HONORARY FALL: It is easy to embrace the mindset that September=autumn. Look at any calendar's September page, or magazine rack during the month, and you're bound to spy images depicting colorful foliage and cable knit sweaters and horns of plenty. The fact of the matter, however, is the equinox doesn't arrive before the second half of the month, and calling Sept. 17 "fall," try as we might, isn't 100% truthful. It is, however, truthful to say that mid-September boasts plenty of autumnal spirit for those people who like the sorts of celebrations associated with the mellowest and possibly merriest of seasons. Thus to call the Northern California Renaissance Faire a fall delight is true, while taking into account that its opening weekend lands upon the final weekend of summer. That's a-ok, for if you want to wear leaves in your hair, and a velvet queenly frock, you can do so with autumnal aplomb at Casa de Fruta, the longtime home of the song-filled, eats-yummy, frolicsome festivity. It's on every weekend from...
SEPT. 17 THROUGH OCT. 16... at the Hollister-close destination, and a variety of theme weekends lend the lark much of its loveliness. A Royal Masquerade is set for the opening weekend of October, while mythical creatures rule the final weekend of the affair. There are more to peruse, so peruse away, while also dreaming of the pageants, comedic shows, courtly processions, and all of those vendors purveying in all of your flowery crown, leather satchel needs. A maypole carousel, Stonehenge heraldry, a petting farm, face painting, and a host of other charming diversions await at the annual faire. That it is always a grand hello to autumn is one of its nicest bits, but there are several nice qualities in its quiver. Will the autumn equinox serve as some sort of time portal back, then, to the age of jousts and jests and traveling troupes? Fall does have a way of summoning magic each and every year, and, for many revelers, definitely here.