St. Peter, Nascar and The Horribles Parade

What do these three things have in common? Absolutely nothing except that that they happened all within a matter of days keeping us very busy.

Viva San Pedro!





St. Peter's Fiesta is a celebration in Gloucester, Ma. ( and I believe several other places) in which St. Peter is celebrated as the saint who watches over the fisherman. There are many days of celebration that begin with a parade where St. Peter is paraded through town and is brought to St. Peter's square where he is set on a altar. At the square there is also a big carnival set up with games and rides for the kids and of course food and traditional Italian music can be heard all day long.
Other festivities include the blessing of the fleet, seine boat races, a parade and the greasy pole.




I will try to explain the greasy pole but you really have to see it to get the full effect. The greasy pole is a long pole set out across the harbor that is greased up with some sort of environmentally safe grease. (It usually thick and black but this year it was white and looked suspiciously like Crisco.) At the end of the pole is a flag. The object is to walk across the pole and grab the flag before tumbling into the freezing water below. Depending on wether it is high tide or not you may have an incredible long and potentially painful fall depending on if you hit the pole on your way down. Many of these guys risk ever becoming fathers as they do the old splitsville on the pole. The walkers are dressed in crazy costumes and are usually pretty well liquored up by the time they start walking.



I included a picture hours before the greasy pole. We didn't actually watch the greasy pole this year. In the middle of the picture is a large structure which is where the walkers wait for their turn. Coming off the structure on the right is a long pole parallel to the water and at the end you can see the flag. As you can see it is a long walk and a long drop into the water!






NASCAR

As many of you you know Dom and I are Nascar fans and really enjoy going to the races at NHIS. Last year for the July race it was about 98 degrees and humid and it felt like you were melting sitting in the sun up in the bleachers. We ended up leaving 1/2 way through because it was just too hot. This year the weather was a perfect 70 degrees, breezy and overcast.

The girls were in Gloucester still with Dom's parents and we were lucky enough to have a reserved parking spot waiting for us so we took our time getting there. Normally we head to the race from my parents house and we end up spending a lot of time sitting in traffic getting to the track. We had no idea how close we were to the track coming from our house. We used the trusty GPS to guide us and after cruisin down some back roads came out a mile from where we were going to park. It only took us 35 mins. and barely any traffic! It was only 35 mins getting home too, thanks to the back roads! We still left the race a little early to beat the mad crush of the crowds back to the car. Unfortunately our driver, Carl Edwards had a bad pit stop that cost him the race but it was still a fun day!

For some reason blogger won't let me post any of my pictures from the race!

The Horribles Parade

On July 3rd we were back in Gloucester for the Fishtown Horribles Parade. No one has ever been able to tell me exactly what a horrible is, but it seems to refer to the people who dress up to be in the parade. Anyone can participate and as well as many different characters, there are bands,(the steele drum band is my favorite.) floats and lots of other fun stuff. Prizes are given out in different catergories. This picture is a fine example of a "horrible" and she/he even jiggled as she/he walked!

Becca, Dom and I ended the evening watching fireworks over the harbor. Kenzie doesn't like loud noises and stayed home with Nonna and Nonno.

Our adventures ended at Ma and Pa Sizemores where we were treated to Steak on the grill!