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.