Vive La Fiesta!

As a last enthusiastic "hurrah!" of summer, I traveled to Oxnard, California to visit my brother before school starts and I am unable to go anywhere. Mark is stationed at the Ventura Co/Port Hueneme Navy Base there. This base is strictly for the Navy Seabees (Construction Battalions = CB = Seabee) so there are no ships, though it is on the coast. During my visit, he marched in the Santa Barbara Old Spanish Days Festival parade. I don't get to see my brother in action much, and unfortunately miss out on more deployments and graduations and promotions than I actually get to see. Needless to say, it was a great privilege to see Mark in his summer dress uniform and do his thing. He really does make me proud, showing a maturity and a respectful seriousness that a lot of the other guys (and gals) he works with don't have or don't understand much about in both the way they do their job and the way they treat others around them. Here are some highlights of visiting with him, the festival parade, and the Santa Barbara area (I love LOVE taking picture, so if you get bored you're just boring).


Mark asked me to straiten the medals on his uniform. He meant absolutely nothing by asking me becuase he was running late and I was sitting around. But I felt very honored to be doing it for some reason. I had to take a picture!

The honor guard on their way to the parade staging grounds

Doesn't he look swell?

Mark's girlfriend's parents - well, you can't really see her mom I guess.

This is one of the largest equestrian parades in the country. And boy, did it ever entertain! I've never seen so many horses in one place at one time before, and the beauty of these animals is unbelievable. These horses were ready to dance, and most of the Spanish groups coming through had their own mariachi bands following to which the horses would prance to the beat set by the musicians. It really was something to see!

For a few dollars you could buy a fiesta egg - a hollowed out egg shell, filled with confetti, wrapped in bright tissue paper. And then you crack them on your head. Vive la fiesta!
I watched the end of the parade from a hill above the parade starting point. There were great views of the city and the marina, and after meeting up with Mark we walked the beach, the pier, and State Street where festival revelers gathered, caping off the night with some Indian food (though just about every other restaurant downtown had Mexican place specials for the celebrations). This festival is a week long, and I wish I could have seen the dancing competitions, music exhibitions, the rodeos, the horse shows, or even the carnival. But the little time I had to be there was totally worth it.

I love parked bycicles! These were on the SB pier.