Besides a morning trip to the pet store, the bulk of Sat revolved around the Dickens Fair. The idea is that the exhibition hall at the Cow Palace is set up like Dickens' London, 1830-1860, a subset of Victorian. It's kind of like going to a mall, with shops and food courts. There are also a few stage areas for entertainment, like singing and skits from Dickens' books. The participants, shopkeepers, etc., are dressed the part and act like period characters, if not an actual person from one of the books. Other people show up in costume or modern clothes. We went last year, but not in costume, but that started Dolly on her interest in costuming, so we went to a number of costume events in the past year and yesterday we were at the Fair, in costume, if not in character.

One of the food carts had roasted chestnuts. None of us had tried them before. The shell peels off to reveal the nut, which was kind of like rich mashed potatoes.

Not everything has to be Dickens related, but is supposed to be from his part of the Victorian period.

There is an Adventurers Club. Last year we saw Annie Oakley and Buffalo Bill there, which is what started Kitty's idea of being Annie for Halloween. We brought a picture of her in that costume to give to "Annie". She wasn't working yesterday, but we asked at the Club and found that she was there and managed to find her. The odd thing is that Buffalo Bill was AFTER Dickens, so he and Annie don't really belong there. The woman was at the Legion Fantastique, which is a Jules Verne, or steampunk, motif.

The Phantom of the Opera was there yesterday. That story takes place in 1861, so it fits better with the time period, than Buffalo Bill.


Some of the costume events we have been to have been dances and we saw a number of the people from those dances in Fezziwig's Dance Party area.


These women were on the sidelines of the dance area, and the typical hoop skirts and plaid prints walking around.


I liked the setting of this woman at the Party tree.


Some of the women were were flamboyant, like this woman in pink. There were a number of women dressed with their corsets on the OUTSIDE, for shame, and there was a can-can dance area too, which may be where THOSE women come from. One popular place for people to take pictures was outside the corset shop, where they had live, still, models in rotating shifts wearing period lingerie. I didn't. There was one woman dressed as Little Bo Peep, complete with a stuffed sheep under her arm.




The men are less interesting because they are all toppers and black coats. Most of our color comes from the waistcoat or tie, though some at colorful pants. Women wore bonnets or hair nets. Dolly and Kitty should have worn bonnets, but didn't have them. Next year.

There were wood shavings on the ground, I think to disguise the concrete floor, but the dust from that made a lot of halos in my pictures, due to our compact-format camera.