Praia Fest

Every August on the island they have a big festival called Praia Fest.  People come from all over (i.e the other islands, the UK, Canada, California, mainland Portugal to name a few).  It lasts 2 weeks and is about 2 miles from our home.  So we took the kids on the day it started, which was Friday, but completely forgot our camera.  The kids rode on a pony and a cart with a donkey pulling it.  We also found some Portuguese candy to buy and bought some very tasty ice cream.  They had bouncy castles and other things.  We stayed a couple hours.

Then on Saturday (after our branch service activity (which by the way is a twig instead of a branch after all the move outs!) and a baptism) we went to Praia Fest with 3 other couples.  We got a babysitter for the 4 older, but took Deacon with us.

A pretty flower growing wildly on the island.

These pictures are all out of order. We forgot our camera (again) so I took these off of a friends facebook page that was with it.   These guys had painted faces (kind of creepy), but we loved them and they loved our excitement to see them.  We saw them a few times throughout the evening/night.  This was at our restaurant.

Me and Timon.   Pumba is right next to Timon, but unfortunately the person taking the picture didn't get him.

The restaurant we went to.  There was a huge line to get in and that's because the food was phenomenal.  The restaurant people came from Northern Portugal on the mainland.  They  set up their restaurant in a huge tent like place along with all the other restaurants coming from far just for the Praia Fest.  These steaks were amazing and had the best flavor and were tender and big!  Denver is wearing the baby wrap and held the baby all night like a pregnant man.  He said by the end of the night (we were gone 4 hours) his lower back was a little sore.  :)  Welcome to pregnancy!

 

The big band crazy faced group came around during our dining and me and Silvana got in the middle of the circl for a picture.

Silvana Norat, me and Cindy Brown

Deneka Strom (the very musical one) and the big band painted faced band.

Taking a picture with Jasmine, Genie and Aladdin.

Dancing with the 'band'

The restaurant we went to in the big tent.

At our table.

A view of Praia Fest with a sunset.

Main street of Praia Fest. It was so crowded and hard to walk through.  This is normally a road, but they  closed it off and laid a red carpet for the event for the next 2 weeks.   Praia Fest doesn't "really" start until midnight.  That's when the bands, parades and things happen.  That's also when the alcohol gets going and people get crazy.  That's also when we leave. :)

Denver saw a dental expo at the fest and had to get a picture. (featuring Deacon in the wrap)

My absolute FAVORITE treat ever.  This special treat was from Graciosa (another Island of the Azores) so I can't just get   it anytime I want. It's a 1/2 honey dew melon, pre-cut with a scoop of icecream and sprinkles in the middle.  It was so refreshing and felt light with all the melon.  I want to go back every  day to get one, but I won't. Maybe just a couple more times.  I could make it myself if I could find good melons and refridgerate it and buy the yummy ice cream.  Maybe we'll make if for FHE sometime soon.
Curtis Brown is in the background doing that on purpose.

They also had beach volleyball tournaments going on during Praia Fest.

The group (Norats, us, Browns and Stroms.)

I bought this little bull set at the Praia Fest.  It represents the bull fights in Terceira.  They keep the bull in this cage thing and then open it, but like this.  The men holding the rope where these clothes and a hat  just like this. The bull has these gold things on it's horns.  It's the perfect souvenir from this island.

We had a very fun evening at the Praia Fest.  We will go again before it's over.

 And just for good measure, a picture of Deacon.