Dragon Boat Festival 2010

This morning we returned to the Dragon Boat Festival at the Rowing Venue for the 1996 Olympics. Madison has been there three times now, but this time might have been the most pleasant. For example, the weather was cooler. The cloud cover helped keep things more reasonable, and an occasional breeze was certainly refreshing. Madison watched the dragon boats row by frantically, some in rhythm and others a bit more sporadic. She called out, "dragon boat" when she saw them. Regardless of what place each boat would finish, it appeared as if everyone was having a good time.

We were having a good time too. Madison brought Kai Lan, and her own dragon boat - and Mommy brought a lunch for all of us to munch on as well. We had a nice picnic on the lake, and when the sun came out, all three of us brought out our umbrellas to block the sun. Madison's umbrella is a panda bear - we got that in Beijing at the zoo there. Lots of people were commenting about how cute it was, and how cute she was.

Madison was back to kite flying today, but only after Daddy won a free kite at a booth there. Every year, prizes are given away and this year Daddy got another kite for Madison. She was delighted. Even before opening the package, she knew what was inside: another kite! She's gifted with these kites, and proved it again today. Where everyone else would be running to and fro trying to get these things airborne, Madison watched hers soar to the highest height with ease. Seriously, there were a few adults there trying to get their kites upward, and she just sort of ran with hers without any thought and willed it to follow her as it went skyward like a trained pet.

People in the crowd were quite amused, watching this little girl completely in command of this kite so high up in the sky. Daddy was amused too - as documented earlier in this blog, his skills with a kite are rather limited! I can honestly say I am quite jealous of anyone who can do it, as of right now I clearly cannot. That said, Daddy didn't try to fly the kite, but rather just let her do it. I can't wait until fall when it is a little cooler, and we can do this again in a field or something. Today the heat was a little much. In fact, Daddy is sitting here typing this - and a little roasted!

We also enjoyed the dancers there, including the traditional lion dance. But the sun was hot, and we had been there a couple hours. Also, there was a lot of work to do at church before we can go on our vacation. For a few hours this morning though, it was a very nice time together at the lake.