Travel Food
Hubby and I are going to the Texas Renaissance Festival this weekend, and planning on actually camping out overnight. We’ve never done this before, and I’ve heard it gets kind of crazy. We’re going to party like it’s the 14th through the 17th century!
The thing is, I don’t want to be hampered by a cooler and ice, and all the mess that entails. Maybe it’s just me, but some package of food always ends up open and floating in the slush water, getting all disgusting and damp and making all the ice water icky. I can’t handle it!! So what are non-refridgerated food options, that are not entirely terrible for you? (Meaning I will not try to survive on gummi bears)
Fruit: Oranges, apples, and pears (I almost wrote “bears” haha! Oh, the incompetence) don’t need to be refridgerated, at least for a couple days. There are also fruit cups, but I don’t feel like packing plasticware in addition to all the other junk we’ll need.
Granola bars: You could also carry pop tarts, and baggies of cereal if you want, but pop tarts aren’t very good for you, and I don’t want little loose things going every where.
Tuna: If you look around in the tuna section of the grocery store, there are several kinds of little lunch kits that come with tuna and crackers and don’t need to be in the fridge. Back in the day, when I used to hand out lunches to homeless people, these were a staple. They come with everything you need in them, and are easy to transport.
Trail mix: Any kind of nut snack, dried fruit, or trail mix is a great snack, and can be carried in your bag as you go site-seeing. If it’s going to be hot, I would avoid mixes that have chocolate.
Veggies: Carrot sticks and celery will be fine, at least for a day or so. If you don’t want to eat plain veggies, they sell individual dressing packets on the dressing aisle at the store, or you can just collect them from fast food joints, when you go.
Beef jerky: This is another good high protein food, but it can be pricey. It is easy to transport in purses and bags, though.
Protein bars: Again, these can be expensive, but waaaayyyy cheaper than a turkey leg. Let’s face it, the food at these things is generally a rip-off.
Unhealthy options: peanut butter crackers, popcorn, and pop tarts (as mentioned). There are tons of packaged foods that don’t need to be kept cool, but are basically junk food.
Okay, so those are mostly lunch/dinner/snack foods. What about breakfast, and namely WHAT ABOUT COFFEE?? The Renaissance Festival does actually have a coffee shop, but I opted for bringing my own diet cherry Pepsi, and drinking several of those over the weekend. I got twelve sodas for less than one cup of coffee would have cost. I…
Just now I accidentally ate a really hot pepper while I was typing this. I tried to drink some diet coke to tone it down, but the carbonation apparently forced the spice into my sinus cavity. Now my nose is running, my toungue is burning, and my whole face feels hot. I have no idea what I was about to write up there. I’m distracted by my upper lip sweating! Ok…more diet coke seems to have – nope nevermind. The burning has returned and now I’m coughing. Who would do this to themselves on purpose????
Ok I need milk. I’m pretty sure I covered everything. Now I tried to blow my nose, and that seems to have forced more spiciness into my sinuses! I have to go handle this crisis, so The End.
Sherwood Forest Faire
I had the opportunity last weekend to get dressed up as a gypsy and walk around in public like that. Jealous? Don’t be! Sherwood Forest Faire is still going on! It ends April 3rd though, so get on it if you want to go. If you haven’t heard of it, this is a smaller, newer version of the Texas Renaissance Festival, that is much closer to Austin. The whole thing is themed around Robin Hood, and it has many of the same shows as other Renaissance festivals around the state.
There were lots of shops, and food vendors, and the place wasn’t that crowded. If you haven’t been to one of these before, I highly recommend it. Tons of people wear normal clothes, and tons dress up in “historical” clothing. Believe me, there are no history police walking around pointing out errors in anyone’s costume, so feel free to wear what you’d like. The shows are funny, you can walk around with beer and funnel cake, and this festival is in the midst of tons of trees, so it was nice and shady. The place is also very kid friendly, with a couple rides, face painting, and photo ops.
Our friend Todd competed in the archery contest:
A couple of our men-folk tried their hand at throwing knives (only my Hubby made anything stick 
)
I got some great shots of the Oskar Hasselhoff fighting school, and the Ded Bob Show was there also. I had never seen it before, and it was hilarious! A little tip from my friend Todd: If you’re in costume you are less likely to be called up on stage during these types of things. For me, that was comforting, because I really like to watch other people get teased on stage, rather than me.
Hubby and I were both dressed as gypsies, until he found an AWESOME pirate hat. Apparently gypsy + hat = pirate.
Obviously, I didn’t take pictures of everything available to do there. We circled around the whole place a few times, and spent a lot of time at the pub. There was a lot of conversation along these lines:
“Oh look! A pub! We should probably stop and have a drink!”
(not long later) “Oh look! The pub! Well, we want to stay hydrated!”
(a short time after that) “Hey! The pub! Well, the beer wenches have already seen us. I wouldn’t want to hurt their feelings by walking away now”.
(an even shorter time later) “Oh my! Is that a different pub?” “I don’t think…” “We should go in and check, just to be sure.”
After everything was over, and we were dusty, sunburned, and exhausted, we needed some sustenance. I sent Hubby into our favorite pizza joint, thinking hilarity would ensue. Nobody batted an eye!
We had a blast, and I would recommend it to anyone.
