Pirates at Fernbank? Best Day EVER!

So, when I was little, I'm pretty sure I always preferred pirates to princesses. If not back then, I do now! We had around 30 "professional" pirates from the Atlanta Pirate and Wench Guild (timeout, WHAT? We have a Pirate guild in Atlanta?? http://www.meetup.com/movies-465/), and we had a princess and a knight from Medieval Times. But, I'm getting ahead of myself...my day began long before the pirates and wenches and royalty...It began around 9am.

First, we brought up box after box of newspaper for our recyclable pirate hats and princess crowns...yes, my fingers were blackened...again...by hours of playing with newspaper.

Then, we had to blow up the inflatable pirate ship...and test it!

Yes, that’s Tim (top photo), our Mr. Fix-it, who always jingles with keys, always has a coffee mug, and can fix anything, from exhibits to squeaky paper cutters. And that’s Reid, frolicking on the ship. Yes, they’re both grown men grinning like 6 year olds!

Then...the people came. We had lots of princesses wanting crowns:

And pirates wanting captain’s hats:

And crazy boating pirates:

And shy pirates:

And tattoo artists:

And precious daddy-princess pairs:

And pirate families seeking quiet overlooks:

And did I mention people??

And little pirates with big pirates:

And did I mention lots of pirates??

Who brought their own pirate photographer:

Anyways, that’s kind of how my day looked. Except all these shots of single people don’t really capture the fact that by 12 noon, there were roughly 1200 people in the museum already. By the way…the museum opens at 10 am.

By 2pm, our fingers were blackened, our booted feet were hurting, but we were all still having a good time:

As the event wrapped up, we put the hats away, and the tattoos away, and the ship away, and the tables away…but the music kept beckoning, and the pirates kept dancing. The pirates and wenches are the types to have fun wherever they go, even if it’s a kids’ event at a natural history museum. For all I know, the pirates are still partying under the dinosaurs. Best part of the afternoon?

The pirate guild invited me out to the pubs to find the rum …