Bastille Day

I had a great time on Saturday "storming the Bastille" at the Eastern State Penitentiary in Philadelphia.    We had a big group and lots of chemise dresses and big hats, and we had an awesome time!  They had some sort of staged event with stuff also going on up on the roof.  5 of us were up there, which was kind of an adventure (we had to go up dusty staircases, including a tight spiral one) and then wait on the slopey roof and then we got to throw Tastycakes off the room into the crowd. The whole thing was trippy and weird and we had a great time.

I wore my chemise dress with a red and white striped petticoat underneath. Despite having rehemmed my chemise dress, it was still too long (especially without heels) so Gloria helped me pin it up so it wouldn't drag and get all muddy.  We thought it was going to be super warm that day, so I didn't want to wear a big hairpiece or a wig. I decided to do a turban rather than a hat and wrapped a blue velvet sash around my head (I was going to use the red, but it was too slippery) and pinned on my peacock feather hairclip. I only used a small rat in the front. It was comfortable and that was the goal for the day, so it was a win I think.  I also wore the coral beads and miniature I got at Dress U.

I cheated on footwear and did something I hate doing and wore sneakers. I have bad knees and an injured foot and I was told there'd be walking and I didn't want to be hobbling in repro shoes and slowing everyone down.  Since we ended up climbing on the roof, I think it worked out well for me. And mostly you couldn't tell. Even though I knew and felt a little silly. But hey, at least my feet and knees didn't get hurt.

Kat's pic:

There had been rain earlier, but miraculously, the rain held off, it was cloudy and relatively cool, so being outside wasn't horrible!

Isabella, Gloria, her husband Mike, and I drove together to the event. We found most everyone at Jack's Firehouse, a cool bar.   Kat was having a mimosa and it looked so good I had to have one too!

 These people were very prepared to storm the Bastille.   That pitchfork was real, as Kat found out. Luckily she was wearing a bum pad.  And that lady also almost knocked my camera out of my hand when she threw a head at me.  o_O

A few of us took a tour of the Penitentiary, which was really cool.  And creepy. And great for photos.  It's long been abandoned and is in total decay.

The hospital wing:

We ended up as part of the show - here's us reading the script.

Shoe shot!

Pigeons:

The view over the penitentiary from the roof:

Waiting on the roof. There are a ton of Tastycakes in the garbage bags. 

Other re-enactors.

Marie Antoinette(s) and people in boas and pink wigs. They were part of the show...

Once we could finally get up and look over, this is what we saw. I couldn't believe how many people there were!

To the left:

To the right:

And looking down, where the stage was (and the rest of our friends were):

Parading. And that thing in the middle is a person in a baguette costume.  They also had Napolean. I don't even know.

Kat's photos:

Lots of other people are posting pics, so I'll do a second post with those!