Steampunk World's Fair

wow, what a fun event! I drove north about an hour to Piscataway to attend the The Steampunk World's Fair. i really didn't know what to expect, since i've never gone to one of these before. I figured if anything, there'd be some awesome picture opportunities. I was not disappointed. I started taking pictures the moment i got there until the moment i was walking out the door. everyone was so accommodating for photos (and i think they are quite used to it!) it was a beautiful day and there was a courtyard where they had music, food, tents and more. it was a lovely area to just sit and lounge in the sun and watch all the people. i really enjoyed the music by a band called Emperor Norton's Stationary Band. After walking around the lobby, i went to check out the vendor event. for some reason, they didn't have it all in one area, but in a few rooms around the lobby and then you had to walk around the 1st floor guest room area and go into each room and see what they had for sale in there. it was kind of fun that way. people were milling in the hallways. it reminded me of my old college days with parties in the dorm hallways. the marching band came down the hallway too and i got some fun video of them. from there i went outside for more picture taking and lunch. the hotel had set up a yummy buffet (and for hotel food, it was REALLY good). i ate lunch with a mother and daughter from Delaware (Pat and Jackie, if i remembered that correctly - and please let me know if you read this!) we were discussing how nice people were. it seemed to be a place where you could be who you wanted to for the moment and no one was there to judge or criticize you. one of the staff members, David Isecke (operations), joined us for a little bit to see how we were enjoying ourselves. we were talking about how these types of events are so fun to attend because it does give you an opportunity to step outside your normal life and experience new things. David said something i really liked, "some people are too quick to throw the magic out of their lives". so true!

another thing that i really enjoyed was seeing the men dressed up. I see women dressed up all the time. they like to dress up; do their hair, makeup and wear pretty things. men, not so much. they tend to put on ball cap, wear some really boring polo type shirt and jeans or some sort of khaki/beige colored pants. there isn't a lot of variety in the way a man can dress. now a days, dressed up for a man is a suit and tie and although a suit can look nice; again not much variety or a way for a man to stand out as an individual. At this event, there were so many varieties of how the men were dressed. maybe it was because it was fresh to my eyes, but i was digging it!

here are a couple of my favorite pictures from yesterday :

You can also view all the photos here on flickr.