald trumpeted the beginning of the tournament, and one by one, our color-coded kingdoms were invited in to the arena.

It was a really nice time.  The drive down there isn't too bad, and although the parking in front of the castle was very crowded, we just parked on the opposite side of the mall, which made for an easy walk through the food court and right up to the entrance without any problem.

Maddie had her cell phone out, as did her friend, and the two were taking pictures through the entire evening, including the queen's pronouncements and her advisor's love of Valencia oranges.  Now I'm obsessed with getting some of those oranges.  Yeah, that'll be soon.

When a lady came by our table selling flowers that glowed with light, of course I had to get one for Maddie.  Both she and her friend had flowers the rest of the night, ones you can see them holding with the knight in the very first picture above.

They had a great time!  So did we.  Although we're not going too far away this summer, we still are making time for trips like this or the ball game last Tuesday.  We were brainstorming a few other ideas too, hopefully a few that we can squeeze in before school starts.  

At the end of it all, our knight may not have won.  Or survived.  Although he shows up at the end waving goodbye to everyone, and even met with the girls in the lobby afterwards.  So yeah, he didn't die.  They make this big deal about it being combat to the death for some reason, which is weird because you see the victims get up and walk away with their weapon bearers in defeat.  I guess they find most crowds to be the bloodthirsty type.   Tonight, the queen was asking everyone's opinion on that, and many were screaming no, with the thought that maybe we can stop this cycle of violence and not seek revenge and... oh well, let's just kill everyone anyway, okay?

It was still a great time, and I'm just having fun with that.  This is Maddie's third visit to the castle, and I think our fourth, and hopefully we can come back again soon.  

It was really nice.  We packed up, tipped our server, and soon enough we were on our way back to the car at the end of our adventure.

Maddie snapped this photo in the food court on the way back, catching the setting sun peeking through the windows.  The drive home, there was a lot of chatter about the Medieval adventure we had, with lots of laughs at a night of happy memories.  It was a great time!

It's been a full day.  It's National Ice Cream Day today, so obviously we celebrated when we got home.  We had some Mickey bars and ice cream cones, and that was delicious.  It was humid outside, but the sun was setting and we had the Christmas lights on out there on the back deck, so it was nice just sitting out there listening to the cicadas and relaxing after a full day. 

The earlier part of the day of course included KidPak.  We did the "Encanto" message this morning, but before the services, several of us were up and outside greeting people in some movie costumes.  And a hot dog costume.  And an inflatable T-rex costume.  

We had the plan to do Jurassic Park costumes and Frozen costumes as well, but all that changed with a request to do Star Wars costumes at the last minute, so we scrounged up what we could... but didn't have enough for everyone.  Which is why the t-rex is still out there... and because Ezra didn't have any long pants, we just put him in a hot dog costume.  Which is completely random. But hilarious!

Part of the original plan was to have Maddie as popcorn, Nia as popcorn again, Megan as a Pepsi, and Jeremiah as a hot dog.  They'd all be concessions for the movie theater.  But Nia was on vacation.  Megan had a last-minute conflict.  Jeremiah was sick.  And Maddie had a Princess Leia costume to go with the Star Wars theme.  SO... we had Ezra be a hot dog.  And it was so weird.  But the kids up there loved it because it was so random, and that's not so bad.  

Anyway, it was a fun day.  And a full day.  The services went well this morning, and we got home in time to get a little rest, and then I got on the treadmill for a bit walking in Kauai, up the trail to see the lighthouse on the north shore.  Virtually of course.  Anyway, soon Maddie's friend arrived, and then it was off to the castle for everyone!

We read tonight, starting a new adventure there as well.  And then it was time for prayers... and a good night's rest.  Or shall I say, a good knight's rest...