An old and dear friend texted me out of the blue on Friday saying her and her family had been invited to the Charles Dickens Fair in Daly City (by San Francisco) and they had a pair of extra tickets. Two thoughts ran through my mind at the invitation. "OMGoodness I'd love to go!" and "Oh crud that's two hours away." Those of you who know me know that I have a slight phobia of driving distances of more than an hour... two at the very most and only when I'm well rested. This trip would involve me driving two hours there (no problem) but then have a full day and then driving back another two hours, and there the worry starts to creep in.
So my solution, invite someone to drive with me and one of could take the way there and the other the way back, that I could do. So right away I texted 5 of my friends who lived nearby and might like to go. I got a two "No" answers fairly quickly and through a few more texts the rest were eliminated. Then I had a stroke of brilliance. My sister Amber, she went to my mom's for Thanksgiving and she might just still be there. I sent the text hoping that I wouldn't get an answer back, meaning that she was still at mom's where there is no reception.
I got an answer right away that she was at home and two hours away... but she would love to go. I was excited because despite being really weird and sometimes a little embarrassing my sister is actually really fun to hang out with. But that still left me with my original problem of getting there and back. We texted back and forth solutions including her coming to Sacramento on the train and her or me driving all the way to the others house late that night. After a couple fake starts and a starbucks we decided to meet half way (In Stockton) and then we would leave her car there go to the Fair then go back to her house, spend the night then drop me off in Stockton the next morning and I would drive back to Sacramento.
It started out like we had planned... except I woke up 45 min late. Yeah, its so like me. My sister took it well though and I only ended up being a half hour late, giving her and a couple of friends that she brought enough time to stop and have breakfast at a local diner in Stockton.
We finally arrived at the Fair around noon. My sister's friends dropped us off at The Cow Palace (I know right lol) and then they went on to enjoy their day in San Francisco while we were at the fair. Once there we met my friend Cheryl, got our tickets and went inside.
The whole fair was indoors and the Cow Palace seemed like hardly that as we drove up and walked around the building. So I had little hopes for the Fair and its ability to hold my interest as we went in. The first section that we went into was a pretty decent size room with a stage where some people were performing... something (me and my great memory right). From what we could see the inside was completely set up like to be the streets of Victorian London. Stalls were set up on the sides with fake windows and doorways to simulate as much as possible old time shops. The first couple shops we went into were an old time bookshop filled with the oldest looking books I've ever seen. I know a couple friends who would have loved that shop. I wasnt much into the books but the shop didn't only have books like I thought... it had teacups.
I have a few weaknesses...anything shiny, expensive, pretty... (normal girl stuff) but one of my biggest weaknesses are teacups. I collect them. So while everyone else was looking at the books I was looking at the pretty cups, and I found one that was very pretty... almost Scottish looking in its design but still very feminine and delicate looking. I would've gotten it but I didn't want to pay the money they were asking for it. After that we went and looked at a stall that was selling crowns and headgear. We tried them on until our hearts content. There was one that looked like a giant sun, it was pretty cool.
Much to our surprise there was not just one room full of stalls but 5 rooms of equal size filled with stores and stalls of wondrous things all horrifically overpriced. A corset ranged from $660 for a plain one to just over $1100 for a more decorative one. There were a couple hat stalls that were amazingly fun. We tried on as many hats as we could and some were so cute! We also tried on masks, scarves, fur collars, head and hair jewelry and gloves. It was all tons of fun and we had a great time laughing at eachother.
My favorite stall however was one of the first ones that we went into. It was a coat stall. OMGoodness it was incredible! It had all the old styles of coats for men and women and they were all so beautiful! I only found one picture that even comes close to doing any of them justice. Unfortunately like everything there the coats were all very expensive ranging from $275 to over $1000.
The one pictured is one of the over $1,000 ones and it looks amazing on. A couple more promotions at work and I'll be placing an order. Most of the people at the Fair were dressed up in the outfits of the Victorian era. I cant really say enough about how fun it was or all the great outfits that we saw there.
We spent four hours there until we looked at all the stalls and had lunch. We met with Amber's friends and left San Fran. I guess they decided to pick up my car from Stockton and drive with me to my sister's house so they didn't have to make the trip the next day. At first I was a little dissapointed because that just meant that I had to drive two hours the next day instead of just one but as it turns out it was a really good thing we went to get my car. Turns out that I had left my keys in my car... and not only did I lock then in my car but I left them in the ignition and the car was running. Seven hours my car had been just sitting there running.
Luckily my sister has AAA and we got a guy to come out and unlock it for us. He said I was very lucky because no one stole my car. He guessed it was because the cops had been setting up alot of bate cars around the area where we had left it. Plus, my car still had enough gas to make it to my sisters house. God is good!
Who's up for coming with me to the fair next?!
I have a couple things to say! First...those dates in the beginning, is that going to be on the final? Second, Hey! I may be a little weird, but I'm more fun than embarrassing. And finally, heh, thanks for being so understanding about all the little upsets we had yesterday. Still had fun! Tell me next time you're going anywhere.
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