A Weekend of Festivals

Our first night was at the Dance Festival down in Tumon. The streets were closed off and vendors filled them with lots of yummy food. We opted for a sit down dinner of pizza at our favorite pizzeria, Vitale's. I even managed to talk him into giving me his famous sauce! BUT I can't have it until I'm set to leave island. He guards that secret recipe well! He says it's been passed down from many generations in his family. Chris said it's probably Prego. haha! We managed to have a great spot just outside of the restaurant but weren't able to stay there because security was moving everyone out so we went to the roof. It wasn't set up very well. I think bleachers would have been nice to relieve some of the crowd congestion around the dancers. We didn't stay long but what we did see was pretty cool. There is a video of dancers from Hokaiddo, Japan in the web album. I'm hoping to put a larger video of the Chamorran dancers after uploading it to youtube.

Chamorran Dancers~They did really well. I enjoyed this performance a lot.

Next event was on Saturday and it was the Japan Autumn Festival down in Tumon at Ypao Beach. Good food, good fun, and good performances. There's a video of Japanese school children singing the Japan National Anthem. We met up with the Simmons Family and the Ramirez Family there. The babies had a great time dancing. We usually keep Ryland in his stroller because he doesn't seem to mind and it helps with keeping up with the other two. Remember that movie with Chevy Chase called Funny Farm? He got a dog, brought it back to the house, let it out of the car and it just took off. Ran, just ran and ran. Well that was Ryland, as soon as I let him out he bolted.

Me drinking some Oolong Tea. *bleck!* It was unsweetened.

Japanese school children carrying the shrine (I think that's what they called it.)

Eating some yummy shaved ice. He proceeded to lap jump between me and Chris for a differ in flavors!

On to the next festival, same night, Starlight Christmas Festival in downtown Hagatna. The whole park was lit up with a giant tree in the center. There were carabao rides, performances, and SANTA.

Ry usually never knows a stranger but this man freaked him out!

Ry and Dani right before the carabao ride. Dani was such a help and rode with Ryland.

He was a little apprehensive about the ride and wanted off halfway through but he was a trooper and stayed on. He's from Guam, he's GOT to learn how to ride a carabao! ;-)

Check out the web album for many more pictures as well as some videos. Also keep checking Dot's and Tori's blog for similar posts and more pictures.