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Four Winds Faire

December 15th, 2010

The Four Winds Faire is most definitely the strangest place in East Texas. It is a way to get away from the normal chaos of everyday and step back into the renaissance time period. March, April, and October are full of special events, but the park is opened Saturdays and Sundays from 10:00am-7:00pm. The faire has many different attractions, shows, vendors, camp sites, and much more.

If you enjoy camping in the great outdoors and waking up to the smell of cooking bacon and eggs over the camp fire you had slept by that night, than you probably will not like the camp grounds of the Four Winds Faire. If you are a fan of sleeping in a colorful renaissance looking tent on freshly cut grass right next to another family you have never met also in a colorful tent than you may enjoy the camp grounds here. Camp fires are not allowed just anywhere. They have designated areas that are for camp fires. The whole camp ground is equipped restrooms and showers with hot water. You can also bring out the RV; the campgrounds have all the hookups for an RV.

Four Winds Faire has all different performers that come and put on a show. They have everything from armored knights, fire eaters, magicians, musicians, jugglers, pirates and much more. What is a renaissance faire without the comedy of singing nuns? Breaking The Habit is the comedy nun show that is put on at the renaissance faire. The exotic belly dancers show off their body and talent of shaking everything at their show Dream Harem. There are so many entertaining acts at the faire, but I do not know if they are always entertaining for the right reasons. You can not have a good renaissance faire without the popular sport of jousting. Come watch these guys who proclaim to be knights ram into each other with giant sticks while riding on horse back. The jousts are preformed twice daily at 12:00 and again at 5:00.

If you have always wished that there would be a joust at your wedding and Renaissance music you can have wedding at Four Winds Faire. Have you always wanted to walk down the aisle lined with knights with swords? Than this is the place for your big day. Four Winds takes care of many details including menus for your reception and decorations for your ceremony. The weddings are held at the Grove Wedding Garden, and you and you are soon to be spouse can look through the many different renaissance costumes that fit best for your wedding attire. This is a very interesting way to have your wedding, and your guests will remember your wedding.

Outside food is not allowed on the faire grounds, but you can bring alcohol, is it is contained in a mug or flask. You can also bring weapons as long as it is part of your renaissance attire and tied to your side. There is security on the grounds to make sure people are following the guide lines of the faire. So if you are looking for a way to get away from the year 2011 than Four Winds maybe you escape to a whole new world of knights, kings, queen, jesters, and all the royalty and commoners.

Four Winds Renaissance Festival

April 18th, 2010

My family visited the Four Winds Renaissance Festival yesterday and had a pretty good time. We went on Saturday as they are only open Saturday’s and Sundays. They stay open until 7 pm for a few months out of the year. When we drove in we were immediately impressed with how many cars were there. This place was packed and this was our first time at a Reni Fair so we really had no idea what to expect.

Once in the park a lady directed us to go up the hill where some medieval games were about to begin. We went up the hill and they were playing this Scottish log tossing game. You basically hold this 12 foot log post and run with it. As it begins to fall you fling it up and try to get it to hit the ground on the post end and flip over. I got to give it a try and mine hit the post end and then fell off to the side. Whaah!

After that we went all the way up the hill to this weird contraption called the Crow’s Nest. This thing is a long telephone pole anchored in the ground with a Mary go round looking thing at the bottom of it. There are at least 4 cables tied at the top of the post and threaded into 4 sides of the marry go round. A guy manually grabs the marry go round and cranks it around the pole several times.

I forgot to mention me and a 3 year old nephew got in it and were a little uncertain as it didn’t look like it would hold up and made a lot of creaking noises. The rickety nature of this ancient carnival ride really added to the experience and we came away dizzy but excited. The guy who encouraged us on and spinner us around offered us a free ride but we went ahead and gave him some money for his trouble.

From here we went further up the hill and found some very pretty horses in stables. We had the kids pet the horses and watched them for a little while. From the top of the hill we could see the entire park and decided where we would go from here.

We started back down the hill but took an alternate route. We bought some handmade jewelry and went in to an area where a fire spitter and eater was performing. After that show we watched some sword fighters go at it using real time period swords that had been blunted. Some of these people were part of the same family. I had a good time watching these guys sword fight and you could tell they really practice this art.

