There are vikings in those woods...

One of my favorite memories is our family visit to Lily Fest a few years ago. Lily Fest is this amazing arts festival in the Hocking Hills. The property is beautiful, set in a clearing in the woods and has one amazing garden after another. The drive is a bit treacherous up and down many hills on curvy, narrow roads but totally worth it.

A few years ago when my parents came to visit I suggested we go to Lily Fest. Mom was a bit leery because she thought it would be a crappy craft fest. She was pleasantly surprised that it was a lovely fine arts festival! Dad bought a copper sculpture to mount above the gate on the bridge at their house that leads from the road back to the house and Mom got a life sized fairy for her garden.

After we looked around we sat on a quilt in the grass to listen to dulcimer music and have a picnic. While we were having our chicken salad sandwiches with the crusts cut off when I said to Dad, "there are vikings in those woods."

"What?"

"There are vikings in those woods" I said a bit louder because Dad is hard of listening. (He hears fine when he wants to...)

"Vikings? There aren't any vikings in the woods, you don't know what you are talking about."

I told him to come with me. We left Mom and Samantha on the quilt and walked along the winding trail through the woods. Dad bitched the whole time about how I had no idea where I was going when suddenly, around a bend, there they were: VIKINGS!

Dad's face lit up like a kid at Christmas. The Vikings, about 6 of them, had a tepee (not really sure why a tepee... maybe they pillaged it from the Indians?) a cauldron over a fire, tents and various areas with games and crafts set up.

After we were done chatting with the vikings and purchasing some crafts we went back to Mom and Samantha. Dad sits down and says to Mom, "There are vikings in those woods!"