Dinner AND a Tournament

A few weeks back I bought a deal online for Medieval Times.  Our trip to Scarborough Fair back in May revealed Gideon's love of knights and jousting and I have fond memories of a trip my old high school theater class took to Medieval times over a decade ago.

Luckily my husband has a better memory than I do because when I woke up this morning he proposed we actually USE the deal I bought instead of letting is expire.  So we called and got our tickets worked out and then waited on pins and needles for showtime.

We didn't really know what to tell Gideon other than that we were going to a castle to see knights and eat dinner; I have no idea what he expected but it was quickly apparent that he was not disappointed.

We got there pretty early so the wench (yep) who sold us our tickets suggested we try out the Torture Museum.  I asked if it was too scary for little kids and he assured me it was not.  That probably should have been a red flag.  It was pretty lame, and dark, and slightly stinky, and definitely not something we would do again.  Gideon thought it was fine but it turned out to be a long line of people basically waiting to get to the exit.

Gideon really liked these masks, I am sure they have some sort of horrific purpose, I stopped reading the wall plaques.

After the museum we walked around the atrium of the castle waiting for the show to begin.  We let Gideon choose a souvenir because we are souvenir lovers and he picked a little dragon that roars and named him Super (or Wuper in Giddy speak).

"He Wuper"

Then finally it was time to go inside the tournament hall.  We were assigned the black and white night when we walked in and I was pleased to discover that he had a long mane of luxurious ginger hair.  Mac found a flag peddler and we settled in to being the best damned residents of whatever made up place supported the ginger haired knight that EVER existed.

I won't lie, some of the show is boring, but that's okay because you just spend that time eating.  Also they have a full bar in the castle now which I am sure would have made the show waaaaay more interesting if I were not with child.  I am a genius and remembered before we left the house that you are expected to eat half a chicken with your bare hands and thus brought silverware for Gideon who loved the chicken, bread, and potato while letting us eat his soup, ribs, and apple turnover (thanks kid!).  It was so much food we ended up getting a to-go box.

The husbandit went to the bar for a beer and also brought this wonderment of whip cream and strawberries back for me.  Obviously he is MY knight in shining armor.

But MOST of the show was actually pretty thrilling.  I can always tell when Gideon is having a good time because he starts asking if it is time to leave, " Is it over?  Time to go mommy?  Is it time to go bye bye?" followed by a look of relief when I tell him there is still more to see.  Our knight won all of the pre jousting games and would cockily toss his beautiful locks as if to say "no big deal" with each win.  I'll admit, I was feeling pretty confident about his chances of winning the whole thing.  Of course that means he lost in the first round of jousting.  But that's okay, as each new pairing was announced we would choose a new knight to cheer for... who would them promptly lose.  I was pretty proud of our kid, he took all of the losing really well, cheering hard for our knight anyway and basically being entirely entertained by the whole spectacle, especially with the introduction of what he called "the bad guy knight".  If too much time went by between sightings he would turn to me and ask "Where the bad guy knight mama?  Where he go?"

They had his complete attention

 All in all it was a great night, so great that discovering my car completely dead in 100 degree heat afterwards didn't even bring us down.  Luckily the guys who parked next to us had extra long jumper cables and Gideon loved getting to go back in the castle to meet the king who he said "thank you, bye bye!" to.  With little sister less than two months away I am anxious to get in as much Giddy funtime as possible and this dinner and tournament was definitely fun.