Asian Festival

Yesterday, we went to the Asian Festival at the Houston Zoo. There was an 80% chance of rain, so we were thankful that the rain held off until we left the zoo! And, they had moved the festival events indoors, but we are still grateful that we got to look at the animals without getting wet.

We got to watch several Lion Dances. I had never seen these before and was surprised that only 2 men were "in" each Lion. They did some acrobatic "stunts." For example, the man at the "head" would jump on the shoulders of the man at the "tail." I was also amazed at how the Lion opened and shut his mouth, blinked his eyes, and wiggled his tail. It was wonderful! We were on the front row & got to pet the Lion which is supposed to bring good luck for the coming year!

We also watched a Dragon Dance - the men "carrying" the dragon had to run pretty fast around and around the stage and even through the crowd!

Alex was pleased to learn that she was born in the Year of the Dragon, so she got to see "her dance." And, I was born in the Year of the Dog, so this is "my" year!

Here are some other things we did:

• watched kids perform variety of martial arts - incredible!
• had Alexandra's name written in Chinese & Japanese (in picture, Chinese is on left)
• made a red envelope (filled with money when we got home)
• Mommy made a pink oragami swan
• watched Chinese watercolor painter

Afterwards, we went on the carousel and looked at some animals. (We'd also started the day with a train ride & learned to sit further back to avoid the fumes next time!) We both look forward to attending this event again next year!