Jefferson Patterson Park 1812 Fair and Reenactment - Day 2

The 2nd day of the Jefferson Patterson Park's 1812 Fair and Reenactment was another great demo day with Jeff and Vince working together at the forge.  We had lots of fun again with all the artisans and visitors....the boys spent the day learning various woodworking skills and working with the oxen (when they weren't eating ice cream and various festival food!)

 

 

 

 

The day also brought the tall ships to reenact the Battle of St. Leonard's Creek   I left the men at the forge and made the trek along with thousands of others to see the battle, but, not having staked out a good position earlier in the day, nor having good enough telephoto lenses, I wasn't able to see much.

With my wide-angle lens:

With my best telephoto lens: 

Leaving the sea battle site:  

 However, because I had walked our dog all over the property the day before, I was aware of a little beach area beside some corn fields.....and I had heard someone say that the ships would sail up the creek.  So, I went for a walk.

 After waiting a bit on the incredibly beautiful and private beach, I was treated to great views of a sea battle that seemed to be just for me and the few others who had followed me on my walk!  It was really quite something.

And, to tie the tall ships together with our blacksmithing, we later met the smith of the Kalmar Nyckel (the tall ship with the blue trim).  As he was chatting with Jeff (who had missed all the ships because he was working at the forge), he mentioned the name of his ship, which Jeff immediately recognized as being a ship that our friend Kelly Smyth had done a lot of work on.  We have worked with Kelly in the past and it was a joy to be able to visit with one of her other friends and see the ship that she had worked on.  The blacksmithing community is indeed a small one!