The (Silverman) History of the Renaissance Festival

Long before we ever considered dating, Eric had invited a group of friends (including me) to go the the Maryland Renaissance Festival on a particular Saturday. Sounded interesting to me, I'd never been so I said I would go.

Turns out, I was the only one who said yes.

Several friends had other plans, or just didn't want to go for whatever reason, so it just ended up being the two of us. This wasn't so weird to us, we were good friends. We hung out regularly at "the guys" apartment. No biggie. Hangin out with my pal, my bro, my bud Eric. Off to the Renaissance Festival.

The Maryland Renaissance Festival is in Crownsville, Maryland. It's about an hour drive (which we did together) from Baltimore.

Soon after we arrived, we strolled past a vendor selling flower crowns. We stopped to browse, and Eric pointed to the crowns saying "I think either this one or that one would look beautiful on you".

I was surprised by his use of the word BEAUTIFUL in a sentence concerning me. After all, I was just "one of the guys". He offered to buy it for me but that was more of a gesture than I was willing to accept at the time....this NEW time.

So, faster than a wink I whipped out my cash a bought the flower crown that would look BEAUTIFUL on me.

When I got home, I told my roommate, Wendy "I think I like him, like him."

We started dating about a month later.


The following year, we were quite serious in our dating relationship. Eric suggested we go the RenFest. Fun times. I said yes.

All my over-zealous co-workers had me convinced that he was going to propose to me there. I knew we'd eventually get engaged, but I wasn't ready yet. I have to get used to an idea for awhile before I commit.

So our whole visit the the RenFest I was a little....nervous. Is he going to do it now? How about now? I kept thinking he was going to propose. Finally I started to get annoyed that he wasn't doing it. This was the perfect place to propose, wasn't it? Perhaps that was his strategy.

We got engaged about a month later.


Several months later, during our first wedding, I wore the flower crown he had picked out for me.

Fast forward 10 years to present day. We took our two girls to visit the Maryland Renaissance Festival with some friends. Here are the pics.

Discovered a new beach

We live on a peninsula, surrounded on 3 sides by water. I knew intellectually that the easternmost side was ocean, but it never occurred to me that there would be a BEACH there. Duh.

I just kept thinking I had to drive an hour south to Virginia beach to see waves and sand. It is true that if I want the whole beach, boardwalk, t-shirt shop experience, VABeach is the way to go.

But just 15 minutes away is Buckroe Beach, with a wonderful playground on the sand and lots of waves. We visted there recently with Eric's Dad and Roberta. There was a rough storm a day or so before we visited, so there were some larger items washed up on the beach. Allison found a red seasponge (or maybe it's coral), a horseshoe crab shell, and lots of large seashells. Julia did her usual...she picked up fistfulls of sand and dumped it in the water over and over.

Recent pics

Here are some pics of Allison on her first day of Kindergarten at the co-op. Julia, who also attends the co-op is also ready for learning too. The squinty face is what she does when I say "smile".