In the words of Dory: Escapè!

When life smacks you around a bit, sometimes you just gotta dip out for some self care.

I tried hitting the beach in MI but I felt stalked by my stresses because I was still close enough to it that it could get under my skin. I've been spending way too much time in my head freaking out lately.

After much deliberation, and some messaging friends down in GA, my husband and I packed up ourselves and the kids for a little road trip. We didn't have a lot in savings, but we had enough for a rental car and our friends offered up a place for us to crash for the week.

So we're in Georgia, where the earth is red and the trees are tall, lush, and every shade of green the eyes can see. I want to run my hands in the dirt and feel it under my nails.

We stopped at the Ren Faire first, the biggest one on the east coast. It was so fucking cool. I armed the kids with their own swords and finally got a sword frog for my own. I ended up forgetting my sword at home at the last second and I was so mad!

It definitely wasn't in the budget for me to get a new sword at the Ren Faire, but I at least have a price range to aspire to. While I was on my way out the door, daydreaming about the sword collection I would have if I had unlimited funds to apply to it... I ran into Sam! She was there and all dressed up with Kristen, from The Goddess Armory, and guest from the podcast! I didn't get a picture, but we chatted real quickly and I got a hug before we went our separate ways to explore the Faire.

We watched a few shows, wandered through shops, ate all kinds of food, drank mead, and enjoyed watching all of the cosplays and costumes people put together. There were some seriously impressive armor displays and weapons aplenty. I was green with envy.

Then we caught a Jousting tournament.

And got caught in a passing Georgia rain.

We had so much fun! My feet were dying by the end of it, we spent like 6 hours at the Ren Faire, which was immediately after we drove 12 hours down to Georgia. But so worth it.

We went back to our friends house and had dinner and crashed hard for the night.