Asian Ball-Jointed Doll Meet-Up at Clark's Ellioak Farm
Ellicott City, Maryland
September 24, 2006

(Originally written on September 25, 2006)

This weekend I went to not one, but TWO meet-ups. The one I went to Saturday morning was part of an annual event known as Sketch Crawl, which is held in various cities all over the world. I went to the one in Washington, DC, where we met in the Sculpture Garden outside the Hirschorn and we did sketches of various statues. The weather was grey but the only real challenge we had came whenever a wind gust would periodically come up and I had to put my hand on the pages of my sketchbook. We then went off to a local sandwich shop for lunch before we went back to the Hirschorn. This time we went inside the museum only to discover that half of it was closed. We had the misfortune of coming at a time when a lot of the temporary exhibits had just ended but the next round of temporary exhibits hadn't been fully set up yet. We basically saw the opened areas of the museum before we broke up around 2 p.m.

While I enjoyed myself on Saturday, I had even more fun on Sunday because I attended an Asian ball-jointed doll meet-up at Clark's Elioak Farm in Ellicott City. It's an actual family farm that is opened to the general public for about six or seven months a year. The biggest draw is the fact that the farm now houses the relics of a now-defunct local theme park known as The Enchanted Forest.

There is already a Wikipedia article about The Enchanted Forest as well as a website from a group known as The Enchanted Forest Preservation Society and a site devoted to the theme park's history so I don't really have to go into the history of The Enchanted Forest other than to say that my parents used to take me there when I was a very young child. It was basically devoted to various characters from nursery rhymes and fairy tales and it was the kind of theme park that was very enchanting to children under 9. Once you hit your 9th or 10th birthday, The Enchanted Forest didn't seem so cool and, in time, I graduated to theme parks that had better rides and attractions that catered to teenagers and adults like Hersheypark, Kings Dominion, and Busch Gardens Williamsburg.

To get back to the present, I managed to gather up my dolls for this meet-up the night before the event. I became concerned when I stepped outside yesterday morning and saw that it was starting to rain. I briefly re-thought the idea of going to the meet-up (since it was going to be held outdoors) but I saw that the rain was light so I decided to head out in the hopes that it was a scattered shower. By the time I arrived at the farm, the rain had subsided but it was still cloudy and very humid. When I saw a few people walk away from the parking area with dolls in tow, I decided to grab my dolls and join them as well. Here are the photos of my own doll gang that I took with me to the meet-up prior to the trip. Sitting in the back row from left to right are my Soom Mini-Gem Uyoo, Volks Dollfie Dream, and Kim Possible dolls. The two tiny dolls sitting on other doll laps from left to right are Little Pullip Alice Fantastic and Orient Doll Ji. (Click on any of the photos in order to see a larger version open in a new window.)

The sign that welcomes all visitors to the farm.

Here is my doll gang after we arrived at the meet-up. From left to right: Kim Possible doll, Volks Dollfie Dream, Little Alice Fantastic (sitting in the Dollfie Dream's lap), Orient Doll Ji (sitting on the Dollfie Dream's skirt), and Soom Mini-Gem Uyoo.

The doll meet-up initially started at a couple of picnic tables, where we socialized and took a bunch of photos of each other's dolls. Boy, there were tons of eye candy galore!

At one point the sun appeared from behind the clouds, which concerned the owners of the two tanning dolls present at the meet-up because of recent forum posts in The Den of Angels from someone whose tanning doll actually turned green after she took that doll to an outdoor doll meet-up in the bright sunshine. (She even provided photos to prove it and the results were pretty sad to see.) Some people lent out their umbrellas for the tanning dolls to lay under so they wouldn't suffer the same fate. Well, the bright sunshine was short-lived because it soon darted behind the clouds, where it stayed for much of the day.

Here is my own tiny Orient Doll Ji sitting next to my Soom Mini-Gem Uyoo.

We were eventually asked to move by the farm employees because someone had reserved the picnic tables for a party so we started to walk around. Here is the Three Little Pigs display that was originally at The Enchanted Forest.

The farm also boasts a petting zoo area where visitors can feed and pet various livestock, including these goats.

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We next gathered our dolls around other former Enchanted Forest attractions like the Easter Bunny's home and Mother Goose.

There were plenty of funky-looking benches throughout the farm.

Little Boy Blue sleeps in front of a cow enclosure.

Little Pullip Alice Fantastic and Orient Doll Ji enjoy the blooming fall flowers.

There was an emu who lived on the farm. He seemed to be a curious bird who constantly looked at anyone who came by his enclosure.

One doll owner tried to introduce her doll to the emu, who didn't seem interested at all.

The farm had a pair of miniature horses who were so cute.

These two male tanning dolls know how to travel in style.

I had Papa Bear hold my dolls in his lap.

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We did another group doll photo session at one of the teacup-shaped benches.

Little Pullip Alice Fantastic on a mushroom.

Orient Doll Ji under a mushroom.

Volks Dollfie Dream on a deer figure made out of sticks.

Volks Dollfie Dream takes turns resting on the backs of giant-sized ducklings.

The Crooked Man and his Crooked House.

The Little Red Schoolhouse.

A children's slide that's based on the old nursery rhyme The Old Lady Who Lived in a Shoe.

The home of the Three Bears.

The meet-up ended in a gazebo that had a giant birthday cake on the inside. (Too bad the cake was inedible because it did look delicious.)

Here it what the birthday cake looked like with a bunch of dolls piled on top of it.

We broke up after the last bunch of photos were taken at the birthday cake gazebo. It was perfect timing because about a half-an-hour after I got home, it started to rain again.

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