Native American Festival

On Saturday my wife, son, and I went to a Native American festival over in New Jersey.  While there we heard several Native Americans perform for the assembled crowd: Singing, dancing, and telling people their stories.  Some of the people who had come to the festival had travelled from as far away as Mexico, Central America, and Puerto Rico.  Before the festival started, a woman stood on stage in front of the crowd and asked for all of us to pray to the Creator.  The prayer was intimate, asking that all of us there remembered our connection with our Creator and with the Earth and also to remember all of those soldiers who were fighting in wars.  With this weekend being Memorial Day weekend, we take a moment to remember all of those in our armed forces--past and present.

At the festival, my son also fed a horse a carrot, we saw a live snake in the bushes as we waited in the car to park, there were several birds of prey (hawks and the like) there with a handler, buffalo, and pigeons and peacocks.  I enjoyed my time there and my son had a blast, running around playing, seeing the animals, and just having a great time in general.

Yesterday we went down to the shore and it was the first time my son had been on the boardwalk in Ocean City since last year.  What I found so interesting was seeing his comprehension of games in the arcades, building sand castles on the beach, and then getting a chance to see his friends at our friends' house.  By the time we left to go home, it was almost 11pm and because of massive amounts of traffice it took us over 2 hours to get home.  When I finally fell into bed around 1:15 a.m., all I wanted to do was shut my eyes and just turn off into a deep, deep sleep.

Why did we stay so late?  Well, it was my fault.  I had been playing a game of   Risk that started at about 5:00 p.m. and took about 3 and a half hours to play.  At the end, Michelle and myself were locked in a battle for the world.  The other three opponents had been knocked out of the game.  Since it was so late, we called the game a draw and we packed up and headed off home.

Today was a day of work.  We drove all over the place this morning trying to buy all the materials we need for our garden (plants, dirt, mulch, etc.).  And that's what I'm doing now: I'm taking a break to write this.  So it's been a very busy last three days.  I'm looking forward to just relaxing tonight.

Take care!