Welcome to the last Friday of Hades, erm I mean July. While Monday is the last day of the month from hell, we’re more than happy to bid July farewell early. And good riddance, I say. Elsa here to share something a little bit different for this week’s Nature Friday blog hop hosted by our pals, Rosy and Sunny from Adventures of the LLB Gang. Be sure to check out what others have shared at the link.
So let’s get to it before it gets any hotter, okay?
Thankfully Mom let me stay home while she ‘took one for the team’ attended this year’s Dragon Boat Festival and races held at her favorite nearby park, Sloan’s Lake over the weekend. She’s attended this neighborhood event for years but thought this was the biggest yet. While it was super sunny and hot for Mom, her good friend, (my ‘Auntie Cheryl’ and husband) and recently married granddaughter, Hailey and hubs for this year’s event. Opening day starts out the festival and Mom managed to capture the opening parade by Shaolin Hung Mei Kung Fu with its 75-foot long, colorful, traditional Chinese Dragon winding through the festival to begin the event. The festival celebrates the Asian American Native Hawaiian Pacific Islander (AANHPI) with its diverse culture and this year was an exceptional visual feast and the largest one Mom has attended yet. It’s the largest in the Rocky Mountain region with more than 170,000 attendees last year. The Dragon’s presence symbolizes the chasing away “negative energies” by sending good luck, good fortune and a safe day of racing to all of the race teams, vendors and attendees.
Although Mom didn’t bring her big camera due to the heat, she did pull some close-ups from the festival’s Facebook page.
The festival was well attended again this year though Mom didn’t find final numbers for visitors this year, which included a couple of feathered friends watching the races from the shoreline. This year’s feathered crowd seemed less than enthusiastic. I think they must have been trying to keep cool.
This year, the festival organizers managed to acquire a few new boats for the first time. So shiny and fierce. I think I might start practicing that kind of dragon intimidating look. It appeals to my inner Ninja. Don’t you think I’d look good trimmed out in gold?
Organizers seemed to have had more vendors this year with loads of food vendors and Asian crafts. They even provided a water station where Mom and her guests could enjoy “fresh squeezed filtered H20.”
It wasn’t especially icy cold, but it was refreshing enough and kept everyone hydrated in the sunny conditions.
So that about wraps it up for this year’s festival. We’re going to ride off into the weekend counting the days until the official arrival of Autumn arrives. Fifty-six for anyone keeping track.
Sayonara, peeps. Have a good weekend. Here’s to being well hydrated and try to stay as cool as you can but we hope you are still able to enjoy some elements of Mother Nature.
Live, love, bark! 🐾