Yeah, my two year old loves going up and down the stairs, too. :-)

The festival was amazing. I talked with one ladt from New Bern, NC, who told me it was well worth the eight hour drive.

The museum & gift shop were open extended hours (from 9:00am to 7:00pm) and we were pretty much filled with people the whole time. I only got to go out for a few minutes to peruse some of the other vendors and see some of the acts. My family came out, though, and spent several hours seeing everything. My daughter's (age 5) favorite thing was the dancing. My two sons (3 and 2) loved the sword fighting demonstraions.

As my 2 year old told me yesterday evening, "I saw a ROBOT DIE!" I was confused for a minute, as I don't beleive we had any robots at our festival... until I realized he was talking about one of the reenactors in particular who was in a full suit of plate armour polished to a high shine. I suppose to a two year old he looked just like a robot! He had given one of the other young kids watching a sword and shield to "fight" him with, and apparantly the noble knight was just no match for the young guy. :-)

All in all a very wonderful event. Now I'm tired. :-)

M