Ren Fair, Wicked, etc

Jack asked a few months ago to go to a Renaissance Festival, at the time there were none in the area. But, we didn't forget his request. So, when we saw one coming to Melbourne, we decided to go. It wasn't nearly as big as the one in Maryland, but it was fun. We saw a few shows. Everyone agreed that the jousting was the favorite. Jack was a little disappointed, he expected it to be more historical, but it was just like every renaissance festival/fair I've ever been to (more fantasy than history). My brother lives nearby, so he met us there. Then, we went and saw his new house. It was a fun day.

The "wheel of death" was cool, we had seem him perform in Maryland and enjoyed his show at both events.

Wicked is playing at the Dr. Philips Center. Kara is really interested in theater right now, so I wanted to take her. But, tickets were really expensive and there weren't many seats available. I decided to try my hand at their ticket lottery. And, I won! We got tickets for $31 each. We had to go on a Wednesday night, and we didn't know where our seats would be until one hour before the show. But, $31 was way less than any seat in the house, so we vowed to not be disappointed no matter what. And, our seats were great! They were in the 4th row, off to the left. The view was very slightly obstructed, but overall was way better than expected. I am not sure how those seats were chosen. I asked the people to the left of us (so even more obstructed than ours) if they were also Lucky Seat recipients and she said no and volunteered that they paid $125/ticket + fees! We both loved the show. Elphaba and Glinda were especially amazing. Although, Kara said she liked the show Anastasia, which we saw in DC, better. We didn't get home until 1130, but both us were fine getting up for work/school the next day.

View from our seats.

If you can't read the sign, it says "Our World Famous Gummy Bears." Obviously, we had to test that out. Kara said they were really good.

Anna made a friend at ice skating and met her at the open skate on Saturday. It was the first time Anna has done the games at the skating session and she had a good time. She made some skating goals for 2023 and is interested in learning a routine to compete. She is going to look for a coach and see what happens. 

Grainy picture of Anna skating. It was captured from a video I took of her practicing a jump.

Luke and Anna spent a night at Marta's a couple of weeks ago. She took them and her grandson, George to Legoland on Saturday. They had a very fun time. Kara went with me to pick them up on Saturday night. We got to town early and did some shopping and she got a milkshake from Andy's, which is a Winter Haven staple. I am still doing no sugar, so I didn't get one. But, Kara said hers was amazing. She let me choose for her and I got her the fruit salad milkshake, which doesn't sound appealing, but trust me--it's the best! We stayed for dinner at Marta's house and then made the drive home.

In other news, Luke had his first baseball tournament this weekend. His team only won 1/4 games. But, Luke played well. He had some great defensive plays. In fact, he had an unassisted double play. He caught a ball and then tagged a runner out. So, that was cool. He also did well with batting. Jack had a basketball game, I was with Anna at ice-skating, so I missed the game, but his team won and Thomas said Jack played well.