Dia de los Muertos 2013 - Part II

As luck would have it the Desert Botanical Gardens was holding their festival the first weekend of November, so I got to go to a second Day of the Dead Fest. Much to my surprise most of the entertainment was the same as in Phoenix, however, they had an altar display in a huge tent. We managed to snag a table in the shade, which was a good thing, because again the temperatures went into the 80s.

Here is a collage of the fun

 Next come some altars

 

 

 A very lovely mural

The Aztec dancers performing for the crowd.

Finally a sneak peek of what is to come at the Gardens. The Chihuly exhibit opens on the 10th and they were very busy with the installation. More to come!

Till next time,

Dia de los Muertos 2013 - Phoenix

It's that time of year again. The weather starts cooling off and the festivals begin! Okay so things were not exactly cool enough for me yet, but I don't get to pick the day the fun begins. We have been going to the Mesa festival for years, so just to change it up a bit we decided to go to the one in Phoenix. It was at the Margaret T Hance Park and well that park is a story for another day. The music and entertainment is always good, the vendors interesting and the people even more interesting. Here are some photos from the event.

 

  Pretty sure I could have dressed up in one of these outfits.

 Ignore the woman in the chair, couldn't cut her out without losing the dragon head. Not sure why she is sitting right there, but I think it is to annoy me.

 The dragon and probably the skull head too were used in La Procesión which didn't start till 5PM and I would have melted by then, so not this year.

 

There was plenty of entertainment, music and dancing. I look forward to the coming months of weather perfect for getting outside and exploring new places.

Wild Wild West

 It was a beautiful, sunny day here in the Valley of the Sun and so we decided to take a road trip to a town we haven't been to before. Cave Creek and Carefree are right next to each other and really just at the northernmost tip of Phoenix, but still about an hour away. We happened upon a festival in each town. First up Cave Creek and their Frontier Town, yes another of those wild west kind of areas, goodness gracious there are enough of them out here. In "Frontier Town" there were lots of shops and pubs and then they had an arts/craft thing going on. Truly I do not have any idea who buys all that southwest style stuff. 

 Welcome to town!

 A real outhouse......I don't think anyone still uses it

Lots of old farm/mining/frontier equipment with artwork animals pulling them.

OK so maybe Frontier Town was not that exciting. We kept on down the road and passed pub after pub after pub with thousands and I do mean thousands of Harleys in the parking lots. I am thinking we found where all the Sunday Harely riders go. Little more down the road and we come to the Carefree Arts and Chocolate Festival. Well turns out the chocolate is not what made that worth the stop. It was the Desert Cactus Kickers a self-described group of dancing grannies from Cave Creek, putting on quite the performance.

 

 

 

 They were really fun to watch, I give them a lot of credit for getting up there and tapping their way around. On the way back home we stopped at Big Earls Greasy Eats for a burger, but I had chicken. I believe Big Earls was on one of those TV shows that travel around the country finding unique places to eat. Sandwich was good, but I wouldn't put it on TV not that anyone asked me.

 

 So there you have it just another wild west town out here in the wild west.

Dia de los Muertos

 We spent a warm, sunny Sunday at the Dia de los Muertos Festival in Mesa. The end of October is when I can finally tolerate being outdoors and this is always a fun festival to walk around - everything is so colorful. There are vendors with day of the dead items for sale. There are altars set up to look at, there is even an altar contest. There is food and music. There is people watching. Some come in costumes, some only paint their face. Whatever they do I could sit (in the shade) and watch them all day.

 Catrina dolls - Pat got one this year to add to his collection for his altar.

 

The Community Altar where I think anyone could add to the display for a loved one.

Pat and William enjoying the music of the Mariachi Band.

Hopefully, this is just the beginning of nice weather weekends and we can start breathing the fresh air and enjoying some time outdoors before the heat sets in again.