Afterwards the sword fighting leader had a history session around a medieval looking table where he discussed ancient medieval culture and history with a twist. He told some PG 13 rated stuff about medicinal type of things they used and some of this stuff was mixtures of things that many time had pot as an ingredient. The kids started getting bored of the lesson and so we left.

We left after this and unfortunately missed the jousting event. We recommend the Four Winds Renaissance Festival to those looking for something different to do in East Texas. There are things to do in Tyler and East TX after all kids!

On your way to the festival you will want to stop at Ribmasters for East Texas best ribs. I think you will find that i am not fibbing. Ribmasters is next to Brookshires grocery store off of 110 in Whitehouse. Bruce Brookshire died on Friday and our prayers go out to him and his family. The Brookshires family has a business with a solid christian family culture. There aren’t as many businesses like this anymore and we just want to say how we appreciate their family and what they are about.

Don’t Mess With Texas

February 15th, 2010

Tyler Texas Information and Things To Do Here

I choose to write just about Tyler, Texas in general. Tyler has a population of around 20,617 or probably more by now. This number was from the last census, I know we have been growing very rapidly. The funny thing is that when I was younger I hated Tyler and could not wait until I could move somewhere else. I thought the city life was more exciting, which overall you have more stuff, crazy traffic and things are double in price compared to a smaller place like Tyler, I recently moved back here and realized its not a bad place at all. It is a place where you can raise a family, make a decent living and still there is plenty of fun stuff to do right here. Some of the main attractions in Tyler are: Azalea Spring and Flower Trail, Tyler Chamber Golf Tournament, Festival on the Square, Four Winds Renaissance Faire. There are lots of Museums: Brookshires World of Wildlife, Tyler Museum of Art, Rose Garden Museum, Harold’s Model Train Museum and others which you can easily find on line for the most part and they are free.

If you prefer music or performing arts, then you might be interested in something like East Texas Symphony Orchestra, Ballet Tyler, The Civic Theater Center, Caldwell Auditorium, etc.

There is a beautiful Tyler Public Library where you can go and you pay a small price for a members card, but after that you can go use their computers, check out any of their books, movies or books on CD or tape, and bring it back on the due date. Although, if you are late it will cost you or if you loose any of their stuff.

In the uptown area their is The Discovery Science Place that is filled with different displays. Kids and their parents can have an enjoyable day exploring the things they have to see.

Tyler has several places to enjoy a game of golf. There is Arrowhead Golf Course, The Cascades, Embassy Hills Golf Course, Eagle’s Bluff, Hideaway Lake Golf Course, Willow Brook Country Club just to name a few. In addition, there are many other recreation places: Resorts and Campgrounds, City Parks with playgrounds, swimming pools, baseball fields, soccer fields and movie theaters. There are a multitude of restaurants to choose from. Every city could always improve, which Tyler is.

If you like the water, Tyler has several lakes right here. Bellwood Lake, Lake Palestine, Tyler State Park, Lake Tyler, and Tyler East Lake. There is a public pool and water park located on Glenwood.

There are banks and churches on every corner. For the most part, Tyler is a safe place to live. We do have our ups and downs, just like any other town. For instance, we have someone who has been setting fires to church buildings. But anywhere you choose to live, you probably will experience something similar. We live in a world that is not perfect, with people with serious issues and we will suffer the consequences around the world. I don’t think you can find one place where nothing bad happens. It’s still worth living here. People are friendly and small enough where the traffic is not too bad and are able to get all your needs right here, and not have to shop in another town.

There is a nice zoo which used to be free, but now costs a small fee. It is worth the price to see all that they have at the Caldwell Zoo. There are good public school and some nice private schools that will give your children a good education and some spiritual life will be taken seriously. Home schooling is also a choice if that is what you prefer.

The cost of living in Tyler is not too bad. Things do cost money no matter what you do, but grocery index is 89.9. In a bigger city if you guy groceries there, they escalate the prices because it how the bigger cities work. Many of the other services are much lower on their index numbers, such as: health care 91.7. There are several health care providers here that make this an ideal place to live, whether you are young or older. If you have been thinking of moving to a new place. Check out our town, I think you would be impressed and enjoy it here.