May is Asian-Pacific Heritage Month!

So today is Cinco de Mayo (!) but because I am behind on posting, that's not what this post is about (although there will be some Interesting Cultural Fact (ICF) tweets about Cinco de Mayo going out all day today via OBG's Twitter).

Ever since this past Saturday (May 1), I have been thinking about what photos The OBG Blog should use to represent Asian-Pacific Heritage Month (APHM), a celebration of Asians and Pacific Islanders in the United States signed into law as a celebratory month in 1992 by then-President George H.W. Bush. But it's never easy to shrink the photos or gifts of remarkable cultures into a single blog post, particularly when there is so much to celebrate. "A rather broad term, Asian-Pacific encompasses all of the Asian continent and the Pacific islands of Melanesia (New Guinea, New Caledonia, Vanuatu, Fiji and the Solomon Islands), Micronesia (Marianas, Guam, Wake Island, Palau, Marshall Islands, Kiribati, Nauru and the Federated States of Micronesia) and Polynesia (New Zealand, Hawaiian Islands, Rotuma, Midway Islands, Samoa, American Samoa, Tonga, Tuvalu, Cook Islands, French Polynesia and Easter Island)." [Source: Asianpacificheritage.gov]

I've never been to Asia (it's on My List, of course) and one of my girlfriends is dangling a New Zealand trip in front of my face at the moment, but I've spent plenty of time on various Hawaiian islands. In fact, I spent about a week on the island of Kona about 6 months ago checking out campsites for OBG Adventure Camps' 2012 Hawaiian debut (I've decided on Kauai instead), but as I rummaged through what little photos I took, all I found were pictures of the landscape, the Kava Bar, and the dragonfruit I ate for breakfast. (Can you say Who cares?) So instead, I am going to post a few of the photos I have posted on this blog or in my Facebook photo album in the past. A few photos that capture the fabulous spirit of the beautiful Asian & Asian-Pacific peoples of the world. This is OBG's mini-tribute.