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Loch Dorr Grand Ithra
My story starts at 8:45 on Friday morning, when I pulled up at Superstore to pick up some road food. I walked across the parking lot and up to the door, where there were a couple of people standing around with their shopping carts, I saw that the store would open at 9, and I went back to my car to look at my map and find out how to get to my passenger's house. When I was done looking at the map, I went back up to the door, and it was a good thing I went back when I did, because suddenly there were all of these people lining up behind me by the door, six and seven deep with their shopping baskets just waiting to pour through the doors when they finally opened. It was the most bizarre thing I had ever seen in my life.
I picked Ryan up promptly at 9:30 and we were actually in Canmore by 10:45. We stopped for donuts, then continued on our way. The weather was kind of patchy on the drive out, clear for half an hour then hailing for half an hour, but we made it in good time and arrived safely. I just had time to run into the calendar class, as taught by Daoud, and it was very interesting -- we got to look at the Tres Riches Heures and many other books of hours and hear about various systems of counting the years.
After class it was time for dinner -- we all trooped down to the community hall and had a nice big dinner with hamburgers and multiple sorts of salads, with cake for dessert. There were three classes in the evening -- an Italian card game, Viking board games, and Intro to SCA dance. I was signed up for the card game, but I ditched it to go to the dance class, which ended up with an exceptionally fun 25-minute rendition of Trenchmore with lots of sharking. Only one guy fell, and Lady Eleonore congratulated our class on being the first to get through all 25 minutes. Audette and I sang for a bit, then I went to bed. I think some people stayed up into the wee hours of the morning, but that's just not my style any more. Custance says I am turning into a responsible adult.
Back in the castle, Audette and I and our passengers had claimed the back corner of the room where, unbeknownst to us, one of the castle cats had a favorite scratching spot. This scratching spot happened to be exactly where Gareth was sleeping, with the result that he had a great deal of trouble preventing the cat from popping his air mattress. I was trying out a new cot which I bought at Canadian Tire this weekend and it was very, very nice. There was a lot of snoring which occurred, but since my parents snore as well I was mostly able to ignore it.
Our wake-up call came a little too early in the morning for my taste but the thought of all that apple crisp got me out of bed quickly enough. We headed over and had not just apple crisp but eggs and sausage as well, and then broke for class. I didn't have any classes in the morning, so I sat around and did some embroidery until it was time for lunch. After lunch I took Viking History and Culture as taugh by Ragnulf -- also very interesting, and I got a lot of embroidery done. The class was done kind of early, so I lounged around for a bit and did more embroidery, then decided it was time to get changed for the feast.
The feast as usual was amazingly awesome and was also much enhanced by the saga contest. My favorite saga was the one told by Eibhar of Skeld the Ogre and his defeat at the hands of Don Rodrigo. After the saga was finished Skeld suddenly found himself surrounded by young ladies (myself included) saying 'There, there, you're not as bad as all that'. After the feast there was going to be more dancing in the hall, but I had eaten way too much to dance and so went back over to the castle and was rewarded for my efforts by getting to watch "Black Adder Back and Forth", in which Black Adder and Baldrick invent a time machine and change history to suit their own nefarious purposes.
On Sunday morning we were treated to more eggs, sausage and apple crisp (have I mentioned I really like eating in Loch Dorr?) and then I attended Westward Voyages of the Vikings as taught by Douglas Cameron of Skye. This class was the most interesting. It was scheduled for four hours but stretched to five, was jam-packed with interesting information, and there was even audience participation (I got to try and start a blood feud, but Douglas' clan was bigger and more powerful than mine). And I got more embroidery done.
After lunch the event started to break up as people headed back home. I was staying until Monday, so I went across the lake and up to Kaslo with James, Custance, and Aldreada, who were also staying until Monday. Ryan had disappeared, but I lated discovered he had been adopted and fed by Thurguid of the Mists and family. In Kaslo we walked around, looked at the Moyie, had burgers and ice cream, and then headed back down towards the ferry. We bought a pie in the grocery store, looked at some clothes, hats, and fabric, then headed back across the lake. We had a nice finger-food sort of dinner with Daoud and Lea-Helena with pie for dessert, then went back into their apartment to watch the Black Adder Christmas Carol.
I had a super good time at this event. There were all sorts of fun people there, all sorts of enthusiastic newbies, great food, and interesting classes. I got a lot of embroidery done. I even had the chance on Sunday to go over and do a mundane sort of vacation-y thing as well, which usually doesn't happen at an event because you're in such a rush to get there and get back that you don't have time to. This event gets 5 pints. I'm already thinking about how I'm going to get there next year from Victoria.
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