Posts Tagged With: Portuguese Festival

99th Annual Portuguese Feast, New Bedford, Massachusetts

The motorhome is parked at my cousin Bob’s and his wife Donna’s home at North Dartmouth, Massachusetts.

Yesterday was a finally decent day. With a light cloud cover the high temperature was 72 degrees with 69% humidity. Still too humid for my liking.

Yesterday Bob, Donna, Mary and I drove the about five miles to New Bedford, Massachusetts to attend the 99th Annual Feast Of The Blessed Sacrament aka Portuguese Festival. We attended this event during our 2010 visit to this area and Mary enjoyed it so much, she insisted that we do it again. So we did! Here are some of the photos that I took…

As always you may left click upon an image to see an enlarged view and then click once again to see an even larger view…

First thing, we headed for the barbecue area where lots of folks were already at it…

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Then Donna and Mary started on ours. The skewers are about seven feet long…

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This monkey watched in amusement as Donna and Mary worked…

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Finally, they are done and show off their handiwork…

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Now over to the barbecue area…

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To get the fixings off of the hot skewer, my cousin Bob inserted it on to a stainless steel V and pulled…

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While Mary collected the fixings into containers…

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Here’s my portion…

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Time to eat…

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This 19-year-old Portuguese girl serves up $8 (each cup $4) worth of Budweiser beer…

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Mary prefers the dark craft beers. She calls my Miller lite that I drink “horse piss”. This photo captures her with her “horse piss”…

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Donna and her sexy sunglasses…

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Some feast goers wear traditional hats. Medeira is an island off of the coast of Portugal where many of the early New Bedford fishermen came from…

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A very young Portuguese girl…

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Another style of hat…

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We shared this spicy bean dish…

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Mary telling me how much fun she is having…

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After our meal we wandered around a bit. None of us rode the rides…

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I love photographing reflections…

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Instead of dealing in cash to buy things, you buy a ticket for $1 each. A beer is four tickets…

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I wandered through a nearby museum…

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We arrived early at the entertainment area to have front row seats…

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Mary enjoys her 3 ticket Madeira Wine. For that price for so little amount…I hope it was good…

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A young Portuguese boy came by to light the candle at our table…

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Finally the entertainment started…

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I made some videos to give you a flavor of the entertainment. You can see them by clicking the below links…

http://youtu.be/gOUWHSbHAM4

http://youtu.be/-_IYOQBOTN0

http://youtu.be/u81irUqmQ9Q

Enjoying visiting with relatives and friends is another joy in the life of a full-time RVer!

The red dot on the below map shows our approximate location in the State of Massachusetts. You may double left-click the map to make it larger…

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Enjoying 65-75 degree temperatures with low humidity most of the year is a primary joy in the RVing lifestyle!

“Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance you must keep moving”…Albert Einstein

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On October 27, 2012, I created a two-minute video titled America The Beautiful. The music America The Beautiful is by Christopher W. French. The photos, which I randomly selected, are from the states of Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Mississippi, Montana, New Mexico, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Texas, Tennessee, Washington and West Virginia (not shown in that order)…are mine. Yup, That’s me standing in front of the Post Office in Luckenbach, Texas…Y’all!

Click this link to start the video. Make sure you have your speakers turned on and go to full screen asap.
http://youtu.be/FfZUzEB4rM8

If you have not checked out my Ramblin Man’s Photos Blog, you can do so by clicking this link…
http://ramblinmanphotos.wordpress.com/

All original material Copyright – Jim Jaillet 2013
For more information about my three books, click this link:
http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/panamaorbust

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PORTUGUESE TO THE END

Sunday, the last day of the Portuguese Festival, we visted the Gazela, a tall ship built in 1881 in Portugal. In port giving tours during the Festival, we visited this survivor from the golden age of sail. Surprised that it wasn’t bigger, we walked the decks, talked with the preservation crew, and learned that this ship made its last yearly voyage from Portugal to New Bedford in 1969.

It was still working, along with the faster, newer boats in my lifetime! That blew me away.

The rich fishing area around New Bedford is what brought Portuguese immigrants here in great numbers over the years. The ship carried small working dories stacked like tea cups on the decks. They baited long lines with many hooks.

They also maintained the ship, hand pumped the bilge, kept her clean, salt dried the cod for the long journey back to Portugal, and made sense out of the dizzying number of lines, and canvas that it takes to brave the relentless heavy seas and winds. In the 1950’s drag nets on motor-powered trawlers made long lines obsolete and the ship went into retirement. William Wikoff Smith bought it and donated it to the Philadelphia Preservation Society, the oldest wooden square-rigger in the U.S. still sailing. The volunteers who maintain her are so proud of this ship. They learn valuable skills and have life changing experiences.
We then attended Sunday’s Festival Parade.

There were bands…

…Dancers…

Jugglers…

Historic old vehicles…

Politicians…

And kids scrambling in the streets for thrown candy. I’m part kid when it comes to a parade.
We are soon to leave New Bedford/Dartmouth and we celebrated with our hosts, Donna and Bob Parker at New Bedford’s Antonios Cafe, a wonderful restaurant with Portuguese food. Seafood Paella for me, broiled scrod for Jim. Donna and Bob shared a pork stew. My paella had a lobster tail, claw and one leg, plus multiple small neck clams, mussels, chicken pieces, shrimp, scallops and beef chunks. And, low prices. We looked around and every dish could serve two, or more, rather than one. The Parkers don’t know how Martha Stewart got wind of this place, but she popped in with her entourage one night,  unexpectedly,  and crowed about its virtues on her show. The food was marvelous.  Shrimp and meat appetizers-ditto. I’m feeling quite spoiled and fat by now, as you can imagine.

The pork stew has roasted potatoes on top. The sangria comes in a water glass. Jim was fulfilled by finally having broiled scrod, something he looks  for every time he visits New England.
For a slug of pictures check my album:
http://picasaweb.google.com/1579penn/8110FestaParadeGazelaDiPaola#

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