Our Travels: Back in Time- October Events 4

10-24-15

I finally purchased a few vases for my sea glass so I can finally display my beauties. I first separated all that I have collected so far by color and placed them into the vases. After doing this I felt like I needed more blue sea glass to make the jars even. So back to Sea Glass Beach we went! This was just a short trip, actually Preston only gave me an allotted amount of time so it had to be short. Lol It was still a lot of fun! The kids got right to work. Mckinley didn’t like ONLY picking up blue pieces so I did end up with all the colors and a lot of it. The weather was gorgeous and I was able to get some nice pictures while we were there too.

I even love the drive to this beach.

This beach isn't right off the road. You must travel by many different farms to get here

Find the gravel road

Pass a few traditional houses

Make sure you make the right turn or, as we found out earlier, you will end up in the crops

Then it appears!!!

a little hike down and you are on the beach

Preston the Great

10-25-15

Guess what? Another fun festival! The Shishimai Festival is also knows as the lion dance festival. Each large city has their own unique Shishimai (lion) and they all come together during this festival and perform.

I had done a lot of research for this event to make sure we didn’t miss it. Even with all the searches I did online, we still had all the information wrong. We went to the venue I had found, but they had moved it. Luckily there was a gentlemen there passing out maps to the new location. I thought the event started at 5 and I knew we had to be there earlier for good seats. We arrived at the new venue and were in line by 4:30! But, turned out the show didn’t start until 6. We had a long wait time, but we lucked out again and brought the kids iPads with us. They were entertained at least. There was only about 20 people ahead of us in line too. By the time 5:45 came around the line was wrapped around the building. The venue was max capacity and many were not able to get it. Even though we had to wait I think we benefited from it, we did have great seats!

It was amazing watching each lion. Each had their own style and way of dancing. Some used props, some loved wagging their tails and one even had a little baby. They each looked different from one another too. Before the performance the dragons were each presented, this was when the kids quickly picked which one they were and then spent the rest of the night waiting for their lion to perform. It was another late night for the kids, but definitely worth it. I think we will have to go back next year as well.