Herps at the Ren Faire! (pics)

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
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Big 'ol Tortoise
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Belly of an Apricot Pueblan Milk
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Jungle Carpet Python... can't wait until mine gets this big!
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Beautiful young Burmese, who was also very sweet. :)
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The keeper promptly scolded the kid for doing this - "I told you not to touch their heads... they hate that!"
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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? :oops:
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Oh yeah... I also picked up a new addition for myself, the rare "49ers Beanbag Snake." LOL :D

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