Sioux City Riverssance

[vakkotaur]

After Nodaway, jmaynard and I figured we take in Sioux City's faire which we'd heard good things about. That was a good idea.

The faire is in Riverside Park in town and so it's easy to see signs of the modern all around, and I think if the jousting troupe (which might not be the most accurate term for them) had turned their sound system off when they were not performing rather than play recorded music it would been quite an improvement. There was other music to be heard that was live, and in my estimation better. The magician, I think it was Nathan, was pretty good. His act seemed more comedic than magic, but his illusion did well and his humor was amusing.

Rhosaleen Dhu, Danza Mystique, Concentio Agnorum (Sunday), and others were there. There was another dance troupe, but I only saw them once and only got one photo as I had run the camera battery down by then. The food selection was pretty good with "two barbecue places... and Famous Dave's" as Jay put it. Culver's and a couple other places were there as well. Most of these where in trailers and obviously so, though Culver's did have bails stacked to obscure everything but the window and their logos. One place had a fruit bowl available, too, though it seemed to be mostly melon and the like which doesn't much appeal to me.

I ordered a couple more shirts from Scots Dragon as they didn't have anything on the rack that was both a color that worked for me and a size I liked. Another clothing vendor (Shenanigans?) had a poor approach and put Jay off. I considered his wares, but am glad I didn't buy as Jay looked closer and saw things he didn't like, which he mentioned to me later.

There was fellow who made pens and pencils, or at least the barrels for them, from various woods. Neither Jay nor I had expected to spend anything on writing implements, but we both made purchases from him.

One place that got many visits was a display of various breads that could be sampled. There was a flat bread made with vinegar that we were told that people tended to either really like or really dislike. I have the recipe and will have to try making some sometime. This was for travel. For most folks at home, there was the honey wheat. The more well off higher classes had a herb or spice bread. I think it was the rosemary (or was it thyme?) was the most interesting. Dill was okkay, but not as good as the rosemary. And then royalty could afford to have bleached flour and have white bread. It's interesting that the situation is somewhat reversed today with white bread being quite common, and the others being something of specialty items.

Just before Danza's last performance of Saturday, Nasira thanked us (in case she had not already - I think she had) for the wooden chairs that have proven most useful.

There was no real closing gate that we could tell, so we hung around a little while after the official closing time. This was mainly to find someone local who recommend a place for supper that wasn't some chain one could find elsewhere. At a tent where we had sampled some wines and meads (some very smooth - it might be just as well we couldn't buy any bottles) someone had a couple suggestions. One more easily found than the other, and we went with the easier to find El Fredo's pizza. That was a very good choice. The "gourmet pizza" was such that the broccoli on it did not seem strange at all and it was a good pizza. The crust was, if not thin, certainly not excessively thick.

Due to Jay's work travel schedule we had to leave about noon on Sunday, but we did get to see Concentio Agnorum again and take pictures. Over the weekend I took about 260 pictures and ran the battery down (and almost filled the memory card) on Saturday. Having worked out how to get the pictures from the card to the laptop, and being able to use the hotel wireless with the laptop made things easier on me. I probably didn't take that many pictures at Nodaway or Amana as I was conserving memory.

Overall, Riverssance is a very nice faire. Jay and I agreed that was one of the better years for us for faires. The only real disappointments were no being able to make Jubilee and Jay's not being able to make it to Amana.

Comments

[melissasutton.livejournal.com]

Thanks agian for coming guys, it was awesome to have you there!

thanks also for the pictures!!!