Pagdiriwang

This means Celebration in Tagalog. Which is the language of the Phillippines. We went down to Seattle Center to check it out this morning. The celebration is to commemerate Phillippine independance from Spain. (1869)

Lon fell asleep on the way over, and suprisingly slept through a VERY loud band. I could not hear Mark at all, or anyone else for that matter!

They had this as a typical Phillipine structure.

We walked around and looked at all the exhibits. They had a health screening too.

We went upstairs, this is the view from up there. Upstairs was the art exhibit. We went to look at Uncle Weng's art. WOW. He does some very impressive metal art. It is wonderful.

An expample of his work.

http://www.gavino.org/I-M-Art/ That is the link to see more of his art. I think he is so very very good.

After a good look at the art exhibit we were off to get FOOD. I love Phillippino food. They had the tents set up outside in the rain. And after we got our food plates we came back into the Seattle Center House to eat.

Hey Dad, what are you eating?

Well son, let's see. Your Mom got me the barbequed pork on a stick, some pancit, and she is eating my lumpia. I did. I ate all the lumpia, Lon was just waking up so he really was not interested in eating. I had the chicken adobo and pancit. MMMM, Phillippino food is so wonderful!

While I was still savoring my pancit, Mark and Lon went and got some chocolate ice cream. How nice it was that they had an ice cream shop right there!

After lunch, we walked around the Seattle Center. Daddy tells Lon about the finer points of the Space Needle.

Lon tells Daddy that he remembers going up to the top in an Elevator with Godmother Carol and Pete.

What a nice photo! Too bad it was raining! Then we went home. It was a nice festival.

I did get Lon a book called, Phillippino Friends! It has some things about the culture and almost every word is in English and in Tagalog. How much fun is that?

I am sorry we did not get to see the bamboo dances. The proper name for them is Tinikling. We learned some of the easier dances in grade school. I had bruised ankles as I was learning!