Fat Tuesday

On Fat Tuesday it was time to celebrate Mardi Gras in Hawaii. It also happened to be my friend Baron's birthday -- he's a photographer at the newspaper. Peggy and I started the evening with a hurricane, the red rum drink populaized in New Orleans. I also played some zydeco, a music from the deep, deep in the bayou South. Anyway, we met a group of about 12 people at a bar called Durty Jake's, which is right on Alii Drive, the main street along the bay in Kailua-Kona. The following photos are some select scenes from the shinanigans.



Here we have Brian, Baron, Jim and Carly. Brian is originally from southwestern Virginia and has the accent to boot. He's the city editor at West Hawaii Today. Baron is the birthday man. You might see pirate-themed things in some photos and that was part of his birthday celebration and the Mardi Gras thing. Jim is my friend Ron's roommate and a teacher of high school English. Carly is a page designer at the paper and a Maryland native!



In disguise is Peggy, wearing a Mardi Gras mask that belonged to a friend of ours. The peacock feathers wouldn't stand up their own though so she had to hold them back for the photo.



This is me and a guy named Christian who is visiting Hawaii, lives in Beijing, China, but is actually from Copenhagen, Denmark. He works for Volvo and travels all over Asia for the company. He came to visit a friend of mine who is from Kona but left almost a year ago to work in Beijing.



Uh, this is how a pitcher of beer dresses on Mardi Gras.



Here we have Brian from the paper "talking about real estate in Arizona" as he so claims. And those big red lips on her shirt must be her business card...ha ha ha.



This is my friend Mike, another photographer from the newspaper. He has a boat that I've been out on and he is also into diving. He looks like a Captain Mike in this photo. His old Navy days seem to be coming back.



A tradition in my house for Fat Tuesday...my mom and dad would always make pancakes and eggs, supposedly to use up the fat and sweet ingredients before Lent. So I have continued the tradition. It made for a needed meal when we got back home later that evening.