A little bit of Greece

I was asked to be one of the official photographers at this year's Peoria Greek Fest at St. Haralambos Greek Orthodox Church in Peoria.
We arrived in the mid afternoon on Saturday, October 24th.
After a introduction to the Greek Orthodox Church and it's teachings and beliefs, we went outside to watch the Greek traditional dancing put on by the church's young people. This group was smaller than the ones at either Holy Trinity or Tempe Towne Lake [put on by St. Katherine’s]. But what they may have lacked in sheer quantity of dancers, they made up for in uniqueness. I'd never seen a Greek 'square dance' before. And the young men showed some pretty slick jumps and leaps.

But what made my day, was the food.
My partner had the lamb dinner, and then a baklava sundae.
I had kalamari [squid] and dolmathes [stuffed grape leaves] smothered in a lemon sauce, finished off with my own baklava sundae. They were...WONDERFUL.

Now that I'd been fed, I started walking around to see what would catch my eye.
In my online album [http://picasaweb.google.com/2HowardsPhoto/PeoriaGreekFest2009#] you can see the other wonderful pastries, the loukoumas [Greek donut holes], flying gyro flat bread, some of the items that were for sale in the bazaar, and a few of the friendly volunteers that made it all happen.
If you only go to one Greek festival each year, make it this one. It's smaller than the others, but it's always so welcoming and intimate.

Be seeing you

Walter

Treasure Island, Las Vegas and Hoover Dam

I know, I know, my title says "Photographs from around Metro Phoenix" and I start with one from 'Lost Wages'.

I was in Vegas for a conference about 10 days ago.
I drove up from Phoenix and, as is my norm, I stopped at one of the parking lots on the south side of the dam to just gawk.
They completed the support span for the new bridge just a couple of weeks earlier.


While I was there, I had an opportunity to have a couple of beers and dinner at the 'Kahunaville Party Bar'. For a Monday night, it was pretty raucous. Contests for free shots, and generally rowdy. Not someplace I'd want to take my family. I can't even imagine what it must be like on a Friday or Saturday night!.

Later that week, I made time to see the 'Sirens' show outside along Las Vegas Boulevard [The Strip].
Can't say that I was impressed. The original show had pirates fighting off 'Her Majesty's Navy'. In the Vegas tradition, the pirates won and the British man-of-war was sunk, to rise again to the strains of 'Columbia Rules the Ocean'. This version is now an excuse for scantily clad women to prance around and spout risque language. The only impressive part was when one of the crew was 'forced' to take a dive off 'the plank'. He did it backwards!


Next weekend is Labor Day, so I should have a chance to blog about some of the festivals I'm looking forward to, and some shots from previous years. They include the Arab-American Festival in Glendale's Murphy Park, and the Peoria GreekFest.

Be Seeing You