SongKran

What the heck is SongKran, you ask? It's part of the Thai New Year's celebration!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thai_New_Year

Here on Midway, since most of the people who keep this place running are Thai, we had a fantastic celebration. I had no clue I was going to get a great cultural education while I was here!

We started with a parade. Not many people were lining the streets 'cause we all joined in. And, of course, there aren't that many of us....

Everybody was gettin' down!

A mixture of baby powder? and water was applied to all.

Part of the ceremony is to wash the Buddha and give water to the elders. Uh, I guess I'm considered an elder???? Actually, I feel honored.

It is considered good luck for the New Year to get wet. So we did. Over and over and over again, all day long. Started during lunch IN the restaurant (courtesy of Pong (not sure about spelling) our chef extraordinaire, and progressed to 5 gallon buckets pretty quickly. Willie didn't show up for the party, so they loaded a golf cart with buckets, drug him out of his house and nearly drowned him. At that point, he decided it was safer at the party. With the ocean relatively close, some took the Big Ride and went into the surf. Brent was enjoying a moment of quiet solitude, but Kristin snuck up on him and gave him a chilly wake up call.









Matt, the Assistant Refuge Manager (and ex-Parkie) was most definitely not expecting this one from Alex (recent WSU graduate and now airport firefighter).

We barbecued ALL afternoon and were finally informed about 5pm that it was time for DINNER. Gads! The food just kept coming....

Truly an awesome bunch of guys!



A really fun day drawing to a close and as a special treat here's a photo of a Bonin Petrel chick whose burrow got stepped on earlier in the day. (Yep, we have a couple of birds,here). We dug it out, put the little dude back in and covered the top with a doormat to hold him over until he fledges. Oh, Diane, the white bird a couple of posts ago is a Red-Tailed Tropicbird.

Love y'all,

Murray