Fourth of July

Happy Fourth of July!!

This year was definitely a unique one. Mom and pop Mascareñas are here visiting, so the four of us got to experience a bush Alaska Independence Day together (:

Our day started with a good ol’ Fourth of July parade. It was 45 degrees and rainy out, but that didn’t seem to stop the whole town of Bethel from coming out to watch it. People from nearby villages even flew in and came by boat to join the festivities.

As soon as the parade passed, people lined up and followed it to the festival site at Pinky’s Park. It was a mass exodus by foot through the muddy streets, people on their way to get the party started.

When we got to the park we were greeted by booths selling everything from local food to raffle tickets to patriotic hair dye.  We did the tourist thing and stopped at most of the booths, buying up all kinds of goodies. We scored some homemade salmonberry jam, ate Yup’ik fry bread, and Sandra even got a 2014 edition Kuskokwim 300 sweater.

My daddy and uncle used to have one of these cotton candy machines waaaaay back in the Romania days. Totally took me back to childhood, going to the park while they sold it and gave us plenty to sample (:

Not like papa used to make it, but still yummy!

Our secretary from work, cooking us up some Yup'ik fry bread

Agutak (Eskimo ice cream) – ingredients of which are white fish, Cristo, sugar, and berries.

One of my personal favorite parts of the festival - a silly string pit!

We showed those kids who's boss

There was even a stage at the festival with live music, a frozen T-shirt contest, break dancers, etc. It was also where they raffled off the boat we were supposed to win (musta been rigged).

They had no problem keeping those frozen T-shirts cold 

Once we had our fill of grease, sugar, and souveneirs, we stopped to snap a few shots out/around the park. 

The festival lasted till 5, after which we went back to the house and had a relaxing night in. No fireworks this year (no darkness), but we did watch them on television! So anticlimactic exciting. Hope everyone had a great holiday!