Herps at the Ren Faire! (pics)

[Lolo76]

My mother & I attended the Renaissance Faire yesterday, which is held in the town of Hollister CA (about 50 miles south of San Jose). We had a great time, and I was especially excited to see a "Creepy Crawly" corner! They had a small collection of herps & arachnids, which you could pet for $3... of course I didn't bother paying, as I can touch my own snakes for free, but I did get some nice photos.

Blue-tongued Skinks




Big 'ol Tortoise




Belly of an Apricot Pueblan Milk


Jungle Carpet Python... can't wait until mine gets this big!




Beautiful young Burmese, who was also very sweet.










The keeper promptly scolded the kid for doing this - "I told you not to touch their heads... they hate that!"


I'm pretty scared of spiders (ironic, I know), but this guy was kinda cute... maybe next time I'll get up the nerve to hold one?

[Lolo76]

Oh yeah... I also picked up a new addition for myself, the rare "49ers Beanbag Snake." LOL





And I got a custom bronze necklace, with a serpent design on the front & my astrological symbol (Libra) on the back. Pretty cool!

[wolfy-hound]

That's pretty awesome. Although I'd be wary of taking animals into the public, I cannot deny the good it does to expose people(especially children) to snakes and spiders in a POSITIVE way. Without places to show snakes as something awesome and desirable(by putting a price on the petting it actually gives value to the experiance, as opposed to a "free" petting zoo!) we end up with fewer folks interested in reptiles as pets.

Looked fun to me(I do SCA medieval stuff too, so snakes + medieval = WIN). Thanks so much for the pics!