May in July ? Only in America !
What do I mean by that ?
Well , this weekend .. Qing and I spend Saturday in Long Beach CA. .
This is about 90 miles south of where we live . This did not change our Minds though , to be part of a Festival .. that is actually celebrated in May .. in China that is . Hence , the Title of this Post .
As I saw with surprise on my PC , the mentioning of the 2011 Dragonboat Festival and Races over the this Weekend . Some 100 + Races of Young and Old alike . Anybody that can hold a Orr and is not afraid of the Water .
Need to get up early ( before 6am ) , have Breakfast and hit the Road south by no later then 8:00am . Knowning , that this place where all is going to happen .. will not be easy to locate/find . I only been twice in my 39 years here in California to Long Beach . That was to Visit the "Queen Mary" Cruise Ship .
As I suspected , we ( actually I ) were lost arriving in Long Beach . Going down the 710 Fwy and looking for the 7th Street Exit .. which never came . Finding ourselves in the Ship Yard and in the Un-loading area of all those oversea's Container's ( most of them from China of course ). Interesting view , as some of them I think were stagged 10-15 high . Some sight for sure . Anyway , me admitting that we are lost ( yes .. there are some Men that do admit their lost ) , it was time to ask some unexpecting Soul to guide us in the right direction . Remembering this from our last Downtown LA visit ( ask five People for Angle Flight and nobody knew where it was ) , of course the first Lady I ask at a SuperMarket .. had NO idea of the area where she Worked . hahaha
Oh , I now remember .. most work 2 Hours from Home and have NO idea where their at .
Asking a second Person , I could see .. we were at least close to our Destination . I saw some familiar Street's that were mentioned in the Printout I had taken with us from the Computer . Made me feel good , I can actually take some credit for finding the Place .. that always looks good in front of your LaoPo .
By now it was close to 11:00 am , not bad .. As I have figured in .. this well before .
Here we were , in the middle of dozens of Dragonboat's and People that will races them . Along all the Crowd that had the same idea of coming here . What was strange , is that Qing has never been to one in China in all her years growing up in Shanghai . It is also my first experience seeing this , even though I wanted to see them plenty of times in the Past .
Strolling with the Crowd , we came to an Stage that was to have different Performance's from different Countries/Cultures . Of course Chinese-Jananese-Hawaii-Tahiti .This was a nice welcome between the Boat races , as one sits under a Tent and out of the Sun .
Enjoying ourselves for about three-four Hours and walking slowly back to our Car , the Scenic Route .. to check out the beautiful Homes near the Marina . Turns out , Qing was even more interested in those Homes then the Boat races . Seeing on of them for Sale , picked up a Flyer to see what they are asking for one of those beauties . Oh .. a cool $ 1.2 Million for a 1936 build ( but renovated ) .. cough .. cough ! Not that I think they are not worth it , after all it was 2600 sq feet of obsolute " I love this " . Let me quick check my Checkbook and see .. if ?
One can Dream .. right ?
So on the way Home , we took the Pacific Coast Highway all the way to Venice ( not Italy ) . Including a view of old Queen Mary sitting like she does for many years as an Tourist Attraction .Qing loved the drive through one Beach City after the other very much , but she really liked Long Beach .. as she now wants us to take her Brother's Wife there .. when she comes in Sept. this year .
I'm now wondering , what happened to Pasadena .. did "IT" now move down on her List of favourite Cities ? Then again , the Beach Cities are beautiful to the Eye . I'm not the kind to go in the Ocean Water's , either for Fun or Sport . What I like most is the Temperature year-round .. comfortable .
One more stop we planned on the drive home , that was the Asian Market .. that we just can not pass up being within 5 minutes off the Freeway . Nice time shopping with Dinner next door and then .. call it a day .. it is .
Photo's are seen in my Blog , if anyone interested .
