Kite Festival Easter 2013

Here's some more blog cleaning!

March 31st, 2013

Awhile back I posted a little about what Ross and I did for Easter. But it wouldn't be complete without pictures from the Kite Festival. This time of year kites are really common because there is a lovely breeze that helps sustain them. You see them for sale everywhere along the street.

Some of the kites get really high and they make this kind of awful noise. You can't miss it. The other night I heard one at like midnight! The sound comes from the way the nose is constructed. The way the wind/air slips over and through the nose creates a loud vibrating noise.

Without further ado, pictures!

When we first got there, it was pretty overcast and a little rainy.

I'm happy to say that it cleared up though, and all the brightly colored kites in the sky looked magnificent, albeit pretty hard to capture.

One cool thing about the festival was that there are a handful of different categories kites may be entered in, so there is a lot of diversity!

Here is a kite being flown via fishing pole

Here is a kite made out of a dried up leaf, with a target bag tail! The string used for it was just a regular ol' spool of thread. Haha. I love the creativity, any one can make and fly a kite!

This girl was killing me, as you can see, the slack on her kite is only about two feet. She just stood there, holding it tight, with a little sass and attitude!

This was Ross's favorite kite, a man and a woman, with a cool colorful tail. It was really pretty.

Don't blink or you'll miss it, but on the end of the stick that girl is holding was an entry for "Smallest Kite" the family/ group that entered this kite was super proud of it. Every time I looked over it seemed like a different person as flying it. Can you see the kite? It is yellow and blue and has a cute little ribbon tail.

I think this next kite might have beat out the leaf kite for #1 in my heart. It was a styrofoam plate kite. The elderly man walking around with it was dancing and having the time of his life!

So along with the Smallest Kite, and Discovery Kids Kite, was the much anticipated Largest Kite competition. Turned out to be way more intense than I had anticipated. There were I think 4 serious competitors in this category.

Here is the kite's take off!

The kite below was the Ross & Kristen pick. It went up on the first try and had a pretty good flight except the string got caught on another kite. The tangled mess broke the string and it went flying off towards the horizon. So sad. :(

Below was the biggest kite, measuring about 16 feet from tip to tip. You can see the beams are made of dried bamboo.

It was really crazy to see them try and get these kites up in the sky! This gray kite was attached to a pick-up truck. There were a bunch of people holding the kite, and someone in the back of the pick up. As the pick up drove off to give the string tension, they used their phones to communicate for take off!

At first try the gray kite began to go up and the cord to fly it wasn't strong enough. The force of the wind pulling the kite was too much and the cord (I think it was just twine) snapped and the kite came crashing down and the bamboo broke. Fortunately the team had supplies and they went into action to fix it to fly again.

I love this photo! 

The huge shadow of the large kite:

Since the kites were so huge, instead of a simple tail for balance, they needed a something a little more heavy duty. ENTER: old jeans, tree branches whatever floats your boat, er - flies your kite.

I took a ton of pictures, I just thought they all looked so amazing! I loved the creativity.

Very beautiful and colorful kites. Very fitting for Easter in my opinion. 

I was told that Grenadians fly kites on Easter to symbolize the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Whether that is true or not, I think it is a very beautiful symbol. 

I am so grateful for the unique experiences I have on this little island!

Sunrise at the Tidepools

I can't find the exact quote, so if anyone knows correct me, but I believe Joseph B. Wirthlin was quoted to say something to the effect of,

Those who do not see the sun rise miss half their life.

I love that! Poor sunrises are always neglected because people hate mornings, sunsets get all the credit.

To help give the sunrise some credit, Ross and I ventured out this morning to find it! Yes, we woke up quite early so we could take our hour-ish (a little less since we had to hurry) walk. We thought a good spot would be the tidepools here in Lance aux Epines where we live.

Still dark out! We got there just in time and soon you could see the light coming up over the horizon.

Ross and I took a bunch of pictures. You can't just wake up that early without proof!

You can feel like you were there, and do considerably less work!

And then the sky blew up! I love how you can see a tiny bit of the sun.

It rose higher and higher...

You can tell I am happy because I have on my best crooked smile, with one squinty eye. Ryan knows how that goes right Ry? :) 

 I had a hard time picking my favorites, but here are a few more from the morning.

This gives you a glimpse into how hilly Grenada is! I like how well you can see the depth here.

This is is kind of like I Spy. Can you find the moon and "lighthouse?"

