Hear ye, hear ye! There's more to Ye Olde Renaissance Faire than turkey legs, men in tights, and replacing all thy "yous" with thees and thous. So if you—or thou—art wondering whether or not it's worth venturing 45 minutes inland in search of a park full of people pretending wholeheartedly that Queen Elizabeth I is still on the throne, the answer is an unmitigated, "Huzzah!"

The Renaissance Pleasure Faire runs Saturdays and Sundays, April 15 through May 21, 2023.

Tell people you're planning a trip to Death Valley with kids, and you're likely to get a response that implies either admiration or an assumption that you're crazy. Or both. That's OK; Death Valley may not be the most obvious choice for a family vacation, but that is definitely part of the appeal. It's a valley full of "I've never seen that before!" with a hint of Old West ghost town.

First let's set the record straight: Cinco de Mayo is not Mexican Independence Day. Mexico celebrates its independence on September 16, and—while the festivals might look similar—confusing the two holidays is as gringo as, say, putting pastrami in a taco. (Actually, scratch that—LA is pretty darned proud of its pastrami tacos.) Let's simply agree that just because the US named its independence holiday 4th of July doesn't mean that Cinco de Mayo (5th of May) is Mexico's independence day. What the day actually celebrates is an underdog Mexican victory over a French military attack on Puebla, Mexico in 1862. The holiday is mostly observed in Puebla and in Southern California, where there's little mention of the French, but much swinging at piñatas and dancing to mariachis. After all, by the first weekend of May, who needs more excuse than that to revel in the sunshine?