I say "lighthouse" because I don't actually know if it was a functioning lighthouse, but it sure looks like it. This picture is for you momma, you are the lighthouse professional so you can be the judge.

I love you Mom! (thanks for reading my blog!)

It was a really fun morning and a cool experience. I would definitely do it again! But next time I would plan ahead and maybe bring some donuts or something. Haha. Of course. 

Ross has squinty eyes so he must be happy! :)

St. Patrick's Day

I definitely have to sneak this post in before the month of March is over!



One thing I have always loved is traditions. And lucky for me my family has a lot of them! My family always joked that we are Scottish so we love any excuse for a good party, that sits pretty well with me. So although I have no Scottish heritage, I had to find some way to bring a bit of Widdison family tradition to the 17th of March.

St. Patrick's Day at the Widdison home involves your classic corned beef and cabbage, potatoes, and probably some carrots too. Don't forget the Irish soda bread. And we have to have lime sherbet and 7up floats. And my all time favorite pistachio inside out cake which I loved so much I would ask for it for my birthday. Also, you have to have Paddy's Potatoes. Okay, wow, I guess maybe we like to eat just a little. :)

Umm, I didn't make that.

Along with that the night before all of us kids would devise a leprechaun trap, of course to catch the leprechaun and find his pot of gold. Watching Darby O'Gil and the Little People every year left us pretty well informed about the tricky little guys.

Unfortunately we never caught one, but the idea of them being tricked always left them in a frenzy and they would totally trash the living room. The leprechauns would put chairs on the table, and any toys or clothes that didn't get cleaned up the night before would be hung on the ceiling fan. Sometimes they would take the couch cushions and make a fort. Somehow they made it into the kitchen and turned out milk green too!



The best part though, was that sometimes they would leave some of their "gold" and we would feast on the little Hershey's nuggets.

Well, trying to find any of this stuff in Grenada proved more difficult than I thought. Long story short, I settle for Paddy's Potatoes! This is a candy recipe my mom cut from the L.A. Times many moons ago. Pretty much they are these little peanut butter (I think they taste like Reese's) balls. You roll them in cinnamon, sugar, cocoa, and chopped peanuts. The peanuts kind of look like the eyes of the potato. Mine didn't turn out too photogenic, they got a little smashed.

But they were delicious nonetheless.

I also helped out with an S.O. Family Brunch for St. Patrick's Day. CeCe and Patty did an excellent job! It had a rainbow theme to it of course. I got there bright and early to help hang tons of rainbow streamers. They had a super cute back drop for family pics complete with leprechaun hats, beards, glasses, and beads! I graciously agreed to help CeCe with the test shot before the brunch started. They were really scrappin' the bottom of the barrel, I was the only one there at the time. Haha.

That's what I am looking like these days.

My favorite part of the holiday was that somehow the leprechauns found my kitchen here in Grenada and they turned the milk green! Ross told me I should pour a glass of milk for myself. I thought this was a little strange since I reserve the fresh dairy milk for his cereal but I obliged. Much to my glee I found green milk!

Much to his glee he is proudly sporting a green milk mustache in this picture. As Ali would say, "Oh Ron!"

I love the challenge of bringing little bits of "U.S. life" to our life here in Grenada.

Quote Whenever, or Whatever

Hey there, gettin' back on the bloggin wagon after my month-long sabbatical or something like that.

Things here have been pretty stagnant. But not necessarily boring. I was looking for some cutesy quotes for my "Quote Whenevers" but realized that I didn't much feel like talking about any particular one in depth. But don't worry, here you go.

"Feelings are much like waves, we can't stop them from coming but we can choose which one to surf."

I get this quote and I think a big part of life is simply choosing your battles. But that's not what I am getting at here.

If feelings are much like waves, the past month has been much like me just sitting on the sand watching them roll in and out. 

To keep up some terrible comparisons, my life sometimes feels like I've been walking in the sand and I look back and don't see any footprints (no, this is not some segue into that Christian "Footprints in the Sand" poem). I just mean that although I can measure how far I have walked, I don't see a lasting impression. 

Now before you run and get the tissues and Ben & Jerry's because I have depressed you, I have been making some footprints lately (and if you want you can still run and get some Ben & Jerry's)! 

It takes a considerable amount of effort but I have been getting out and trying to do more volunteer stuff etc. 

Since I am a nerd and it is probably pretty boring to the average citizen, i'll spare you all the details of my future in the Foreign Service, Peace Corps summer camp, meetings with embassy employees and the like. 

But you can look for some "catch-up" posts about what I have been up to the past month or so! :)